thehoghunter
11-28-2007, 06:32 AM
Someone mentioned to me during Halloween night a few years ago that they couldn't wait to see what I did at Christmas time. So, that got me thinking...I didn't do half of what I did at Halloween for Christmas. The first problem was pulling what the wife and I already had into some theme.
We finally came up with penguins decorating the house - this allows all the different things we had collected to be left in the yard. The only problem is that the penguins never seem to finish decorating!
What's great about this is that you can use whatever you want - snowmen, elfs, rabbits...anything you want to ' help decorate' your house. And you can still keep those oddities (like our Santa on a motorcycle) in your display.
I used the motors off of animated deers to run the penguins. I think I only had 3 motors at the time. I set up the motors so I could remove them for my Halloween displays and then use them for Christmas as well.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup.jpg
Each penguin was cut out of the thinest wood I could find as I have major storage space
issues. Penguin flipper was made from a thicker wood (scrap) since I felt it may need more
strength. Original flipper wasn't balanced very well so the flipper you see above was made to
facilitate the lifting action.
Top and side view of motor and connections.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup-side-view.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup-topview.jpg
The penguin pictured above was used to lift a light christmas ornament towards a small palm tree (as if decorating it). The same set up was used for these guys attempting to put the last snowflake on the roof line.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/roof-penguin.jpg
The amount of movement is going to be effected by the space you have - the smaller the penguin, the less flipper movement you can hide behind the penguin. This setup did run a bit slow as far as lifting/dropping the ornament. Each penguin was cut out as a copy of the first which was free-form. I think I made 3 or 4 penguins from 1 4X8 sheet of wood but don't have complete recall on that.
The bottom penguin is screwed into the ladder for stability (no movement). The top penguin has the motor hidden behind him with the electric running down the right side of the ladder (away from view from the street). The penguin lifts up the snowflake but never quite gets it hung. Ladder was made out of 2 each 8 foot pieces of 1x2 with the steps made from scrap wood. We bought 2 Christmas dish towels at the Dollar store which were cut up for scarfs (made maybe 8 scarfs). Santa hats, snowflakes, ornaments were from Dollar store also.
Even though we put clear varnish on the penguins, the white turned quite a bit yellow since last year. I'll probably re-do them before next year.
You can see these pics (larger view) and more at photobucket.com (http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/)
Go into the sub-album 'penguin-motor-set-up' also.
If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them.
We finally came up with penguins decorating the house - this allows all the different things we had collected to be left in the yard. The only problem is that the penguins never seem to finish decorating!
What's great about this is that you can use whatever you want - snowmen, elfs, rabbits...anything you want to ' help decorate' your house. And you can still keep those oddities (like our Santa on a motorcycle) in your display.
I used the motors off of animated deers to run the penguins. I think I only had 3 motors at the time. I set up the motors so I could remove them for my Halloween displays and then use them for Christmas as well.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup.jpg
Each penguin was cut out of the thinest wood I could find as I have major storage space
issues. Penguin flipper was made from a thicker wood (scrap) since I felt it may need more
strength. Original flipper wasn't balanced very well so the flipper you see above was made to
facilitate the lifting action.
Top and side view of motor and connections.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup-side-view.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/sm-penguin-setup-topview.jpg
The penguin pictured above was used to lift a light christmas ornament towards a small palm tree (as if decorating it). The same set up was used for these guys attempting to put the last snowflake on the roof line.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/penguin-motor-set-up/roof-penguin.jpg
The amount of movement is going to be effected by the space you have - the smaller the penguin, the less flipper movement you can hide behind the penguin. This setup did run a bit slow as far as lifting/dropping the ornament. Each penguin was cut out as a copy of the first which was free-form. I think I made 3 or 4 penguins from 1 4X8 sheet of wood but don't have complete recall on that.
The bottom penguin is screwed into the ladder for stability (no movement). The top penguin has the motor hidden behind him with the electric running down the right side of the ladder (away from view from the street). The penguin lifts up the snowflake but never quite gets it hung. Ladder was made out of 2 each 8 foot pieces of 1x2 with the steps made from scrap wood. We bought 2 Christmas dish towels at the Dollar store which were cut up for scarfs (made maybe 8 scarfs). Santa hats, snowflakes, ornaments were from Dollar store also.
Even though we put clear varnish on the penguins, the white turned quite a bit yellow since last year. I'll probably re-do them before next year.
You can see these pics (larger view) and more at photobucket.com (http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/cc162/hunters-moon/Christmas/Christmas-past/)
Go into the sub-album 'penguin-motor-set-up' also.
If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them.