The Walls!

Note: The walls are new to 2005 and there for this walk through is not entirely complete. A final picture and presentation of the walls in use will be posted after Halloween. The idea is not an original, I first saw the technique on Uncle Binley's
To begin, take one sheet of 4' x 8' x 2" thick pink foam board (~$16.00), if you really need to see a picture of the foam board before I traced my blocks, go to your local big name hardware store and stare at the sheets all you want. I proceeded to trace out my blocks, rough size is 9"x13" (I used the cardboard from a dress shirt as my template).  Someone will ask so I will tell you, I used a dry erase marker. Why? Because it was in the drawer when I went looking for something to trace with.
Next I used a router to route my walls.  Don't ask, I can't tell you, I grabbed a bit that looked right and away I went, my router line is about 1/2" deep or so.  Here is the fun part, old bricks aren't straight, so your lines do not need to be, just go at it, make mistakes, make crevices, do whatever you feel you need to do to express yourself.
A close up of one of the routed sections.  You will not the fold line down the brick, that is from the sheet of foam board I used. The foam board is designed to be broken and comes pre-scored.  Oh well, if folks are looking that close they aren't paying attention to what is sneaking up on them! Next - BRING OUT THE FIRE!
Ok, here is a close up of a block that has been flamed.  Flamed? Yeah, Basically, I went over the entire wall with a propane torch and distressed it in some areas, almost melted it in others.  Gave the bricks a weathered look.  Use a spray bottle of water and hit the wet area with the torch for an added effect. 
Here is a section of the wall with no brick.  You can see how the torch textured the area and weathered it nicely.  The run-offs and pock marked areas are from where the water was sitting when the torched passed over.
This is my wall during its' blue period.

This wall has been fully painted with a coat of grayish-blue latex paint. Why?  The latex paint seals the wall up nice and prevents the spray paint from deteriorating the foam wall.  Why the color?  Again, like the marker, it is what I had on hand when I started this project.
Alright, here we are, one finished wall.  No your eyes are not playing tricks on you, this wall is smaller then the one in the other pictures.  This was my test wall to see if how it would turn out.  Looks like it did the trick.  I used gray and black spray paint to fill in the grout lines and add some detail.  Nothing fancy or special, just painted where I thought paint should go.

I will post a final picture of the large wall and a picture of the walls set up after Halloween.  Too much to do before then!

 
I added an a window with bars and skull head to one wall.  Just wanted to see how it would turn out.  I was happy with the results.

Two additional pictures showing the main room of the hand and the walls installed. There "prop" in the chair (Sparky) actually sits in front of a wall that is angled out, allowing for a player, in this case our 7 foot troll, to come out and scare.  Spakry lends the distraction with a strobe light over his head and his torso thrashing about simulating electrocution.  The coffin is real and loaned to us every year from a local funeral home.  In 2005 there was a live actor in the coffin, with the candy bowl resting on the lower leg panel.
*All images are thumbnailed, please click on any image to see the large size image.