# Castle balusters



## whopper (Dec 21, 2012)

We're doing Beauty and the Beast in April. For the castle, I'd love to buy or fabricate a bunch of thick, sturdy-looking balusters for the castle railings. I figure they don't have to be load-bearing, as I can always put real supports behind/inside them. I don't think they even all have to be a full 360 degrees. I think I'm looking for some technique to make a bunch of identical pieces from a mold, but I don't really know where to start as far as materials, techniques, etc. I'd also be happy to just buy some, but everywhere I've looked thus far has been expensive and/or impractical. Thanks for any guidance you can give me.


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## Van (Dec 21, 2012)

I would seriously look into simply making them out of foam. 1" thick foam faces then use foam for the returns, which will give you whatever "thickness" you want. Then get creative, you can either carve the face to look like rough stone or stone block. Then coat everything in VSSSD. Try the search function and look up foam carving techniques we got a LOT of them listed here. You can use the Wiki to look up VSSSD. What you want to do is really pretty easy and the most expensive part will probably be the foam.
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## kicknargel (Dec 21, 2012)

If you're looking for something chunky and round, you may be able to build it up with PCV pipe, plastic flower pots and ethafoam rod. 

Here's what gave me the idea:




You could take a PVC pipe as the core, hole-saw out the bottom of the pots and place them at intervals along the pipe, or just the top and bottom, and use ethafoam rod for detail at the connection points.


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## MPowers (Dec 21, 2012)

Another possibility is Vacuform. Scenic Service Specialists video showing forming in progress.

Here a few, there are lots more.

t u l n o y l u m b e r - v a c u u m - f o r m e d p l a s t i c

Scenic Service Specialists Scenic Service Specialists
1497 West 40 South
Lindon, Utah 84042
TELEPHONE: 801-796-0370
FAX: 801-796-0367
E-MAIL:[email protected]

Vacuform Plastic Sheets Lots of general info and links to more companies

Vacuform Decorative panels by Sketch-Lite Productions

Staff Shop / Architectural Ornamentation | WB Studio Facilities

Tobins Lake Studios click easy armor, click sets 2573-5015 and scroll down to 5015

Rose Brand has Vac U form plastic but I didn't see any balusters

other plastic balusters
http://www.gd-wholesale.com/userimg/23/3501i3/baluster-606.jpg
http://fairwayvinyl.com/images/sv_legends/fv.vs.ap.0501_lg.jpg


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## lwinters630 (Dec 26, 2012)

whopper said:


> thick, sturdy-looking balusters for the castle railings.


Bowling pins! and they are free at most bowling lanes. I used them in Phantom's masquerade and will be using them in Les Mis stars. It is easy to add more detail like dropping a wood doughnut over the pin top.


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## JohnD (Dec 27, 2012)

Check around for plastic bird baths, Sears and Amazon list them, then use the base to make a half round plaster mold, then cast in expanding foam. If you need full round just cement two together. 
plastic bird bath - Google Search


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## whopper (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks for the help, everyone! I'm going to look into all of these, and hopefully learn some new skills in the process.


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## BrianWolfe (Jan 11, 2013)

We have a variety in vacuum form plastic.
Here are a few of the available molds.



Costume Armour


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