Maple which is the lightest, but your tastes may vary.
Your project may require a more human looking
character than the bare skull provides. We've had good
success using the plain skull as a base and then sculpting
on top of it. Robert Risley (a fellow haunter) first tried this
on a build we did last year — Pirate Pete. I don’t have the
space here to properly display his awesome skills but he has
documented this process in my forum thread for our Big
Red build at www.hauntforum.com/showthread
.php?t=39207. Make sure to check it out and see how he
transforms a skull into whatever character is desired. He
40 SERVO 08.2015
DIY Animatronics
Figure 11. Rotate servo mounted in the shoulder plate.
Figure 12. Nod servo added using servo blocks.
Figure 10. The components for the first prototype.
Figure 9. Skull sculpted and converted to a new character.