Hallowensville: Interactive Miniature Town Halloween Decoration Display:

Enter if You Dare!!!

1. "In the heart of the fog, where the shadows don’t fade - lies Halloweensville, where the monsters have stayed.
2. From Halloweensville Station two spectres depart - The Hellbound Express and the Reaper’s dark cart.
3. The Scary-Go-Round groans with wolves in their stride - while evil clowns serve up Ice Screams with laughter to hide.
4. At the Howl Inn they gather, witches, wolves, the undead - and drink to the mortals who never ever fled.

1. The shops are all cursed with a sinister spell - Pumpkin’ Donuts, Jack the Clipper, and popular Taco Hell.
2. At Tomb Depot the monsters hammer, saw, and renew - crafting coffins and curses, as monsters must do.
3. The outdoor cinema flickers with bone-chilling light - “Feel good” films for fiends yet sheer horror to our sight.
4. At Aberzombie & Witch, the broom pad is near - where witches touch down for their shopping and cheer.

1. A hearse prowls the streets where the headlights dim glow - a taxi for monsters where the living won’t go.
2. From afar it seems harmless, a town like the rest - but once you get closer, you’ll soon see the jest.
3. For jack-o’-lanterns leer, and the moon hangs low - in this little town, the shadows run the show.
4. So heed this dark warning, keep clear of the hill - for none ever leave… once in Halloweensville."

If you haven't done so already and have a few spare minutes, check out the attached fairytale style video I made to see this little spooky town in action along with fun spooky rhyming descriptions for the town's shops etc.

The Project:

Welcome dear reader. Halloween is one of my favourite holidays, not only because that's when my birthday is and have a cat named Pumpkin who we got on on Halloween, but also because of its traditions, spooky fun, creativity the community involvement. This year I wanted to make a stand alone Halloween decoration with a difference, something that uses simple materials and tools to make, but also something the young 'trick or treaters' can look at and interact with. Another reason I made this was because, I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but here in the U.K Christmas decorations go up days or weeks before the big day, yet Halloween is only really done for a single day, so I wanted to make a decoration display that can be on show for a bit longer. It sits on its on 4 easily removable legs or can sit on its on on a table, the floor, work surface or a large shelf.

So I came up with the idea of a miniature town where only ghosts and ghouls live and shop, with horror themed shop and vehicle names, each with a scary monster or two behind the windows (and one human who is trapped crying for help). There are two remote control trains running on a wooden track, two cars that run on a road (more wooden track), and an outdoor cinema that shows scary movies using a spare smartphone. There is also a motor controlled Merry-Go-Round (carrousel) called a Scary-Go-Round that from a distance looks like it has regular horses but when you get closer, you will see that they are actually wolves. On one of the buildings there is a 'Broom Pad' (like a Heli Pad) where Witches can land and take off with some rotating Witches flying around in a holding pattern waiting to land and do their shopping, and the whole town has lighting that can be controlled from a control panel with red push button switches... because we all know that kids like to push buttons. There are embedded flickering LEDs in the base where resin made pumpkins can sit on to give a candle lit effect, upstairs and downstairs building lighting, illuminated shop signs which are all horror themed, and removable street lights. The 'Scary-Go-Round and vehicles also have lights as well.

I designed the town so it is modular, meaning that all of the buildings and street lighting can simply be disconnected from the base, stored in a box and the base itself can then be stored upright in a cupboard taking up little room ready and waiting for the next year (or you could leave it up all year round if you like).

The Inspiration:

I've always liked the miniature tabletop Christmas villages you can buy which has the little moving items like sleighs or little Xmas trains with snow covered trees and twinkly LED lights, so I took the inspiration from these to make a larger Halloween version. We also have regular 'Trick or Treat' visitors from the local neighborhood every year so I wanted to make something that stands on it's own with removable legs that would be displayed it in a window (see the last 4 photos/GIFs in step 18) for a week of so before the 31st, then set it up in our hallway by our front door (or just outside if the weather is good) so the local kids and their guardians can explore the town and have a quick play with the lights and trains.

Another part of the inspiration I got was from the TV show 'Bobs Burgers'. If you watch it then you will know, but for those who have not seen it, the shops in the town the characters live in all have funny pun-based names and descriptions such as 'You Can't Handle the Tooth - Dental Extraction' and 'Takes One to Mow One - Landscaping Supplies', so I wanted to do this for the shops in my little town, but Halloween based.

The Build:

Apart from making this as a personal project, I designed and made it for the Instructables community as well, and as everyone has their own skill sets and making abilities, I set out to make this only using inexpensive and easy to use parts, materials and tools and to make and publish the project hopefully in time for Halloween 25 for anyone who wants to make their own. This project mainly uses foam core/foam board, LED lighting, paper, double sided tape and hot glue. I also opted to use wooden train track which I originally was going to make myself and did successfully make a small section of using a router and some 12mm MDF, but after weighing up the cost and time of making track, I decided to opt for buying some second hand track and vehicles which I got as a bundle form an auction site. It worked out cheaper, had vehicles/trains I could use parts of, there were plenty of people selling some, and I also figured why use new wood when there are plenty of used stuff available which could possibly end up in landfill if it never sold.

As for the rest, the main electrical system is 12 volt (vehicles are 3 v battery powered, 2x AA batteries) and all of the lighting uses LEDs so it is all low powered, no heat and safe. This is a project that you can get the kids involved with and have some real fun designing and making everything (with adult supervision of course as we are using sharp knives, scissors, hot glue and electricity). And if any part of the town should get damaged by over eustatic little hands, then the parts are easy to repair or remake.

So let's get to it.

Tools:

1. X-acto knife (or similar) with a healthy supply of spare blades
2. Cutting board
3. Hot glue gun and a supply of glue sticks (you can also use PVA glue but setting time will be longer)
4. Pencil
5. Metal edge ruler (for measuring and as a cutting edge guide)
6. Good pair of scissors
7. Drill with various drill bits
8. Nail gun (or hammer and nails)
9. Wire cutters/strippers
10. Needle nose plyers
11. Heat shrink tubing (for wire join insulation and making the street lighting)
12. Soldering iron or wire connectors
13. 2 x rolls of Double sided sticky tape
14. Computer, printer with full ink cartridges and printing paper (this is to make the building covering, signs and flooring, but you could also had draw and colour these if you prefer)

Materials:

1. 620mm x 1220mm x 12mm MDF sheet (or Plywood sheet)
2. 2 x 25mm x 45mm x 2400mm wood battens
3. 2 x 10 pack of 5mm A3 Foam core sheet (I used one pack of white and one pack of black)
4. Bundle of wooden train track and trains (second hand or a new budget set)
5. Pack of small prewired LED strips, cool white
6. Pack of 5mm LEDs, Cool white, red, green
7. Pack of 10 12v Flickering LEDs, cool white
8. 2 x 12 volt DC motors, 5 RPM
9. Pack of 10 - 5.5 x 2.5 mm 18AWG 12V 5A DC power jack socket threaded female panel mount connectors
10. Pack of 20 - 5.5mm x 2.1mm DC Power Pigtail Cable, DC Male and Female Power Pigtail Adapter
11. 22 AWG electrical wire with silicone covering (The silicone covering is more flexible which is advised)
12. 17 x latching push button switches
13. Box of acrylic paint marker pens
14. Box of black paper bendy drinking straws
15. Roll of black electrical tape
16. Metal coat hangers or armature wire (I prefer the wire coat hangers as they are cheaper and stronger)
17. Two strips of 12x terminal blocks (or your choice of wire bus or wire connectors)
18. 500ml grey spray primer
19. 400ml black spray paint
20. Pack of AA or whatever size batteries for the vehicles you choose
21. Selection of resin made Halloween characters (about 2.5cm tall or thereabouts)
22. Optional but helpful, scrap cardboard for making templates

Steps in this Instructable:

1. Step 1: The Design
2. Step 2: Using Foam Core/Foam Board
3. Step 3: Making the Baseboard
4. Step 4: Drawing the Building Coverings
5. Step 5: Making the Pub
6. Step 6: Lightbox Signs
7. Step 7: Making The Other Buildings - Shops 1, 2 & 3
8. Step 8: Shops 4 & 5
9. Step 9: Train Station Ticket Office & Cinema Concession Stand
10. Step 10: Station Platform
11. Step 11: Outdoor Cinema
12. Step 12: Scary-Go-Round
13. Step 13: Street Lights
14. Step 14: Base Ground Covering
15. Step 15: Control Panel
16. Step 16: The Wiring Up
17. Step 17: Making The Vehicles
18. Step 18: Finishing off

Build Time:

5 to 6 days for one person, 3 to 4 days with help. It took me a little longer to complete the build as I needed to overcome some design elements, but it should be a bit quicker for you by following this Instructable.

The beauty of a project like this is you can follow my instructions yet make the designs as you want such as track/road layout, building design, light placement and the overall size of everything including the base itself making it larger or smaller to suit your needs. This project was not designed to be an exact miniature scale model of anything or for everything to be made to an exact scale to each other, but keeping it fairly close. This is a project to have some fun with while making it as well as when it's finished. Don't forget, this is not your average town, it's a spooky supernatural one so things are a little different than normal. And like you saw at the very start of this Instructable, you can have fun making up your own spooky town's story.

The Base:

I wanted to find a good balance between vehicles moving around and buildings while not having it all crammed in and overdoing things. A single outer train track with a small run-off track for the station set the overall perimeter, while a smaller track which would be the road on the inner side would weave in between the buildings giving a second moving focal point. Laying out the track first would then define the sizes of the buildings and other objects and their placement. I made a few layout designs using a paint program on my computer until I settled on one I liked, then did a physical layout using the baseboard and track. Then I made another layout plan for the lighting placement.

The Buildings:

All of the buildings are made of a good quality white foam core. The white board would help reflect the light inside of the buildings making them nice and bright, and the higher quality board would make the buildings nice and sturdy with cutouts for the doors and windows. The outside of the buildings would have their own designs which I did by making the shop fronts with a paint program on my computer, making them to the correct size, printing them off and sticking them to the outside of the buildings. Every building would have backlit signs, again made of foam core and paper. Led lights would be fitted to every one and the lights would have plug sockets on the end so they could be plugged and unplugged to easily remove the buildings.

The Vehicles:

With so many options available for used wooden train track, I found a bundle that had battery powered trains, some in good shape, some not so good but useable. I decided to strip of the trains shells so I was left with the drivetrain and made the new locos, carriages, hearse and ice 'scream' van from foam core, similar to how the building would be made.

More Moving Parts:

As kids love moving things, I wanted to make some more moving elements. The 'Scary'-Go-Round using a 5RPM DC motor and made from foam core with some battery powered LEDs, and some Witches flying in a circle in a holding pattern on one of the buildings using the same type of motor I felt would make the display more visually appealing.

Outdoor Cinema:

After thinking of making a big wheel, I was watching a TV show that showed a drive-in cinema. Light bulb moment, how about using a smartphone as a cinema screen, but instead of a drive-in, I decided to make an outdoor seated cinema for the residents to use. I went through my horror/scary movie collection and made a movie clip montage, keeping it child friendly, then this would play on a loop. The phone would sit in a foam core housing, easily removable from one side of the housing, and sit on top of a concession stand making another visual aspect.

Pumpkins:

The pumpkins I found online which are made from a molded resin, were a good size in relation to the things I was going to make. When they were delivered I saw that some of them were translucent so held on up to my phones torch and the little pumpkin glowed really nicely. So I came up with the idea to insert some flickering LEDs into the baseboard and sit some of the pumpkins on top to give a candle flame flickering effect. It is said that jack-o-lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits, but the folk who live in Halloweensville have a secret... they love pumpkins and (actually based on mythology) is said that they represent spirits or supernatural beings.

Control:

As I mentioned above, kids like pressing buttons, so I decided that rather than having a Halloween decoration display for people to look at, I wanted to give the whole thing a more interactive vibe. Two of the locos that came with the track bundle came with a two channel remote control, and although the range was a bit pants, it worked so that helped me make the decision of not only making a control panel, but where to place it, right next to the station. I also decided to put virtually everything onto their own latching On/Off switch. Street lights, pumpkin lights would all be wired together with their own switches, then the motors and upstairs/downstairs window lights would all be separate, not only giving lots of buttons to choose to press, but also giving the whole display decoration a different look.

So if you fancy making your own or just interested to see how I made mine, let's get on with how I made 'Halloweensville'... a town where no mere mortal dares to tread.

Before we start, as we will be using a lot of it in this project, here are some tips on successfully cutting foam core/foam board.

Basics:

1. Use a fresh knife blade to start, line up your metal edge ruler along the cutting line and make a slow, light score cut first.
2. Then make 3 or 4 more slightly firmer cuts until you're through.
3. Don't try and make the cut in one pass,
4. Keep firm pressure on the ruler,
5. Check and double check that your fingertips are clear of the cutting line
6. When you start to feel pressure on the knife and the cut become less clean, change the blade.
7. And keep focus on every cut, cutting slowly. Even with a sharp blade and a firm cutting edge, it is still easy for the knife to drift and wonder and cut away from the rulers edge.

Freehand Cuts:

1. For round cuts use a plate or cup etc. as a cutting guide. But sometimes making round cuts or cutting small pieces, it is necessary to do it freehand.
2. Hold the knife firmly between your fingers with the knife at around a 45degree angle.
3. Make a slow score cut along your pencil line.
4. Then make multiple slow, light passes with the knife. The score cut will help act as a cutting guide.

Curved/Arched Cuts:

1. Foam core by its nature is a ridged material and will crease when you bend it. But like good quality plywood, you can get foam core to bend. The technique is called kerfing which is multiple light cuts through the board.
2. To make a kerf cut on foam core, lay the sheet on a cutting board and lay on your metal ruler.
3. Using the same cutting technique above, lightly cut through the board until you reach half way through.
4. Move the ruler up slightly and make a similar parallel cut.
5. Keep going until you reach the end of where you want the curve to end.
6. The closer the cuts are, the tighter the curve, but there is a limit so keep that in mind.
7. Take your time and make sure you have plenty of light when doing these cuts, and take a break on farger pieces. The last thing you want to do is cut completely through the board when you're half way through or more.

Quality:

Not all foam core/foam board products are alike. For example, in this project, I have used two different quality types of Foamcore.

1. A good quality foam board will have a dense foam sandwiched between two layers of card. Better for structure builds but takes more cut passes.
2. A lesser quality foam board will have a slightly lesser dense foam sandwiched between two layers of paper. Better for smaller pieces and freehand cutting. Also doesn't require as many cut passes.
3. Some foam board products use plastic instead of card or paper.

Final Tip:

When you have finished cutting your foam core, retract the knife blade or replace the protective cover. It's easy to draw blood just by accidently brushing you hand against an exposed blade from an X-acto type knife. I know we are talking Halloween here, but seriously, try to keep your blood in your body. And dispose of the used blade carefully and respectfully i.e. carefully slide a used blade into a scrap piece of foam core before throwing it out, or put them in a jar with a lid for recycling.

1. Lay the wood board onto a flat surface and lay out the outer train track to your design.
2. Push the joining track pieces together making them straight and flush as possible, then nail down each track piece to the board. I only drove one nail into the middle of each track piece as the rest of the tracks will hold each other straight and will be easier to remove should I decided to change the layout one day.
3. Once the outer track is done, lay out the inner track (road) and nail down.
4. Test run a train around both tracks and make any adjustments if needed. You shouldn't have to make any as the wooden track is fairly forgiving.
5. Give the track and road four to five coats of spray primer (top and sides), waiting 20 to 30 minutes between each coat.
6. When the primer has fully dried, mask off the outer track then black spray paint the road using the same technique as above in stage 5.
7. Remove the masking then use some scrap cardboard to make templates for the inner recesses between the track and road, and inside of the road area.
8. Place a template one at a time onto a sheet of foam core and cut out the shapes with your knife with a new blade fitted. We are making two of the same pieces, one from white board, one from black board.
9. Test fit the pieces of foam core into the recessed areas of the base board.
10. Once you're happy with the fit, apply some double sided tape to the bottom of the white pieces and attach the the base board. Then apply tape to the black pieces and attach to the to of the white pieces.
11. For some finishing touches, I ran a silver acrylic paint pen around the recessed train tracks to make them look more like rails, and white dash lines along the middle of the road to make it look more like, well, a road. I threw in a couple of road crossing places in for good measure.
12. Here would also be a good point to add the lower frame to the base. The is what the legs and control panel will fit to. I fitted these towards the end of the build so it doesn't really matter when you do it. Simply measure two lengths of 24x45mm wood battens, cut to size, apply wood glue and clamp to the front and back under side of the base board. Then do the same for the two side panels.

Things to Note:

Using two coloured foam board sheets is not important, and I did so because I already had a supply of white foam core. But using black is a bit more important for the top as the black won't be seen around the edges of the track/road compared to white.

I used two layers of board because of the thickness of the wooden track pieces which are about 12mm thick, so the 2 x 5mm = 10mm make the board almost flush with the track.

You could always leave out the foam core if you wanted to, but it helps reduce vibration sound from the vehicles, the paper print outs of the ground surface sticks better, it also helps with the flush fit power sockets for the street lighting, and for me, having the ground and the tracks/road at the same level looks better and more natural.

Before drawing and printing off the ground surfaces... paving, grass, gravel, we will make the buildings first which will tell us how much we need for each surface.

All of the building coverings are pretty much made the same way, so in this step we will focus on just one... the pub. To make the buildings look like actual shops etc., there are numerous was you can do this, draw you own images with a draw/paint program like I did, take photos of some empty shops in you local town, use royalty free pictures, or if you don't want to use a computer and printer, you can draw and colour in your own shop images. On my paint program I set the black canvas to A4 paper size for every image I made. A4 converts to 2480 pixels wide by 3508 pixels tall for 300 DPI (high quality printing). Here

1. Measure out the area where the pub will be placed taking into account pavements/sidewalks. This will decide the length and width of the pub.
2. Next was to create the pictures to make it look like a pub. This included the outside walls (brickwork, cladding and so on), the roofs (tiles, concrete) and the windows which includes what's inside the windows (inside the shops). What I did was to draw, colour and save the shop interior as a separate image.
3. Then with a new draw project, draw the shop fronts leaving the windows blank, then inserting a copy of the shop interior resizing it where needed, then draw a filled light grey box and set the transparency to around 50% to make it look like there in a pane of glass then drew a couple of thin diagonal dark grey lines across the windows to add to the glass pane effect. I did this for all of the shops and vehicles.
4. Next is to print the shop images at the correct size. A tricky job to begin with (tricky because we don't want to waste ink test printing different sizes), but once you get one building done, we can use this as a good template for the other buildings. Use the measurements for the foam core panels you cut out, and use an online converter to change mm, cm, inches to pixels. Then on the shop images, select each image then resize it to the size you need.
5. After you print these off, cut out the images (front, back, two sides, roof).

Top Tips:

For areas that will have repeated details like bricks or tiles, draw a small section putting in as much detail as you want, then select the image the copy and paste joining the images together. This saves a lot of time instead of drawing the whole thing onto the canvas. Save this as a file because you may need more later on.

A good tip is to make some overlap for the shop sides so you have extra brickwork, cladding etc. on each side and along the top so you can fold these around the corners or cut excess off. The sides can be cut to exact size as this should match the overlap or very close to it.

If you choose to draw and colour the shop details by hand, you could do this straight onto the foam core but the cut edges will be seen although colouring in the foam edges with acrylic paint pens will help disguise the foam. The acrylic paint pens are water based and solvent free so they wont melt the foam. But if you want to hide the edges, you can cover them in blank white paper and draw onto that. This not only hides the foam core edges, but will also cover the window cut outs which is what you want to add the interior details and to diffuse the lights.

And don't forget to be creative. Make the shops look the way you want and you can do as I did and add little scary characters inside the shops like the werewolf silhouettes drinking in the pub.

Feel free to use the images that I've attached above. If you do decide to use them, you will need to download them, then open each one up in your desired paint program/app, select the black canvas to A4 size, use the select tool to select each element (shop front, shop back etc.) then resize to your desired size and save each element. Put as many elements you can on one A4 sheet to save paper.

Like the building detail images, the buildings themselves are pretty much made all the same way. Some of the buildings do have subtle differences which I will explain in step 7. Again, we will use the pub as the example.

1. Using the measurements you took earlier, measure, mark and cut out the four sides and roof using a sheet of foam core, choosing the overall height you want the pub to be. I chose to make an Open Gable roof (sloped each side) so I cut the sides of the pub for this roof design.
2. Place and line up the pub front image on top of the front foam core panel and mark out where the windows are (repeatedly flipping the picture up and down while you mark out the window corners onto the foam core).
3. Remove the picture and join the dots with a pencil, the cut out the window sections with the knife.
4. Warm up the hot glue gun and start to join the building sides together making sure they are straight. Then glue the two roof panels together put don't glue it to the building yet.
5. Attach double sided tape around the inner edges of the pictures and a length or two in the middle. Starting with the pub front, remove the backing paper from the tape, line up the picture to the building panel then stuck it down folding the excess around the building corners.
6. Do the same for the back of the pub and then the two sides. You can cut the side pictures so the fit exactly as you will have the matching overlap from the front and back pictures.
7. If you want to have separate upstairs and downstairs lighting, measure and cut a piece of foam core to fit inside of the pub, cut small section out for the lighting wires to come through, attach a short LED light strip to what will be the upstairs floor, then glue the edges and fix the panel into place (it's easier to do this with the roof off). You can now attach the second LED strip to what is now the downstairs ceiling for the downstairs lighting.
8. Now we can glue the top edges of the pub and attach the roof making sure it is properly lined up.
9. You can also add details like drainpipes and using drinking straws or window boxes or smoke chimneys from foam core if you like.

That is the pub almost done. All that is left is the pub signs which is covered in the next step.

All of the light box signs are made the same way, but with different design drawings and sizes. I drew the signs with a paint program on my laptop and printed them off. But if you prefer you can hand draw the signs which will work just as well.

1. Using your building covering pictures as size templates, draw your signs and resize them so the will fit to the front of the buildings they are for.
2. When the sign drawings are finished, add some overlap. For example, draw a black border which will be the overall size of the sign, give it a coloured background, orange for example, then the sign writing. This will be the front of the sign. The draw a larger border around the sign, this time the same orange you used as the background, then use the paint fill tool and fill the the gap with the orange.
3. Print off the sign and cut out.
4. Measure the the sign (black border) then mark and cut some strips of white foam core making the width of the pieces a little wider than the LED strips.
5. Glue the pieces together to make the light box frame.
6. Attach double sided tape to the back of the sign so the tape is just outside the black border which you should see through the back of the paper.
7. Remove the backing paper, lay the sign face down on the work surface, then carefully light up the box frame over the sign and attach.
8. Fold the overlap along the top and bottom of the sign, make four scissor cuts where the paper overlap folds on each corner, then fold and stick the overlap to the sides.
9. Remove the backing paper from the back of an LED strip and stick it to the inside top of the light box.

With the light box finished, simply pierce a hole with a screwdriver or similar onto the building near where the sign will go (this hole will be hidden by the sign), feed the LED wires through the hole, apply hot glue around the edge of the sign and attach to the building.

The cinema sign is a little different as it is double sided. The making process is the same, but make two sign covers one for each side and have the LED wires come through the bottom of the light box. I hade a 'T' beam gluing two strips of foam core together, glued the sign to the beam, then glued the LED wires down one side of the beam. I the covered the beam with a concrete effect cover I made on the laptop and attached with double sided tape.

I mentioned that all of the buildings are pretty much made the same way, design, measure, cut foam core panels, glue together, cover with drawings, add LED lighting. But each building has a small difference which I will you will find in the following steps.

These three shops, Taco Hell, Jack the Clipper and Pumpkin' Donuts are actually one building separated by internal foam core dividers. The foam core panels needed are the back, front, two sides, two inner dividing walls, two ceilings and the roof which is a simple sloping roof.

1. With the foam core panels measured and cut, Glue an outer side to the back panel, then a divider wall, then a ceiling.
2. Then glue the second divider wall and second ceiling.
3. Now glue the other side panel in place. This shop doesn't have a ceiling.
4. You can now glue the front panel to the sides and divider panels and cover the shop with the drawings.
5. Add the lighting to each shop, (Pumpkin' and Jack has up and downstairs lights, Taco has one light hence no ceiling in this one)
6. Then cover ang glue the roof on, and add the light box signs.

These two shops, Tomb Depot and Aberzombie & Witch are again only one building and only has downstairs lighting (no ceilings and using two LED strips), but has a DC motor fitted for the flying Witches and roof lighting. This has a flat roof and a little foam core and covered room which would be the staircase to the shops, but actually covers most of the motor shaft that spins the Witches.

1. Cut out some foam core strips and glue to the outer edges of the roof to make a small wall (we don't want the Witches to fall off the roof). The draw up some wall coverings, apply double sided tape and stick to the inside and outside of the walls. Cut off any access paper. You can colour in the foam core edges with a grey acrylic paint pen.
2. Cut out some small panels to make the staircase room, top, front, back, two sides.
3. Place the top room panel in one corner of the roof, then with a screwdriver or similar make a hole through the panel and the roof for the motor shaft to fit through. This will ensure that the holes line up.
4. Glue the staircase room together, cover it with a brickwork picture and glue it to the roof.
5. Hot glue the motor to the inside of the roof with the motor shaft poking through and centered.
6. Use a straight length of coat hanger wire, attach to the motor shaft, slide a length of black heat shrink tubing over the wire and apply heat to shrink it to the wire (Lighter or soldering iron for the heat). This black tubing will make the shaft less noticeable in the day to give the effect of the Witches actually flying. It will also act as a grip for the next stage.
7. Attach four small black zip ties to the shaft making them as tight as possible. as mentioned above, the tubing will help the zip ties to grip to the shaft.
8. With a computer or hand draw, draw four Witches flying on broomsticks. The need to be double sided so you need to make eight sides, four facing left and four facing right. You can make a fifth Witch to stand on the 'Broom Pad'. I made the flying Witches with a blue background for sky, and the standing Witch with a grey background to match the concrete roof.
9. Cut the Witches out, apply double sided tape to each one and stick a left hand and right had one to a small square of foam core.
10. Carefully free hand cut off any of the unwanted foam core with your knife to get a rough shape of the Witches. You can use the acrylic paint pens to colour in the foam core edges to match the drawings.
11. Make a small slit cut to in the top of each Witch and slide onto the end of the zip ties. Glue the standing Witch to the roof.

I mentioned in step 2 about different quality of foam core. To make the Witches I used the lower quality board as it's much easier to cut free hand. I also added red and green navigation lights for the 'Broom Pad' and a spotlight to illuminate the Witches as they fly past. I made this by using a small length of coat hanger wire bent to an angle, held a white LED at one end, slid a piece of black heat shrink tubing over the wire, LED cables and the sides of the LED itself so only the top of the diode was showing. I heated the tubing to shrink it to hold everything in place, then made some small holes in the building roof, fed the LED wires through and glued the LEDs and spotlight shaft in place.

Top Tip:

Make sure you know the direction of which way the motor turns in relation to which way the Witches face, otherwise they will be flying backwards.

The differences here is that these two building don't have windows and are open fronted. The concession stand has a serving hatch, and the ticket office has two open doorways... to and from the office and the platform. Also the ticket office had a curved back and side wall and the concession stand had the frame for the smartphone (cinema screen). They also both have interior drawings made because the insides will be visible.

For the Ticket Office:

1. Draw an interior of a ticket office, cut to size and apply double sided tape.
2. Cut out the roof, front, over long back and side panel, and unlike the other buildings, a base panel.
3. To make the curved back and side panels, refer to step to about 'Kerfing'. Make the kerf cuts to the panel, offer it if to the base in its curved position and mark/cut off the excess foam core. Then glue it to the roof, then to the base. The reason for the base is to add extra support for the curved piece.
4. Stick the interior drawing to the inside of the office and attach the interior LED strip lighting.
5. Glue the front panel and corner support to the office and cover with the external drawing pieces.
6. Cover the roof (flat roof) with the roof drawing and glue to the office.
7. Attach the light box signs and cut out a small section of the base for the power socket to fit through.

For the Concession Stand:

1. With the building made, stick the interior drawing to the inside then attach the LED light strip.
2. Cover the building with the cover drawing. The cut out the serving window on the covering leaving a little bit of overhang. stick the overhang around the edges of the window and stick to the inside on the building.
3. Using a sheet of black foam core, mark out the size of the phone you are going to use as the cinema screen adding 5mm around the edges.
4. Make a second same sized panel for the front, this time cutting out the front to make a frame for the phone screen but leaving just enough for the phones bezel to rest on.
5. Cut out a top, base and one side slightly thicker than the phone (taking into account and protruding camera lenses) then glue it all together.
6. Glue the screen frame to the roof of the stand. You can also cut out some supports to glue to the back of the screen frame and the roof. This isn't really structural (although it does offer some), but more for aesthetics.
7. I finished off by running around the edges of the screen frame with a silver acrylic paint pen then adding the light box sign. The rest of the cinema will be described in a later step.

The end of the platform comes to a sloped pointed end as it is near a point/switching track.

1. Measure and cut two sides, floor and roof foam core panels. the two side pieces have a slope and slanted inwards, and the floor will have one side slanted inwards.
2. On the side panel to be slanted inwards, make a few kerf cuts at the point where the slope starts. Do the same for the platform floor as well.
3. Glue the straight side panel to the floor, then the kerfed side to the other side of the floor.
4. Cover the floor with platform floor drawing (I made a grey concrete look). Cut the floor covering oversized so it hangs over the edges. Stick these edges to the platform sides.
5. Then cover the sides with a different texture drawing. I went for a graven/pebbledash look. Leave a small gap from the top of the platform when sticking the side coverings on to give the platform floor a sense of thickness.
6. Make some roof supports using some foam core off-cuts (see pictures). Cover the roof panel with a roof covering picture then glue the supports to the roof panel equally spaced.
7. Fit two LED strips to the roof, then glue the wires to the inside of the supports, then offer up the roof to the platform. Mark where the LED wires are, remove the roof and make two holes for the wires.
8. Heat up the glue gun, feed the wires through the holes and lay the roof on its side, then apply glue to the supports and attach to the platform ensuring it is properly lined up.
9. As an added extra, I made some platform station signs using some foam core scraps.

With the concession stand made, we will finish of making the cinema.

1. With a sheet of foam core, measure and cut out the base panel. Then cover it with a floor covering picture. I made a wood tiled effect. As this panel has curved corners, attach double sided tape to the edges and in the middle of the back of the floor drawing.
2. Remove the backing paper from the tape, lay it up side down on your work surface and lay the panel on top. Lift it up, smooth down the center then turn it up side down. Make some scissor cuts around the curves to make small strands, the stick the stands down to the base a couple at a time until the curves are covered and stuck down.
3. The stick down the rest of the straight edges.
4. For the seats, cut some small panels out of some black foam core... back rests (this also acts as the back seat legs), seats, legs.
5. Glue the seat to the back rest, then glue on the front leg.
6. Lay the seats out onto the base, equally spaced, then one by one lift a seat up, glue the leg edges and attach to the base.
7. Glue the bottom of the light box sign and stick to the base. You can also glue the sign support to the back of the rear seat for extra support.
8. Add some extension wire to the sign LED. Then using the black bendy drinking straws, cut them to size, feed the wire through the straws then glue the straws to the outer edge of the base. The rest of the LED wire will go into the concession stand where it will plug into the power sockets when we assemble it later.

To make room for the motor and the power socket, the merry-go-round sits on a hollow base platform. This has its own separate battery powered lighting. I played with a number of ways to make this such as turning the ride with a motorised wheel to turn the platform and have a slip ring in the center to power the lights from the main 12v power source. But this proved to be tricky with the space I had spare so I opted for a direct drive (motor shaft to center of the platform) and separate light system. Here's how it was done.

1. Measure out a square piece of foam core slightly larger than the disks, and them four sides. Cut these out and clue together to make the base. I used black foam core and highlighted the edges with a silver acrylic paint pen.
2. Measure and make a hole in the center of the base, turn it up side down and glue the DC motor to the base with the shaft poking through the hole.
3. Using a drawing compass, draw a circle to the rough size you want for the ride's platform. Then use a plate or dish roughly the same size to use as a cutting guide, place it onto the board so it is centered to your marking, then make multiple score cuts until you're all the way through. Make four equal size discs.
4. Cut out a length of foam core (any colour as it will be covered), and make kerf cuts the fill length of the piece.
5. Glue this to one of the discs all the way around. Cut off any excess if it's too long, or add an extra kerfed piece if it's not long enough.
6. Now glue a second disc to the other edge of the kerfed panel. We now have the ride base.
7. Glue a large metal washer to the black base around the motor shaft, and another washer to one of the glued disks, around the compass hole. These washers will support the ride and make for a quiet running.
8. Cut three equal length foam core strips, one wider and two narrower. Then cut six drinking straws the same length (cut off the bendy bits). Glue the three strips together to make a '+' beam support.
9. Make four equally space holes into the third unused disc and insert two green and two red LEDs. Wire them together in series (all red positives together, all black negatives together. Then connect the AA battery holders black negative wire to the LEDs either by soldering with heat shrink tubing or using wire connectors.
10. Make a second kerfed length and of foam core and glue it to the disc.
11. Make a light box sign for the ride (mine is not actually lit because my last LED strip broke). Make a large hole in the top of the sign and a smaller one in the bottom. Insert a push button latching switch through the larger hole and feed the wires through the smaller hole.
12. Draw a covering for the top cover and stick it to the forth disk. Make a hole through the center, feed the switch wires through and glue the sign to the top panel.
13. Connect the red positive LED wire to one of the switch wires, then the other switch wire to the red positive battery holder. Now glue the battery holder to the inside center of the top cover. Make sure it is centered as this will help balance the ride. insert batteries ant test the lighting.
14. Glue the support beam to the center of the lighting disc then glue the six straws equally spaced around the edge making sure they are as straight as possible. Add glue to the other ends of the support and straws then attach to the ride base.
15. Now dress the ride with your ride pictures, and made the same way as the Witches in step 8, make the wolves for fair goers to ride on, gluing them to the outside of the straws, some lower, some higher.
16. Finally, make the hole in the base of the ride a little larger, but smaller then the motor shaft. Apply a little hot glue then insert the ride onto the motor shaft pressing firmly so there is a tight fit between the shaft and the hole. Hold the ride straight for a few seconds while the glue cools. The ride should be sitting straight as the washers will help support everything.

Just to note, the top disc panel is not attached to the ride so it can easily be removed to change the batteries. For some finishing touches, I made some steps up to the ride, and made a little see-saw ride out of some foam core scraps, coloured in with acrylic paint pens and glued a couple of ghost residents on. It doesn't move, it's just a display piece.

As I mentioned earlier, I made the street light to be removable using male/female power jack sockets. It turns out that the sockets give a good shape making the street lights look like actual street lights. You have probably already seen a glimpse of how these are made when making the spot light for the flying Witches. Here's how they are made.

1. Using the metal coat hangers, cut of a straight length of what you would like (you can use the curved parts too as we are going to bend one end). Bend one end to a 90 degree angle.
2. Feed a single white LED through a length of black heat shrink tubing (slightly larger diameter than the bulb) then feed the tubing over the short hanger wire end. Put the LED as close to the end of the wire, then feed the tubing so it goes around the bend of the wire and covers the side of the LED so only the top shows. Apply some heat to shrink the tubing.
3. Now grab a male end of a power jack and trim/strip the cables so the length of the wires run along the hanger wire to the LED cables. The idea here is to have little to no excess wire. Join the jack and LED cables by soldering and insulating. The end of the hanger wire should sit on the end of the power jack withe the cables under slight tension.
4. Slide a length of black heat tubing over the jack and base of the hanger wire and heat to shrink.
5. Now grab a black drinking straw, cut off the bendy end, then very carefully cut down the length of the straw with your knife with a new blade fitted. Go slow and steady keeping the cut as straight as possible.
6. Open up the straw a little then feed it over the wire and cables so these are mostly covered.
7. Cut off a length of black electrical tape the length of the straw, stick one edge near the cut in the straw, then carefully smooth down the tape until the cut in the straw is covered and nor wire is showing.
8. Place another length of heat tube over the jack so it covers the base of the straw then heat to shrink. Hold everything as straight as possible until the tubing cools.
9. Now with a pair of needle nose plyers, bend the 90 degree curve until the top of the LED is pointing further downwards, around 140/150 degrees (see pictures to see what I mean).
10. Finally, test the light with a battery pack or some other power source.

With the buildings made, we can get back to the base board.

1. Lay the buildings out to where you want them placed and take notes of how much ground covering you need. The idea is not to waste printer ink or waste time hand drawing what you don't need.
2. Draw your ground coverings keeping them to a rough scale, then print off and cut of the paper borders if you used a computer/printer. I made paving slabs for where the shops are, grass for the pub and fairground rides, and gravel/ballast for around the edge of the train tracks.
3. Lay the ground covering onto the base, lightly mark where you need to cut, then cut out what you need.
4. Apply double sided tape to the bottom of the ground coverings and attach to the foam core, lining them up and keeping them as neat as possible.

With the base board now covered, we need to drill some holes.

1. Place all of the buildings back onto the board and line them up to where you want them again.
2. Now go through every one, marking on the ground covering where you need to drill for the lighting power jacks.
3. Then make a small mark where the street lights are to be located, and for the pumpkin LEDs. Make the markings a different colour so you know what markings are for what holes as they will be different sizes. Then remove all of the buildings.
4. Starting with the lighting power jack holes, use a drill bit slightly smaller than the widest part of the power jack, then pierce the paper ground covering and start to drill through the foam core at a very slow speed until you reach the wood board (it will happen quickly). Then go full speed to drill through the wood.
5. Use the same process for the street light jacks. These are slightly different as the female jacks ends are flush mount and are slightly wider. I used a 12mm spade drill bit for these holes.
6. The same process again, but with a much smaller standard drill bit for the pumpkin LEDs. The tip of the diodes will be flush fit to the holes through the wood only needs to be big enough for the LED wires to fit through. The diodes will be press fit into the foam core so the pumpkins sit on top of the LEDs.
7. Now brush off/blow off/vacuum off all of the sawdust, then fit the power jacks and LEDs. You can add a small blob of hot glue to the foam core then insert the LEDs to ensure they stay flush fit.

Top Tip:

Here is a 'Do as I say, not as I do' moment. I accidently went against my own practices of testing things and got carried away enjoying the build. I inserted all of the power jack ends into the base which was all well and good, but when I later plugged in all of the buildings (lights, motors) I discovered a couple of faults. After an hour of diagnosing what the issues were, it turned out the two of the power jacks were actually faulty. So the tip... when you receive your brand new pack of power jacks, test them first either by connecting a single working LED to one end and a power source to the other, or run a continuity test with a multimeter. Take the time to do the same with all of the LEDs and switches.

In total, there are 16 pre-wired latching push button switches, 14 for the lights and 2 for the two motors. I also made space for the remote control for the trains.

1. Measure out the length, width and depth for your chosen size of the control panel front, mark and cut out the front panel from foam core. I used black in this case.
2. Mark out where the switches are to be located. Make them evenly spaced and not to close together.
3. Make small holes with a screwdriver or similar for each switch location, then make a larger hole with a pair of scissors or something similar. The holes don't need to be neat, but need to be slightly smaller than the switch housing.
4. Press home the switches into the holes. Any rough edges should now look neater with the switches in place. Secure the switches with the included locking nuts.
5. Make a recess cutout with some more foam core for the remote control to sit in. This needs to be removable to change the batteries.
6. To make the rest of the control panel (mine is a triangle shape so the switches face upwards) cut an equal length back panel, and six 3 sided side panels. Glue all of the triangle panels to the front panel, one on each end and four along the inside, then glue along each triangle edge and fit the back panel. The extra pieces will make the control panel much stronger for when little hands are excitedly pressing buttons.
7. Make some holes in the back panel and feed the switch cables through.
8. Offer up the panel to the front side of the base board so it is centered, mark on the lower frame batten where the holes are on the control panel, drill the holes out and feed the switch wires through.
9. Screw the control panel to the frame batten making sure it is nice and secure.
10. To finish off, I covered most of the control panel front with a picture I made using lots and lots of skulls. I will use the same pictures to go around the base board frame to make it look like the town is built on top of a layer of skulls (think The Terminator in the future). I would do this at the very end of the build.

Now is time to flip the base board up on its side, and wire everything up.

Wiring definitions... In Series shares the current (every device wired directly to one power source)... In Parallel shares the voltage (every device is wired to each other like a daisy chain). All of the 12v main power lighting in this project is connected in series, all 12v LEDs connected to a 12v power source. The push button latching switches have a black 'Power In' wire and a red 'Power Out' wire. There are two ways the lights are wired up so I will break it down into two section below.

1 - Shop Wiring:

It might look a daunting task looking at all of the wiring, but it's a pretty straight forward process if you think of doing one light at a time. The wiring goes like this...

1. The black negative wire from a shop LED or DC motor goes to the black negative power source.
2. The red positive wire from the LED or motor goes to the black 'Power In' wire from a switch.
3. The red 'Power Out' wire from the switch goes to the red positive power source wire.

There are a few ways to connect the wires together. What I did was to make a power bus bar from terminal blocks. For both the negative and positive power connections, I cut and stripped a number of short wires and connected them in loops on one side of the terminal block with the last one with a long length of wire that will go to the power source. See the pictures to see what I mean for this.

I then shared out all of the black negative wires from the shop lighting and DC motor power jacks into the other side of the negative bus bar. This is better than trying to bundle 16 or so wires together in one connection.

I then ran some extension wires from the red positive LED and motor wires and connected them to their own switches via the 'Power In' switch wires.

With some more extension wire, I connected these to the red 'Power Out' switch wires, I then shared out these wires to the Positive bus bar (some of the red positive wires in my pictures will be white as I ran out of red).

2 - Street Light & Illuminated Pumpkin Wiring:

A similar process as above, but for the street lights the difference this time is that BOTH the black negative and red positive wires from one street light power jack is connected to the black and red wires for the next street light jack... and repeat for the next light and so on until you get to the last street light jack. Here the black negative wire goes to the negative bus bar, and the red positive goes to the black 'Power In' switch wire, then the red 'Power Out' switch wire goes to the positive bus bar. Now all of the street lights will turn on with just one button.

This exact same process is done for the flickering pumpkin LEDs.

Fitting Power Jacks to the Buildings:

For the shops, I wired the downstairs lights and shop signs in series, slid a heat shrink tube over the wires of the male side power jack, soldered the wires together, slid the tubing over the join and applied heat to shrink the tube. This was done for all of the lighting and motor wiring. If you prefer, you could use wire connectors instead of soldering.

Main Power Socket:

I drilled a hole through one of the side frame battens, then inserted another female power jack with the male jack fitted to my 12v power adapter. The extended positive and negative bus bar wires were connected to the corresponding power jack wires.

Final Wiring Job:

Place the base board upright, fit and connect off of the buildings and merry-go-round, plug in the power source and test every light and motor to make sure everything is working correctly. As I mentioned in step 14, this is where I ran into a couple of issues with the two faulty power jacks, so my lesson was learnt to contain my excitement and do what I try to normally do, approach the job logically.

Something to note, I wanted to to use flush fit power jacks for everything, but the shop I purchased them from only just had enough stock for the street lights and I couldn't get them anywhere else for a decent price. If you can get them, I suggest you do because they are a bit better for unplugging the building light jacks one handed as they are a tight fit into the wood base and they give you a little more room.

Not a wiring job, but related. To keep the wires safe, add a piece of 3mm hardboard the same size as the base (1220mm x 610mm in my example), cut out 4 squares in each corner for the legs to fit through, then screw it to the under side of the frame. We're screwing the hardboard in so it can easily be removed for maintenance. The four legs sit flush inside the corners of the frame battens and screwed in through the top corners of the base board (the curves of the track will leave space for the leg screws). the hardboard will help keep the legs straight and secure. The height of the legs are your choice.

Top Tips:

Take the time to tidy up the wires under the base board. Not only is it good practice, but it makes things safer and more secure and also help to trace wires if there is a problem. I initially used small strips of Gorilla tape to separate and hold the wires to the base board, then did a more permanent solution of using wire management clips.

For plugging in the buildings that has two power jacks, I put some white tape around the upstairs light and motor jacks.

With the town pretty much finished, there's only one job left to do... to make the two 2 carriage trains, a hearse/taxi and the ice scream van. They are basically made the same way, just with different designs. So here is how I made one of the trains.

1. Take off the outer train locomotive shell so you're just left with the drivetrain. Depending on what trains you use, there will be battery compartments and power buttons to contend with. Remove the power button circuit board.
2. Cut a couple of side pieces of foam core (the lower quality stuff is better for these small pieces), offer one up to the side of the loco and mark out the size/shape you want it. When deciding height, make sure you leave enough ground clearance.
3. Now measure and cut a front and back panel and glue the pieces together. The idea is for the foam core frame for the loco to be press fit onto the drivetrain. The same would need to be done for the road cars but the carriages can be press fit and glued into place. Depending on the loco design, the loco press fit frame allows it to be removable to change the batteries.
4. At this point I added some new LED headlights to the front of the locos/road cars. The two train locos already had an LED light but both were not working. This was simply a case of cutting off the old diode and soldering on a new one. The two locos I made the hearse and van from didn't have lights so I soldered an two LEDs to the DC motor terminals. When the motor turns, the lights come on. Holes were made in the front panel of the locos foam core frame and the LEDs pushed in and glued into place.
5. Cut out a piece of scrap cardboard (thin, not corrugated) to make the roof. If you want to make a slightly curved roof, cut the cardboard slightly oversized then bend the cardboard around your arm of leg to give it a slight curve which will help when gluing it down. For the locos, cut out a small section for the power switches to fit through. Then glue to the cardboard piece to the foam core frame.
6. The train carriages are made in pretty much the same way and the locos, two sides, a back and front, and a cardboard roof. Some of the train carriages I got in the bundle were like Xmas sleighs, so some of the plastic needed to be trimmed off with a pair of flush cutters. Full transparency, you will see in the photos that I cut out window sections with the intention to add lights to the inside of the carriages powered from the loco batteries. But after some testing, the wires running between the carriages kept derailing the train, so I scrapped the idea... for now at least as I may revisit this some day.
7. Over to the computer, draw your train designs and add spooky characters to be seen from the windows. You will need the left and right hand sides with the passengers facing opposite ways on both sides so when they are stuck to the train, they are facing the same way (much like the double sided Witches and wolves we made earlier). You will also need the fronts and backs and the roof coverings. These are fitted to the vehicles exactly like the buildings... make some overlap (look at the pictures to see what I mean), print off and cut out around the overlap, apply double sided tape to all of the pieces.
8. Attach the sides first folding the overlap around the front and back and the roof of the vehicles, then attach the front and backs, and the roof coverings (the overlap for these can be cut to size).

And that's it. You can use the images I have attached to resize on your computer and paint program then use, or you can cover them in plain paper and hand draw/colour the vehicles, something the kids might love to do.

Top Tip:

When making the train carriages from the foam core, keep in mind the length of the them. The magnetic couplers need to be free to move around, and the train needs to be able to go around the curved track without the carriages touching each other causing possible derailment.

Depending on the trains you choose to use (new or used), you could just leave the trains as they are and cover them with your designs you have drawn out and coloured.

Base board done, buildings done, vehicles done, electrical work done... all that's to do is assemble everything and dress it up.

1. The last build job was to cover the base board frame with the skulls artwork I did for the control panel. Simply print or draw some onto A4 paper, cut some strips off to size, apply double sided tape and stick to the frame.
2. To make the cinema movie clips montage, I went through my horror/scary movie collection and screen recorded some of the clips I wanted and put them all together using a video editor program on my laptop. Then transferred the video to the phone and play it on a loop. You could just play some online movie clip videos from YouTube etc. or just play a single movie, but keep in mind the viewing audience... not the towns ghostly residents, but the children who will be looking at it. We want it a little scary as it is Halloween, but not to the point where we want to give them nightmares so please keep this in mind.
3. Plug in and place all of the buildings, streetlights and 'Scary-Go-Round, then power it up.
4. Power up the vehicles and let them roll.
5. Place the pumpkins over their flickering lights (if you haven't already hot glued them in place).
6. Add some more characters to the streets, train station, fairground and cinema. I chose not to glue the characters down so kids (or interested adults) can move them around or my family could give them away with the parents/gradians consent of course.
7. Then the last thing to do is wait for the viewers and trick or treaters to come and visit.

The idea of this decoration display was for it to sit on its own to display in a window in the lead up to Halloween, then move it to our hallway near the front door, or put it just outside the front door if the weather is good, on a table for visitors to take a closer look and have a play with it.

And there we have it. Something a little different, some work involved to be sure, but totally worth it in the end and a great project to get the kids involved with as it is something they can help make, having fun and learning new skills along the way, and then get to play with. And of course it makes a great talking point for Halloween visiting neighbours. Future plans, after this year (2025) I will see how it goes and may make some changes such as making more details for the buildings, other fair ground rides, and may even add a second layer. If I do I will be sure to make another Instructable detailing the process. If you do decide to make your own spooky town or village, please let me know in the comments with photos if you can.

But for now, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and have a 'fangtastic' Halloween.

Happy making, and a Happy Halloween.