Plastic Milk Jug Skeleton

I always wanted to create a Skeleton as a Halloween decoration. After looking at a few solution, I was opting to make it from scratch based on what I can found on the internet.

Supplies

Here are the list of supplies needed to make your plastic skull.

The cardboard is to make the skull as the base, milk jug is the final skull.

Materials:

- Cardboard

- milk jug

- elmers glue

- paint

Tools:

- heat gun

- screw driver

- gloves

- sponges

Prepare the Skeleton Skull

I get this ideal from another instructable post. But given that I don't have any skull that I can use as the template, I began searching on how to make one using cardboard.

I also found a trick to resize the template using MS Excel, so In the picture above, I resize it so that it print on 4 x A4 paper.

What I found this might be a little bit smaller, but it is a good start.

Print and Cutout the Skull Template

I'm using the one that I found, not super complicated. I don't have access to laser cutter, so I have to cut it by hand.
First print out the cutout on paper and then transfer this the cardboard.
I found that it is quite easy to cut out the cardboard in a batch of two.
The template only have the number up to 14. So the middle cardboard is number 14 and then from there goes back down to number 1.

Downloads

Skull.svg

Stack Up and Glue From the Middle

Stack up the cardboard and glue from the middle number 14 down to number 1. Check at every piece to make sure it align and getting round head.

Use the eye and jaw line as the guide. There are dots on the original template to check alignment, but I don't find this very useful, you still need to make sure that it align.

Prepare Milk Jug

I'm using the 2 litre jug milk. Wash it throughout to make sure it is clean. Remove the label using heat gun.

Cut into half and let it dry.

Heat the Milk Jug Using Heat Gun

Prop up the cardboard skull. Put the milk jug on top and slowly slide it down.
Once it pop in, slowly work through the contour especially around the eye and nose to get it right.
Then work on the details of the teeth. The cardboard doesn't have any contour for the teeth, so you just have to use your imagination.

Pop Out the Skull and Decorate

Once done, the plastic skull have settled in, so you have to cut the plastic open at the top in the form of "Y". This will ensure you can pop it out. you can glue it back from the inside later to retain the original shape.
Now it is the time to decorate by painting it and make sure it was weathered to make it realistic.
You can add some weight by inserting scrunch up news paper with some rocks on the inside.
Now you have a skull that can be replicated easily for your Halloween decoration.

Improvement and Suggestion

The skull that I made is smaller than what I wanted it to be, but it does the job. Suggestion for improvement would be to increase the scale by another 20-30% that would make it slightly bigger. But it all depends on the need. You can have multiple cardboard template for different sizes. If you store the template, you can always make make more skull next year.