Zombie Techniques

 Wounds & Rotting Flesh: I sketched out what I wanted each figure to look like and–when I wasn’t sure if it would translate well into a figure–I’d test it out on some scrap HeroClix. Once that was all sorted out the x-acto went to work, slicing off limbs and carving out bites. To create deep wounds, I used sculpting tools to drill into the figure. To give the exposed flesh a nice rotting look, I tore off tiny (like a quarter the size of a Chiclet) pieces of toilet paper and lined the inside and edges of every wound, holding them in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s. A small drop of Krazy Glue then hardened the mess (quickly absorb any excess glue with a small strip of paper towel). When that all dries, it’ll have a great ragged, raw look. That same trick can be used to make rips in costumes & capes. Acrylic paint then gored up the assorted boo-boos with shades of pink, purple and red, exposed skin got a wash of sickly green and costumes–depending on their color–got a wash of black or muddy brown. Protruding bones are just a small snip of plastic–a wrist, ankle or other small part of a random scrap figure.

 

Marvel Zombies

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Pat

Marvel Zombies–flesh eating zombie superheroes–such a simple but fun idea. My first impression on hearing the news was a little eye rolling; zombie superheroes…? C’mon, how good could it be? But man, that first issue of Marvel Zombies made me a believer. If you dismissed the idea and never gave it a chance, I recommend tracking down that first mini series and giving it a read. Evil, entertaining stuff.
When the Marvel Zombie HeroClix figures were announced I was pumped; dismembering my gaming group and eating them alive? I’m in! But not for $100 a figure. Turns out the original Zombie figs were limited edition chase figures. I like ‘Clix and all, but a hundred dollars a pop? Yeah, no thanks. I went poking around my tupperware full of HeroClix extras to see if I couldn’t play re-animator with some plastic scraps…

• Zombie Colonel America •

Ingredients: Base body is Ultimate Captain America (Ultimates), his noggin came from a Zombie Centaur (Mage Knight) and his right hand was donated by Dove (Crisis). Rotting bite marks made by “chewing off” small chunks of the figure with a pair of pliers, then using small shreds of tissue–held in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s–to give the wound a ragged fleshy appearance…

When I was happy with how the TP looked a drop of Krazy Glue was added to harden the materials. Be sure to quickly blot the excess glue and that no piece of tissue is sticking out too far on its own…it’s fragile stuff and will snap of easily. His brain was made with the same trick: I just lopped off the top of his melon, hollowed out the top a bit with modeling tools and then shaped him an itty-bitty TP brain…

Costume trimmings like boot flaps are made with index card paper hardened with Krazy Glue, then the whole mess was hit with acrylic paint and some matte sealer to keep ‘im safe. Custom Colonel America dial here.

• Zombie Wolverine •

Ingredients: Base body is a Wolverine (Infinity Challenge) and…man, not much work went into making this guy look like a monster…

The Infinity Challenge Wolverine figure is an ugly f*cking sculpt. Vampire teeth, disheveled looking design, this boy’s a mess out of the box…

All I did was lop off an arm and attach a random bit of plastic to look like one of his adamantium bones was poking through. Assorted bite marks were accomplished with the same trick outlined in the Colonel America wrtite-up above. Custom Zombie Wolverine dial here.

• Zombie Hulk •

Ingredients: Base body is a Hulk (Infinity Challenge) with random open wounds created as detailed in the Colonel America write-up above…

The exposed knuckles on his left hand and the pinky on his right are scrap pieces of plastic…

I’m sure all the Marvel Zombies could use some deodorant, but the Hulk looks like he’d smell especially terrible. Anyway, custom Zombie Hulk dial here.

• Zombie Iron Man •

Ingredients: Not a lot of modding here. I took a Zombie Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters), dirtied up his armor with an acrylic wash and then lopped off the fiery exhaust coming out of his torso…

I’ve never liked the way that looked, that Shellhead had a jet engine coming out of his undercarriage. Instead, I gave him an exposed pelvis and hip bones courtesy a Skeleton figure (Mage Knight). Let’s take a closer look at his boney parts…

Delightful. So how does he fly around without legs? MAGIC! Zombie Magic! It’s the best kind. Or he uses his repulsors as propulsion. Whichever. Custom Zombie Iron Man dial here.

Ah, Power Pack, little kid superheroes and the four happiest lil’ rays of sunshine in the Marvel Universe. The only way they can get sweeter is if they had an insatiable craving for human flesh and the muscle to pull your spine out the top of your head. Yep, it’s time to give these four powerhouse tots the Marvel Zombie treatment..

I’m already regretting this post.

• Gee/Alex Power •

I can’t really explain why I made these. I may have been drunk. The goal was to make the creepiest Marvel Zombies I could think of and undead little kids—doesn’t matter if they’re zombies, vampires or ghosts—are always worse than adults. Smaller = creepier. Don’t believe me? Behold the horror of zombie midget!

Apparently these guys actually showed up in one of the Marvel Zombie sequels. And here I thought I was being all original and stuff. Ah well, no new ideas left in the world.

Ingredients: He’s had a bad day. Though—I’m guessing by the weapons—the Avengers had it worse. The body is a standard issue Gee figure (Secret Invasion) but I needed creepier “reaching for you” hands. Those I lifted from an Ultron (Armor Wars). Cap’s shield is actually a repainted U.S.Agent shield (Avengers). U.S.Agent’s disc was less concave than any of the Cap’s and fit better wedged into the little tyke. Mjolnir came courtesy of Thor (Supernova) while Hawkeye’s arrows were pulled from assorted HeroClix/Mage Knight archers. An x-acto blade was used to carve out/widen all of the kids mouths (they’re creepier that way) and ragged bits of flesh are actually small bits of TP held in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s glue and then hardened with Krazy Glue. Acrylic paint, a coat of matte and it’s off to the undead ball pit. Custom Zombie Gee dial here.

• Mass Master/Jack Power •

Aw, look, he’s got a mouthful of Ant-Man…! ADORABLE! Eeesh, it’s harder to justify making these little monstrosities when typing out descriptions of them.

Mmmm, you can really taste the Pym Particles. I tried getting one piece of customizing into the shot but it was too little; I took a tiny scrap of TP, glued one end of it to Ant Man’s bitten torso with a pinprick of Elmer’s and the other end inside Mass Master’s mouth. Then I hardened that with a drop of Krazy Glue and painted to look like raw flesh. Awful.

Ingredients: Base body is a Mass Master Heroclix (Secret Invasion) with a big chunk sliced off his head. That’s a fun sentence. I then found a random, rounded bit of plastic that was slightly smaller than Mass Master’s noggin (probably from a balf Heroclix figure) and glued that in place, making it look like Jack had a nice shiny portion of his skull exposed. Ragged bits of flesh are more of that TP/Krazy Glue trick as outlined in the Gee ingredients. For Jack’s hanging guts I used bits of string that I slightly moistened to keep the threads under control. After I positioned them the way I want (using small drips of Elmer’s Glue to hold ‘em in place), a drip or two of Krazy Glue hardened the whole mess. Custom Zombie Mass Master dial here.

And Ant Man..? He’s one of those mini Mech Warrior WizKids figures tweaked with bits index card paper hardened with Krazy Glue and random bits of HeroClix plastic. FUN FACT: Tediously customizing figures as small as Ant-Man can make a person stabby. STABBY! STABBY! STABBY

• Lightspeed/Julie Power •

Hey, check it out, I cut a third-grader in half. I think part of me died making these.

Above is an angle where you can better see Lightspeed’s spinal column poking out of her torso. I connected both halves of the body with her large intestine so–when she walks around–she drags her…ummm, she drags her lower half a few feet behind her. I also painted red hand prints on the dial as “footprints.” This blog posting is gonna be tough to explain to future employers.

Ingredients: You know the drill…base body is a Lightspeed (Secret Invasion) with the ragged flesh/exposed intestines trick as detailed in the Gee and Mass Master write-ups. Anyway, since I made Lightspeed (Secret Invasion) shorter I had to cut off her head (…what did I just type?) and reposition it so she’s looking up. Do they get the internet in prison? Palm-flat hands were needed since she’s using them as feet, so a Dove (Crisis) donated those. I also widened her mouth with an x-acto to give her a creepy look and I think she ended up looking like Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes. Custom Zombie Lightspeed dial here.

Now let’s take an shot look to get a better look at her squishy bits…

…yep, lots of spilled intestines. Now let’s spin her around…

Some delightful bloody handprints left behind as she “walks” to…to…aw, man. I think this is how Dr. Frankenstein must have  felt. I got bored, messed around with things I shouldn’t and BANG, now I’m a monster. Why did I build these things? I can’t even imagine what I’d need to see to “clean my palette,” to get these creepy images out of my head and continue this blog…

…wow. Teeny frog in a nurse cap is pretty cute and comes close to hitting my reset button, but no, I’m still far too creeped out to continue this write up. I’ll just end it early and—

…the hell? Combing a bat’s hair with a toothbrush? Pretty ridiculous, but no, I’m still too grossed out to continue with this week’s column. I doubt there’s a photo cute enough to undo all the evil in this—

BABY BUNNY IN A BONNET! WOO-HOO! All is right in the world! My brain is made of candy! Back to the column!

• Energizer/Katie Power •

Awww, who did the rambunctious Katie Power disembowel and snack on? Let’s take a closer look…

Why, it’s Kofi Whitemane, the benevolent alien who befriended the ‘Pack and became one of the family! He also tastes like chicken.

Reverse angle shows lil’ Katie is pulling out Kofi’s slippery bits by the handful. Such mischief…!

Ingredients: Energizer base body (Secret Invasion) with a heavy dose of the torn flesh/hanging guts modding detailed above. Kofi’s head and feet come courtesy of Moonstar’s horse (Fantastic Forces), the body is Booster Gold (HyperTime) and the hands come courtesy the snot snowman (what?) from Creepy Freaks. Kofi’s tunic is made from index cards three sheets thick (glued together with Elmer’s), then cut to shape and hardened with Krazy Glue. Acrylic paint and matte finish took this little abomination home. Custom Zombie Energizer dial here.

…and that’s it, I’m out of horrible undead babies. I was gonna end with something even worse than zombie Power Pack—a clip of the terrible Power Pack live-action TV pilot—but I couldn’t find any footage of it online. Just as well. This column was awful enough.

I hope Jimmy Olson picks now to use his signal watch.
So anyway. ZOMBIES! Supes, Bats, Wonder Woman, I done zombied up the Super Friends for Halloween. And man, if a zombie outbreak ever happens I’m dressing up as Batman. If I survive and rescue other humans, I would–for all intents and purposes–BE Batman in this brave new world. And if I die and become a zombie…? Almost as good, ’cause now I’m Bat-Zombie! A win/win scenario.
A’ight, lets get to the zombies…

Hard to peg down who would smell the worst out of this group. Wonder Woman? She is slinging around her lower intestine and who knows what kind of weird Greek food is sloshing around in there. Plastic Man? Decaying flesh + burned plastic sounds awful. My money’s on Aquaman and his “it’s not just the fish that are rotting” aroma. Good times.

• Zombie Batman •

My boyhood crush on Yvonne Craig made me feel kinda dirty when I was making Batgirl’s butchered corpse. Weird, right? On the other hand, I could make Robin roadkill all day long. Wheeeee, CHOP CHOP CHOP!

Zombie Batman (“Bat-Liche?”) isn’t a total dick. After killing and eating his junior partners (their legs were the best part!), Bats carries his now-undead sidekicks around when prowling Gotham for a snack. Then, when he spots something edible he just throws Zombie Batgirl & Robin at it and lets them get the first mouthful. Way to be a team player, Zombie Batman!

I’m guessing the Penguin–the plump, juicy Penguin–was the first Arkham inmate on the menu. I wanna see Jim Lee draw that:

A sweaty, panicked Penguin beating a limbless Zombie Robin with an umbrella. The Penguin would get the upper hand and then–in the moment just before victory–clutch his chest, fall forward and SPLAT!, right on the bitey Boy Wonder. Silence…then movement, the Penguin’s body shakes and SPLORCH, Zombie Robin pops out his back. Yay, he ate his way through…! He’s so resourceful.

Ingredients: Batman’s base body is a Dark Knight HeroClix figure (Collateral Damage) with a new left hand (Hercules/Infinity Challenge). I whittled out his lower face (everything below the cowl line) and replaced it with the misshapen, broken jaw of a Mage Knight Tomb Horror (Sinister). His dead sidekicks started out as standard HeroClix figures (Batgirl/Unleashed, Robin/Crisis), though Robin got a new head courtesy of a Mage Knight Gorgon (Pyramid). Custom Zombie Batman dial here.

Wounds & Rotting Flesh: I sketched out what I wanted each figure to look like and–when I wasn’t sure if it would translate well into a figure–I’d test it out on some scrap HeroClix. Once that was all sorted out the x-acto went to work, slicing off limbs and carving out bites. To create deep wounds, I used sculpting tools to drill into the figure. To give the exposed flesh a nice rotting look, I tore off tiny (like a quarter the size of a Chiclet) pieces of toilet paper and lined the inside and edges of every wound, holding them in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s. A small drop of Krazy Glue then hardened the mess (quickly absorb any excess glue with a small strip of paper towel). When that all dries, it’ll have a great ragged, raw look. That same trick can be used to make rips in costumes & capes. Acrylic paint then gored up the assorted boo-boos with shades of pink, purple and red, exposed skin got a wash of sickly green and costumes–depending on their color–got a wash of black or muddy brown. Protruding bones are just a small snip of plastic–a wrist, ankle or other small part of a random scrap figure.

• Zombie Superman •

“SuperCadaver, a strange cannibal from another planet with urges and appetites far beyond those of mortal men! SuperCadaver, who can chew the core of mighty rivals, rend skin with his bare hands and who, disguised as Corpse Kent, mild-mannered ghoul for a great metropolitan newspaper, eats a never-ending buffet of tooth, jaundice and the zombie way!”

Looks like Stargirl put up a pretty good fight before Superman crushed her into a meatball and mixed her with some Hamburger Helper. I bet it was chili cheese.

That big open wound looks better when the camera flash doesn’t illuminate the Man of Steel’s insides. “Better” is a subjective term.

I started putting small bits of translucent green plastic in his wounds–”kryptonite”–but with all the cuts, bruises, dirt and blood splatter, he was getting way too busy so I ditched ‘em. All that red and green made him look like a Christmas tree.

I put a nice big hole in the back of his head, but we’re gonna need to try this without the camera flash…

Ingredients: Superman’s base body is a HeroClix figure (Justice League) with a new noggin courtesy a Mage Knight Zombie Centaur (2.0). The big nasty staff he’s impaled on was lifted from a Stargirl HeroClix figure (Legacy). Actually putting the staff all the way through the figure would be kind of a hassle, so I cut it in two, bored the entrance and exit wounds into the figure and then glued each end of the staff in separately. Custom Zombie Superman dial here.

For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.

• Zombie Wonder Woman •

Oh look, Wonder Woman pulled out her large intestine and is gonna lasso lunch. I find it difficult making new friends.

To get the texture on Amazombie’s intestinal lasso (fun sentence!), I used the toilet paper trick outlined at the bottom of the Zombie Batman entry. “Tedious” sums up the experience.

Disembowel-Cam close-up!

Ingredients: The body from the waist-down came courtesy a Wonder Girl HeroClix (Crisis), as did the arms and magic lasso. The upper body & hair are from a Wonder Woman HeroClix (Cosmic Justice) and the skull face was lopped off a Mage Knight Stinging Skeleton (Pyramid). Minor costume detailing (boot stripes, tiara, etc.) are thin strips of index card paper cut to shape, held in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s and then hardened with a tiny drop of Krazy Glue. Custom Zombie Wonder Woman dial here.

For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.

• Zombie Flash •

This figure makes me laugh…I liked the idea of a super fast zombie that–since he had no arms–just runs around taking bites out of people. Look at this face:

HA, he looks like some kind of crazed zombie Pac-Man. I love it! I can picture a character in a comic facing the reader and talking, just a normal everyday scene, then a second panel–almost identical–but now there’s a bite in the character and they have a surprised look on their face. No one is safe from the fastest corpse alive!

Hey, check it out, Green Arrow got a shot in before Zombie Flash ate his face. I was actually gonna make a Zombie Green Arrow but didn’t get around to it in time for this Halloween blog post. The plan was for Ollie a quiver full of human arms (all with recognizable supehero sleeves & gloves), and he was gonna be notching an “arrow;” a Green Lantern arm with its glowing power ring at the tip. BONUS: he’d be a zombie with a Van Dyke. Win!

Ingredients: Base body is a Copperhead HeroClix (Origin) with a head lifted from a Mage Knight Marsh Zombie (Lancers). Arrows came courtesy Green Arrow (Crisis), random costume trimmings (belt, logo, yellow thingies on head) are bits of index card shaped and held in place by a pinprick of Elmer’s, then hardened by a small drip of Krazy Glue (blot the excess!). Custom Zombie Flash dial here.

For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.

• Zombie Hawkman •

I went back and forth on what Zombie Hawkman here was gonna look like. One idea had him–still just an upper torso–sprouting skeletal, featherless wings and walking around on his hands, but I felt it wouldn’t look enough like Hawkman. Plus it’s more fun to have some terrible bird zombie thing flying around and pecking at you from above. FUN FACT: Thanks to Zombie Hawkman’s open belly, instead of bird poop, bits of partially-chewed victim land on your windshield when he flies overhead. That’s, uh, that’s not to imply Hawkman sh*ts on people’s cars when he flies around the DCU. Or maybe he does, I haven’t read comics in awhile.

That little peg that plugs into the HeroClix base…? Yeah, I originally had it at the bottom of his pelvis, but, uh…yeah, that wasn’t a good look.

I tried sneaking small extra elements of the DCU into each figure and thought Robotman’s noggin worked pretty well for a replacement mace. Cliff Steele can’t catch a break…he’s in an accident that destroys almost everything that makes him human and then zombies show up.

“Sooo…what part of your body is still human, Robotman…?”

*HawkGhoul licks lips*

Ingredients: Base body is a Hawkman HeroClix (Origin) with a skeletal pelvis swiped from a Mage Knight Skeleton (Rebellion). Delicious, brain-filled Robotman head courtesy a Robotman HeroClix (Origin). Custom Zombie Hawkman dial here.

For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.

• Zombie Aquaman •

“Sometimes that Zombie Aquaman looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about Zombie Aquaman is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… and then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those zombies come in and… they rip you to pieces.”

The thinking behind this is to have AquaChum here flopping around like an actual fish out of water. Imagine him wriggling around the floor, squirming his way closer to you as his gnashes his teeth together. Fun! In related news, here’s a zombie fighting a shark…
Hey, check it out…Zombie Aquaman has summoned zombie fish to his aid! Stay gold, Zombie Aquaman.

Ingredients: Base body is a Piledriver HeroClix (Avengers) with a head donated by a Gambit HeroClix (Mutations & Monsters). The severed Black Manta head/sofa cushion is a HeroClix Black Manta (Hypertime). Costume trimmings (shirt scales, belt buckle, etc.) are small bits of index card cut to shape, held in place with a pinprick of Elmer’s and hardened by a drip of Krazy Glue. Fish skeletons made the same way. Custom Zombie Aquaman dial here.
For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.

• Zombie Plastic Man •

I’m not a big Plastic Man fan (though his appearances on the Batman: the Brave & the Bold cartoon are winning me over). That said, Zombie Plas here might be my favorite of the DCU zombies (“DCUZ?”).

Ooops, the pointy bones in the Plastic Cannibal’s hand poked through his flesh and his rubbery skin peeled back like a popped ballon. Yuck.

What I like is the juxtaposition of the goofy/silliness of the Plastic Man character with gruesome zombie elements. Batman, Hawkman, guys like that are already fairly intimidating, so adding monstrous elements to those characters isn’t that far of a stretch. Not so much with Plas…it’s like the clown from It. Take something cute & innocent, slap some evil fangs on it or whatever and BAMMO!, triple creepy!

Ingredients: Base body is a Plastic Man HeroClix (HyperTime) with the arms repositioned to make him a bit more “COMIN’ ATCHA!” I lopped off Plastic Man’s head, chopped it in two and discarded his smiling lower jaw. Taking its place: the lower jaw of a Mage Knight Tormented Soul (Whirlwind), giving Zombie Plas a nice, evil maw. The right hand of a Man-Thing HeroClix (Mutant Mayhem) gave Plas a meaty, menacing hook, but it was the left hand of a Mage Knight Skull Golem (2.0) that put him over the top. Well, actually, it was the left hand and an extra finger from that Mage Knight figure. Seems that Bone Golems only have four fingers on each hand, so I had to add swipe an extra finger for Plas. To get that horrible flap of loose skin on his left wrist I cut the basic shape of what I wanted out of index paper, made sure it fit, then added crumpled bits of toilet paper, attaching them with pinpricks of Elmer’s. When I was happy with the way it looked, BLAMMO!, small drip of Krazy Glue to harden it. The batarangs sticking out of his side are small bits of index card (three sheets thick) cut to shape and then hardened with that same Krazy Glue trick. Custom Zombie Plastic Man dial here.

For tips & tricks on zombified modding, see the “Wounds & Rotting Flesh” write up at the bottom of the Zombie Batman write-up.