A Lost World VBS Set
Rusty Meredith
Rusty crafted some amazing props and set pieces for his vacation bible school, all dinosaur themed! The set features a full-sized velociraptor, giant T-Rex head, volcano set piece and several lab-themed back drops.
“With help and products from Hot Wire Foam Factory, I was able to create a Raptor, T-Rex head and a volcano. I designed the set for our VBS (City Sanctuary in Deland, FL) and needed to add some dinosaurs as props.
I found pallets of Styrofoam blocks at a local business that was discarding them and used Hot Wire Foam Factory StyroGoo and some spray adhesive to glue the Styrofoam pieces together, along with bamboo skewers.“
“I used a Christmas ornament of a Raptor, a picture of life-sized raptor claws, and a toy T-Rex for my models. The set was built using a 1-inch scale-down model of my design.
I sculpted each part of the raptor using the Hot Wire Sculpting Tool along with a 4-Inch Hot Knife. Then, I glued it and used Great Stuff Foam, utilizing bamboo skewers to hold them together.”
(NOTE: Cutting through Great Stuff and other spray polyurethane foams with Hot Wire tools gives off toxic fumes! Make sure to wear an approved respirator before cutting any of these spray foams with heat!)
“I used Cosplay dry foam clay to form the knuckles, nostrils, and eyelids. For the eyeballs, I used a ping-pong ball that was cut in half. I used aluminum foil to shape the claws and then overlaid it with black Cosplay dry foam clay to sculpt them. Bamboo skewers helped to secure the claws to the hands. Dry foam clay was also used to cover any lines and fill in gaps. For a more realistic and natural look I used fine sandpaper to smooth out the body and jagged edges.”
“I used similar methods to create the T-Rex.”
“After the sculpting was finished, I sealed the raptor using Exterior Foam Coat, then took my toy and Christmas ornament models to a local paint store and had them match the colors.I used the models to determine the paint colors across the entire dinosaur.”
