Hello Folks! This is my first How-To I though I'd Share. This is the  basic workflow of the first zombie/corpse I've every tried to build. I  used methods found here and around the web, but not any single one of  them as I tried to combine the best aspects of all the methods I had  seen. And as always, you follow this at your own risk! I'm not  responsible for injury or death from following my steps, its for  demonstration only.   I hope you guys enjoy and find it helpful.  

Ok, Then goal. What I wanted out of this was a corpse/zombie that could  be posed mainly for use in photography (think Pumpkinrot's Freak Show  Zombies from Last year) and a static Halloween prop second. I wanted to  look creepy and realistic without being cheesy, have a good degree of  movement for a static prop, and most important, be every cheap to make!  

To begin, as I have done nothing of this sort before, I felt it wise to  test the waters so to speak and start small. So I decided to start with a  half corpse, being only torso, arms, and head. If that didn't fail  epically, then I'd go for a full body corpse.  

So lets get to it. I began with the spine. Since this guy is a crawler,  and not needing to hold his weight, I went with a wire spine for  flexibility.  Having a much of scrap materials around, I used some  second - hand 12/2 electrical wire. I cut three pieces about 3 feet  long, taped the ends together, placed it in a vice, and braided the  three together. I took this wire braid, and slipped  a 3/4 inch pvc  cross fitting over it to about to where the shoulders should be. I left  enough for the neck to stick a skull on, always making things longer so  it could be trimmed off if needed.  I added two pieces of 3/4 pvc pipe  for the shoulder-arm joints to the cross piece.  

 I used this method here at that point and have to say it works really well.  I found however that I could  simply heat the pipe with my heat gun in no time, makes no smoke/fumes,  and can easily be shaped. No need for torches, heated rods, or any of  that! Heat gun allowed me to make all the ends quickly and safely.

The start of the spine

 Next, the rib cage. Which I can tell you know after the fact was total  overkill. IF I do this again, I'm not going to all the trouble, as you  don't really see it in the final result. For the second zombie, I used a  much similar method. That being said, this is what I did the first  round.  

I took a few close hangers (a buck or two from a dollar store) and cut  them and straightened them. I laid them out on a table and arranged them  into a frontal ribcage fashion. I duck taped them together where the  sternum would be so I could keep everything in place as I picked it up  and attached the floppy mess onto the spine. I bent the close hanger  wires to shape and ran them through the braids of the spine to fasten. 

Ribcage progress

At this point i made the collar bones and scapula (shoulder blades).  Collar bones are more 12/2 wire, and the scapula were pieces of 1 inch  foam insulation board crudely cut to shape, then warped with the heat  gun. These were then taped on with oh-so trusty duck tape. 

Collar Bone Goodness

After that I crudely wrapped them all with cheap duck tape to give them  volume.  This took time and I wouldn't do this for a zombie again, but I  think the results would be great for a scratch built skeleton where  you'd see the effort. 

Beefy Ribs

 Next, the arms! and a slight departure from the 'Spawn of Articulation'  method. I wanted my guy to have working hands. what I did here, was  take another scrap of 12/2 wire, folded it over and twisted it together,  and slipped 1/2 inch pvc over it. 

 I left a gap between the upper-lower arm for the bend of the elbow, and   the separated out the wires for the fingers that stuck out the end. I   can't stress enough, use extra wire at this point. If you get your   finger wire too short you'll have a headache, so make it extra long. 

 I found that depending on how tight your twisted your wire, the pvc pipe   may or may not slip on the wire. to keep it in place, I heated the  ends  at the elbow with the heat gun, and crimped them with vice grips  while  hot. Make a nice tight grip on the wire.  

 At this point, I basically followed this method for creating the hands. I took cheap ink pens, and cut the tubes to size, slipped them over the   wire and duck taped the whole mess together. See the link for more   details. 

 And here, giving the completed armature a test run, so far, so good. Next up corpsing! 

 First Up, the head. Got this skull at Walgreens for six bucks. I saw  however that Big Lots has the same one, but for ten dollars or more.  Anyhow, I bored a hole in the base and stuck it onto my wire neck. I  just used extra plastic while corpsing to keep it firmly attached.  

 

 

Alright, as far as corpsing goes, I went with the "Plastic Corpsing'   method my Stiltbeast. All I can say is wow, fast, easy, cheap, no mess. I  could have followed is method for painting/staining and been done here,  but I wanted more of the Pumpkinrot zombie look, so after applying the  plastic, I went into a different direction. For the eyes, I used the deodorant ball trick. Stuck them in with latex paint soaked cheesecloth.  

 

As I was going for a different look, the clear plastic had to go. Also, I  found that it turned white in thicker areas. So i painted the whole  thing black using spray paint for plastic surfaces.  However, on the  second zombie, I saved myself a lot of time and eliminated this step by  corpsing with black garbage bags instead.

 And next, came the messy part that brought it all together. With a mix   of black latex house paint, and elmers glue about 50/50, I soaked   cheesecloth, and Halloween spider webs, and stretched out and applied   all over him in a gooey mess. Use this to make the effect of rotting   hanging flesh, as well as nasty matted hair hanging in his face. 

 The final step was dry brush painting. Using cheap craft paints, I made   up off tinted white colors of green, red, browns, and purple and  brushed  over him catching the high areas. I tried to do this unevenly  to give  it variety and detail. After that dried a bit, I gave it the  slightest  dry brush of pure white. After this he got a good heavy coat  of  gloss  water based clear coat from my paint sprayer and I called him  done. Here  is some pics of him finished.