Plague Zombies

So, I’ve been insanely busy and done very, very little with Paperhammer or even just general Warhammer 40K stuff.  Those Ogryns were supposed to be done months ago, and I’d actually wanted to get back to basics and build a paperhammer tank.  To be honest, I really don’t even have time to post now, but I’m about to do some more shameless pandering and I figured I should at least make it worth your while...

My book, Ex-Patriots, was re-released by Broadway Books this week. Check it out.  Superheroes, zombies, mad scientists, super-soldiers... it’s got pretty much everything.  And a ton of people think it’s actually good.  You can even get it in audiobook form, which means you can listen to it while you’re building little toy soldiers and zombies.

Resident Evil 40,000

Hey, speaking of the shambling undead...

This is an easy little tip for zombies.  I use it for my plague zombies in 40K, but it would work fine for Fantasy zombies, too.  I started my plague zombie collection way back during the Eye of Terror campaign.  Under the current rules (with Typhus) I’ve got about four solid squads of them, plus one little group of zombie specialists who I just set loose as distractions.  To help keep them straight when they’re in big mobs, I have zombified Catachans, zombified Asgardian Rangers, the citizens of Hive Romero led by the Seven Dwarves of Nurgle, and the Tanith Last and Final.

The zombie Tanith are what sparked this post.  I think it’s safe to say one of the defining elements of the Tanith, visually, are their camo-cloaks.  Now, one of the standard zombies has a little bit of a shredded cape on his back, but it’s really short and doesn’t really sell the big, sweeping cloaks the First and Only are described as having.

So, here’s an easy way to expand them a bit.

Get any little bit of thin plastic.  I used some 1/4” strips I already had, but this would work with just about anything.  Cut up some blister packs, plastic signs, soda bottles, plastic jars... whatever.

However you get it, cut some pieces that are about 1/4” by 3/4” long.  The length doesn’t have to be exact, and as you go along you may try some different lengths for variety.  Once you have your pieces, cut them diagonally, corner to corner.

Take these long, thin triangles and cut up the short end.  You’re trying to make them look a bit frayed.  I usually make three or four length-wise swipes with my knife, then maybe hit it from the end to make the gouges stand out.

There are two ways to glue them on.  The simplest way is just glue them to each side.  The thin end goes at the top, and I try to place them so they seem to flow naturally off the shoulders.

Apologies, by the way, for all the glare from the white plastic.  It's rough with my setup to get a good balance between the white and the light gray.

For variety, on some of them I glue one of the triangles in from the edge a bit.  This makes them look like big wrinkles or folds in the material.  When I do this, I sand the thin end down a bit so it flows up into the top of the cloak better.

And that’s it.  Bigger zombie cloaks just like that.  A green base with a few colors on top of it and I’ve got a really distinct group of the undead.

I'm going to be at a couple of horror conventions over the next few weekends, but starting next month, I swear... the Ogryns get some ripper guns, some urban scenery, and a way to make very cheap and distinctive Stormtroopers.