MICHONNE'S PETS!

HELLO TWD FANS!!!
Last Halloween, I got the bug to build my own enormous, giant, incredible THE WALKING DEAD front yard display.
I only got as far as this...and collecting all the NERF guns in the house for painting...but it's a start. For those of you who have the time, inclination and ability, here's a few shots of what you can do on the cheap. And I have an idea of how it can be finished...at the end. Hope these ideas help, and I'd LOVE to see the final results you come up with!
Materials:
Styro-wig heads 2 male, 1 female (unless YOU want to be Michonne!) Spray paints of various colors, a rough saw (like a drywall saw),Xacto knive,a braided or dreadlock wig, some fake teeth and fake eyeballs.

Step 1. Hobby Lobby or most other craft stores have these great Styrofoam wig heads. I found these in the same store, 2 male and more "female" model. NOTE: The male heads are very "Clark Kent" looking, hardly the emaciated Zombie pets we all know and love. Don't worry, you will pretty them up in a jiffy!

Step 2. Get some spray paint,(rattle cans for our U.K. friends)- small cans will work great since you wont need much. I used 2 shades of brown and some black, blue, yellow and red all of which were laying around the Zombie workshop. Did I say workshop? I meant garage. Did I say garage? I meant shed.
You wont need any particular skills with painting or artistic background for the next step, in fact the more random you are the better!

Step 3. Pick up some fake teeth and, if you can find them, some plastic eyeballs. It's Halloween...Shouldn't be too hard.

Step 4. MAKE ZOMBIES! Start with the male heads, these will be the "Pets." Using the drywall saw, cut a horizontal slit along the lips about 2-3 inches deep, leaving the top lips intact. I used the drywall saw since it gave a rough jagged cut. Next, cut a few vertical slits from the chin up to the lips cut you made. Then, using your fingers, start tearing away the Styrofoam in chunks. NOTE: This is MESSY! Small pits of polystyrene get everywhere. Do this in a place thats easy to clean up, and have a small vac nearby.

Step 5. Add some trauma, gouge out the eye sockets to make room for the eyeballs, chop off the nose ala Michael Jackson, OR...spray them black for a sunken effect.
Use the saw to make some slashes in the skin, be creative, it's really YOUR pet afterall...

Step 6. Spray paint! Ok...Before you begin, a words about polystyrene and spraypaint. The Styrofoam will bubble, melt and get gooey depending on how liberally you use it. This IS A GOOD THING! You are making a Zombie...let the properties work to your benefit. THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR MICHONNE!!! Shes a beauty with a nice complexion...keep her that way! If you are painting her, use VERY LIGHT passes with the spray.You might even want to experiment with other paints, like latex. I have not used them so I can't tell you how it will work.

As for the Zombies, you can go nuts. If possible, grab a chunk of Styrofoam from some packaging and practice. Spraying a bunch in one area causes the foam to melt and sink, which you can use around the cheeks and in the jaw cavity.
SPRAY TIPS. Start with the overall skin tone, the brown paint lightly over the whole thing. Then the trauma and the eye sockets by painting them black. Then, over the scars, splotches of blue and yellow for bruising. Black out the missing jaw and add red for blood. Then, let it all dry for a while, and come back and do it all again. The paint will soak in and become flat the first few passes. After it dries, the subsequent layers will hold a better gloss. This is important for the blood!

Using Gorilla glue (careful it foams, use it sparingly) or hot glue, add the teeth. (I actually just pressed by mine into the foam, but they fell out after a good rain)
You now have the basics...the rest is up to you, add blood, bits of flesh, eyeballs (colored white or yellow) go nuts, have fun and HAPPY HALOWEEN!!
Oh, remember when I said I had an idea for the rest of the body? Our local Walgreens has a life size skeleton for sale, sadly it's $50. Way out of my range...but here's what I would do if I could.
Remove the skull and arms, and wrap the rib cage in the shrink wrap window covering sold at hardware stores. Grab a hair dryer and shrink wrap it like thin skin over the ribs. Spray it all with brown, add your head from above and some stuffed jeans and you have 2 perfect pets for your display.
Lucky You!
-Ken

Bring out your dead!!!

In my lifetime a Zombie apocalypse is most assuredly going to happen, and when it does I shall be ready for it. I say this with the same level of confidence I normally reserve for knowing that if I am ever aboard a commercial flight whereby both pilots have succumbed to Acute Bavarian Diverticulitis, I will be able to ease behind the controls and bring that puppy in, all 200 tons with souls on board unscathed. How? Simple...I own a pirated copy of MS FLIGHT SIM 2003. As far as zombies are concerned, that's mere child's play in comparison. Zombies, (Walkers, for you purists,)are simple creatures with traits that require specific rules of engagement. Once all of those rules are clearly understood, surviving is limited by only ones creativity and preparation. But how does one prepare? Movies. Lot's of 'em.Since the first time I saw Barbara laugh off the warning..."they're coming to get you...!!!" I was hooked on all living dead. I'm far from alone. Zombies seemingly have become the hottest cold cut the little shop of horrors we call Hollywood has to offer, and based on all things undead out there, we don't seem to be leaving the menu any time soon. YUM! I have been wondering lately why zombies seem to be so popular, and I have a theory. We can probably thank sexy vampire movies with stories revolving around horny supernatural monster teens trying to get in the pants of vapid valley girl ho-bags. Team Dumbass, anyone? For the rest of us post pubescent non female types, zombies not only appeal to us on a horror level but fend off any wandering interlopers from the Twilight camp with an effective display of shotgun blasts, splattered blood and rotting flesh. It's a win win, and operates on the same principal as offensive odors emanating from one's man cave. Enter at your own risk.Zombie flicks have come a long way since the original life challenged wobblers first whined for "Braiiiinnnnnsssss..."in the 60's. With each movie borrowing or expanding on a previous idea, zombies have evolved, devolved and changed countless times, with few exceptions, but almost all are defined by the following rules. 1. Zombies may not all eat brains to survive, but they do need them to walk. A head shot is the only way to take one down.2. They were dead before zombification, and not just Princess Bride "mostly dead", but dead-dead. 3. They infect others with a bite, usually while trying to eat the victim.4. Zombies attack the living only...not each other. 5. Loosely placed boards over windows and doors can keep them out of buildings.* 6. They must eat constantly, and are never not hungry. 7. All zombies are mindless...devoid of emotion or reasoning. (* All makeshift barricades will fail over time. Usually moments after a plan is hatched to escape the building before they get in. ) Luke and I spent this fall eagerly awaiting Sunday evenings, when we could turn off the lights, sit on the floor in front of the couch and catch the latest episode of "The Walking Dead" season 2, on AMC. (This was officially season one for Luke, since I had decided it was only right to keep him from such nightmarish images until he was at least 12, or until he could successfully pass level 6 in CALL OF DUTY Modern Warfare/Zombies. Being father of the year? work work work.)Suffice it to say we have been marinating in the rotting entrails of the undead for long enough to know how to handle any world wide outbreak that might spread. Luke is the sniper and weapons expert, (NERF,all models) I have the home front, and the girls? They are in charge of eye rolling and wandering off to catch up on Barbies and Real Housewives. As for the rest; 1. The house...We live inside a Boulder with windows. The outside walls are 10 inch thick formed concrete. Covered in small granulated stone flake, they are solid, abrasive and awesome. Any zombie trying to gnaw his way thru them will be turned to grated zombie Parmesan. 2. The Windows...Standard 2 pane brittle cracked old house glass, incapable of not breaking all by themselves for no good reason, let alone under the strain of hordes of brain munchers. No worries...we have...3. Scrap wood. I have a garage full. As any zombie aficionado is aware, the standard method of sealing off entrances to a residence during a crisis is hurriedly, with a tack hammer, bent rusted nails and scrap wood. Check check and check-4. Duct tape. A few years ago, I took a free CERT course given by homeland security here in Palatine. It was during that class that we learned what all the fuss was about duct tape. Using it to seal off cracks in the windows and doors keeps out any potential gasses and viruses let loose accidentally or by terrorists. Since BOTH are the preferred method by which all zombie apocalypses start...we are safe. I have 40 rolls.Now it's simply a matter of waiting for it all to go down...and when it does, look for us to be on the roof, giddily taking out the neighborhood, one walker at a time.