Zombies are coming!

The plan is coming together for my zombies. Oh, yes, a deviation from the plan.

Instead of your run of the mill zombie hanging out in the front yard, I decided my guy needed a friend and I have the bits to put together a girl, and so I have this couple, that I decided to make homecoming king and queen zombies. Their names are Chip and Muffie. I have started with their heads. I took wig heads and some modeling clay to first make the head more proportional to a real human head, then there was some expression added. Next step was to cover in plastic wrap and then papier-mâché. I have the second layer drying right now. Tonight I plan to add a third layer. Tomorrow when that third layer is dried, I'll be cutting the heads off the wig heads. I expect to seal up that cut as I attach to the main frame of the zombies.

Muffie is going to be a lot more papier-mâché work that ole Chip, since her dress is a wide open neckline and short sleeves. While Chip's limbs will be mostly constructed from the heavy cardboard tubes from industrial paper rolls (about 3 1/2" in diameter) Muffie's lower legs and arms are going to be a base of dowel rods inserted into pool noodles, then covered in papier-mâché. The tubes are just too large to pass as a female's limbs - well, a teenage one that isn't oversized anyway. Since I expected the lower portion of her dress to be in tatters and nosey neighbor kids, I'll be making from the knee down a shaped leg, complete with feet that will fit into a pair of cast off shoes.

My next papier-mâché endeavor will be their hands, and her limbs and shoulders.

I have a complex form laid out for Chip's frame, using the tubes and spacers to get the width desired. I have also been working on how to make the arms adjustable. My preference is to make them adjustable, since I see them raised, reaching out for their victims. But storing them like that could be problematic, so I want to be able to lower the arms. And maybe standing there with their arms hanging, perhaps moving with the wind would be cool too. I'd like to keep the options open as much as possible.

I have an old formal that has been used for various occasions, dress, etc and is ready to move on to its new role as Muffie's prom dress. It's going to be needing some distressing, that I hope I'll be done with mostly by the time her body is ready . I have a prop wig for her, but will need one for him, and I will be looking for a tiara for her and one of those big purple velvet lined crowns for him, as well as sashes for both.

Their last item on the list is their ability to call out for brains when someone walks by. I have a Billy Bass plaque that I'll be working on to rework it to play mp3s, since it already has the motion sensor and ability to play something, so it should be a piece of cake, right?

Tomorrow I will take pictures before I cut the papier-mâché off the wig heads. I meant to take one of the modeled faces, but forgot, so I'm hoping the faces underneath won't be distorted by all this.