Prop Tarantula - Accounts

Prop Tarantula Accounts

Accounts Intro

This was a project that went way over time and budget but here are the accounts . The whole project up to the point in the photo shoot when it was put on ice with no fur but semi working system cost £1238.83 spread over several months over 2 years, so over 10 times the original budget, constantly needing more and more materials.


I already had some materials and Safety gear such as a box of disposable gloves. At least 50 pairs in a box and went though most of them, but did not keep count so it is not the full real cost of the spider.

I also had most of a 5 kg container of laminating resin. This was very old, out of date by a couple of years, with thick viscosity having had much of the solvent evaporate, but still with difficulty, usable. Thus realistically the cost for the laminating resin should be doubled as would have needed 2 5kg containers.

Various brushes,  dust masks, 6mm nuts and much of a reel of 3D Printing filament at home which was used as well as the purchases listed below.


Not all cans were uniform such as with the expanding foam, some were smaller cans from Poundland. Whilst much of the primer was from there too at £2.50 a can I think, some were full price nearly £10 from Halfords and B&Q so unit costs are not 100% accurate.



Item Category Breakdown

Most of the costs were the various materials followed by spray paint. A lot of the work especially paint was redone over and over and the amount of expanding foam needed was grossly under estimated resulting in 18 cans (Mostly 750ml) needed, totally around 13 litres. Costs were reduced with most of the black, white, varnish and primer spray paint purchases from Poundland along with brushes for the fiberglass. Colour such as brown for the original desired look could not be purchased here so had to be sourced from art supplies for 4 to 5 times the cost per can..

The plastic spheres also had to be re-purchased with the face was redone.

The legs were redone several times hence the high number of pipe lagging purchases as well as wire and hair curlers used in the joints in the many legs and cable ties.


The glue gun sticks were in a 120 pack but most have not been used so the high number should really be discounted.







Spider
Title & Intro
Page

This was a double bed size prop Tarantula, originally intended as a cool Halloween front of house prop as well as portfolio piece to discuss project development.

Finished project page.



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Spider Project

Development  


Projects Accounting Costs
Spider  Initial Research & PPP Testing

To start the project was looking into existing props and Halloween tableaus and how such a project could be done. 
Initial Proving Principle Prototyping & scale modelling.




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Spider
Development
 Head

The main central part is the head to which all other parts are connected and would be the section to connect stands and load supports.

This involved the most substantial development  and most restarts.

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Spider
Development
Body

This had a similar basic structure to the head but a lot simpler. It does have its own issues and problems.

This had to be re-opened for upgrades to strengthen  the connections to the head.
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Spider
Development
Legs

The legs required repeated and costly redesign and rebuilding building to try and build enough strength into them to be able to support the weight of the spider, as well as look realistic and bond the paint to them.

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Spider  Development
Leg Connector

The system to connect the legs needed substantial improvement and iterations developing these connection components through CAD and rapid prototypng. 



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Further Development
Head

Further planned developments & problem solving for the head.

The next staage here would be fur.


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Further Development
Body

Further planned developments & problem solving for the body.

This will need to be split into sections for storage that can be easily reassembled.

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Further Development
Legs & Connectors

Further planned developments & problem solving for the legs, strengthening them to support the weight of the  spider.



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Further Development
Skin and Fur

Plans to further develop the prop Tarantula and current unsolved problemsand issues




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