One of my new things for the Haunt this year is a zombie. I had originally had planned a mummie, but it seems that mummies are old fashion and zombies are in. First step was to collect paper roll tubes to create the skeleton. The tubes are about four inch in diameter and most of the tubes are 24" long and a couple are 36" long. I will drill holes through the tubes and insert a dowel to make the joints at shoulders, hips and knees. I will use a Styrofoam head and probably Styrofoam sculpted for the hands. Since it's now a zombie, regular clothing will be needed, and my son will be donating some old clothing and shoes.
The first thing I will do with the head is to carve out the eye sockets and around the mouth. I have shooter marbles for the eyes. I may be attaching a cord of some type to one eye and let it dangle, I haven't decided. I'll probably pick up some fake teeth for the mouth as well. Then I will be layering the head with liquid latex so the skin will look more real, and not like stryofoam. I can also create pockets of goo of some type and another layer of the latex to create boils. Further paint onto of the latex should provide the desired skin tone.
When I asked my son for donations of old clothes and shoes, he made two suggestions. The first was that there should be a sensor so when people walk by the zombie calls out for brains. The second thing was there needed to be coils of intestines spilling out of a gash. Personally, I know nothing of intestines, so off to research…
The human small intestines are grayish purple in color and are 1 1/2" diameter x 20 ft long on average. The large intestines are dark reddish, 3" diameter and 5 ft long. My first thought was sausage casings, but those that are artificial and don't require refrigeration, are expensive and cut to short lengths, maybe 20 inches at most. Right now I'm leaning toward the plastic sheeting that you put over a table cloth to keep it clean. There are various thicknesses available at most fabric stores. It comes clear, but I think spray painting on the inside of the plastic should take care of that.
My plan is something along the lines of cutting the plastic to width, and length (or piece to get length) , spray paint color, let dry. Roll and hot glue the long seam of the plastic around a dowel or other object, scrunch as I go. Seal one end before adding sand to tubes, though how much sand to add? I'm thinking less than a third full, so it's not weighted down, but enough that there is weight to it. I'll have to make a stomach I guess, and I'll probably be able to use a standard skeleton for the ribs, just have to watch for when the Halloween stuff shows up so I can get to it. I can attach the stomach to the ribs or the central tube, with one end of the small intestines attached to that. Then I can fasten the other end to a lower spot on the central tube (coil the small intestines into place to figure out where) and at this point glue in the large intestines, coil and fasten the other end to the tail of the center tube. I wonder if I can use a layer of the plastic as skin to create the outside of the body, something that is easily punctured, but sturdy enough to survive a year or two in storage.
Well, that's the plan so far. I'll post the sketch of the skeleton of tubes tomorrow, that's at work and not with me now.
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