Halloween Horror Nights 2009 Revealed!

This time of year is always exciting for me. It's when we go live with some our new Universal Orlando Horror Nights themes for the new season, and when some of my web art is released. This year's tagline is "Ripped From the Silver Screen" and is sure to be a frightfully amazing event!
http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando/index.html

One Million!

Sorry for not posting in so long!
Besides being very busy helping to design new terrors for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights, I also have several other projects keeping me away from Haunted Dimensions lately.
However, something I can not ignore is the fact that Haunted Dimensions has experienced a momentous occasion.
I have been keeping track of guest visits to this site since first going online on September 26, 2004 (I received 57 visits in the last days of that month), and this week Haunted DImensions surpassed the One Million visits mark!

I wanted to thank all of you for your continued interest and support!

Orlando Time

I have returned to Orlando for a new season at Universal Art & Design.

We spent Monday (which was also our 19th wedding anniversary) at the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
Or course, the Haunted Mansion was first. Everything looked great and the show was flawless.

The Question of Scale

I am always asked about the scale of my models, and how to convert them to other popular, standard modeling scales. Well, Donald, at "passingloop.com" posted this tidbit of information that might be helpful to those of you who want to convert my 1/66 scale mansions (Bates, Liberty Square, New Orleans Square and Phantom Manor) to HO, O and N scale for train set ups.

Donald writes,
"About Scale/Printing:
The Bates House is in 1/66 scale so to convert it to your scale divide the scale number by the scale you want to model to get a percentage enlargement or reduction value.

For example, to go to HO (1/87) scale :
66/87 = 0.7586 which is approximately 75% reduction. So when you are ready to print, check your printer options where you can type in a percentage of reduction or scaling. Punch in 75 and you will have an approximate HO scale drawing ready to print and cut.

So, if you want to go to say O (1/48) scale:
66/48 = 1.375 which is approximately 137% enlargement.

For N scale: 66/160 = 0.412 which is around 40% reduction.

So, in summary, the Plan Conversion Formula Factor is:

(Scale of drawing plan / Scale you want to model) X 100

Reduce plan by the above factor if less than 100 or Enlarge if more than 100."

Thanks again, "passingloop.com"!

Another New Paper Model Release!

On the heels of "The Bates House", I created another in my series of haunted mansion
cemetery tombstones. This one is the tombstone of "Good Old Fred", a favorite of mine.

"Here lies
Good Old Fred
A great big rock
fell on his head
R.I.P.

In this case, the "Fred" stone is a tribute to Imagineer Fred Joerger, who created scale models of the
theme parks, attractions, and models for Disney films.
You can read more about Fred Joerger HERE,

Click HERE to get you "Good Old Fred" tombstone paper model.

Icons of Fright

I want to thank the horror movie web site, "Icons of Fright" for mentioning my Bates House model release!

It's very cool to be recognized by a horror fan site along with news about Jason, Freddy and Rob Zombie!

The Bates House Paper Model Kit: Released!

Ironically, designing a PSYCHO HOUSE helped me keep my own sanity during these long months of unemployment!

If you have constructed any of my other mansion models, then this one is comparatively easy.

If you never constructed my other mansion models, and want to, this model would be good practice!

I am very happy with it! I hope you will be too!

And please help me out with a donation of a buck or two. :)

Please report any downloading (or other) problems. Since this is a new model, with new web pages it is liable to be buggy at first.

Here is the link to The Bates House Paper Model Kit download page!

http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index660.html

A Few Last Tweaks

The Bates House model is nearly finished. I completed the construction diagrams and  just have to add the few written directions. Then I will save everything as a single PDF.

The entire model including the directions, will be 11 pages.

Ever since completing the prototype, I have been bothered by something that was not quite right.

The tower seemed wrong. I stared at it for days trying to figure out if there was something wrong with its proportions or angles. It just didn't have the same feel as the real house.

Then I suddenly realized that the little oval window on the tower roof was too large and placed too high. I fixed it and now it "feels" like the Bates House!

It is funny how something so small and subtle can make or break a design, and now it seems so obvious.

Below is the corrected tower roof with an inset of the way it looked before, along with a photo of the real tower window .

A Manor in Turkey

Ahmet, from Turkey, sent photos of his completed Phantom Manor.

Ahmet writes, " I have followed your works and I watch them with enjoyment".

Thank you, Ahmet! I enjoy knowing that my models are so international!

Wonderful job!

Bates House Diagram

Here is an exploded view of my Bates House model that I created as part

of the construction diagrams.

Bates House Prototype

I completed the prototype of my Bates House model.
I only needed to fix a few small problems. It took me about 4 hours to build (not including the troubleshooting). The ironwork and porch supports are printed on transparency film.
This model is 7 inches tall and 5 1/2 inches wide. Here are some shots where you can see my hand, for size comparison.
Now the tedious part, the construction diagrams and instructions.

Here it is next to my New Orleans Square haunted mansion model.

It is not as puny as I thought it would be!

Good Old Fred

I plan on adding a new item to my collection of Haunted Mansion tombstone paper models.
"Good Old Fred" has one of my favorite epitaphs!