This is the first zombie geocache that I made. This one is only a half body because, when placed, I wanted it to look like it was coming out of the ground. The zombie has a removable brain which contains the log book.

Materials:

PVC pipe
PVC cement
Epoxy
Expanding foam
Pool noodles (2 sizes)
Wood offcuts
2 x metal brackets
Wire
Tape
1 x glove
Bandages
Cheap plastic skull
Plastic bone
Plastic eyes
Small hoodie
Various paint
Yogurt-to-go sistema container (pink)
Small tupperware food container

Step 1: Building the Main Frame

I am writing this instructable well after the fact so I don't have pictures for all the steps I took.

To start I gathered some scrap wood and made a rectangular box. On the top I added and less narrow single strip of wood. This was to serve as the base of the geocache. On top of the base I added a T-shaped PVC pipe. This was made from one T join and three pieces of PVC pipe, two longer ones as the shoulders, and one short one as the neck. The pipe is held in place with two metal brackets.

I then built up the shoulders by adding a pool noodle around the PVC pipe. I cut back one side of the noodle so it would fit on the pipe snug. I then added a couple of joins to the end of the pipe to add the arms. I then came up with the basic position of the arms I wanted to get an idea for end product. I chose to make one arm severed as this would mean I would only need to make one hand!

I then placed more cut pool noodle around the arms to give them shape. I used thicker pool noodle for the upper arms for a more realistic shape. I found that pool noodle was a really easy to use medium for this project and have used it in many other projects. Its important to buy the kind that have the hole through the middle so you can put the PVC pipe through it. Pool noodles cost about $3 each. I used one skinny and one thick for this project.

I then wanted to get an idea for the head so I bought a $2 Halloween carry bucket for collecting candy. I removed the handle and drilled a hole in the bottom the same size as the PVC pipe so I could keep the skull in place by placing it over the pipe. I cut another piece of pool noodle as the neck.

Finally to get a good look at what I was going to make I bought a small hoodie for $10 and dressed him in it. Already it was looking kind of cool.

(yes.. as you can see.. for this project my workstation was.. an old washing machine)

Step 2: Making the Head

Making the head was fairly simple.

First I wrapped the skull in bandage for skin. I then sprayed the head with spray-on rubber. I put tape over the eyes and mouth as I didn't want the bandage to stick there.

Then I spray painted the whole head red with a bit of detailing with black spray paint. I then cut out the eyes and mouth and gave it a second spray with rubber.

When the rubber was dry I painted the teeth with some black and white paint to give them more character. I also added some more red (not spray) paint.

Last I added the eyes. To do this I had two rubber balls decorated like eyes that I bought at a cheapie store. I cut the backs off to give the back a straight edge so I could epoxy them to the eye sockets.

I then sprayed the hole head with gloss spray.

Step 3: Making the Hand and Stump

The hand was probably the most tedious part of this project and there are probably easier ways of making one.

First, using my own hand as a guide I made a hand shape with wire. I then wrapped the wire with tape. Next I placed a glove over the hand and placed it over a PVC pipe. I then wrapped the glove in more bandage and sprayed it with rubber. When it was dry I spray painted it red. I then took more bandage and wrapped the bottom of the glove around the PVC pipe to hold it in place and spray painted it again, with rubber.

For the stump, this was a matter of getting two different thicknesses of pool noodle and using a scalpel to shape it. I glued the two pieces together with PVC cement. I then spray painted the stump with red and black and dripped red paint on it. To finish it off I bought a plastic bone online for $2. I cut it in half and pushed one half through into the top the stump. I used PVC cement to hold it in place. This left enough room for me to put a PVC pipe through the other end so I could attached the stump to the body.

Step 4: Finishing the Body and Arms

First I painted the neck, much the same way I painted the stump.

Then I used expanding foam to give the body more shape. I sprayed on the foam and then used a scalpel to shape it. I spray painted the foam before it properly dried and it went funny so I had to add more as you can see in the picture.

I then added the arms. I attached the arms to the joins. The full arm was made from two pieces of PVC connected with a right angle join. I added body to the full arm with more pool noodle which I shaped with the scalpel.

When the arms were glued in place, I added more foam to shape the shoulders and the wrist. I then wrapped the body in tape for added stability. As I did not need all the hoodie, I cut the bottom half off it. This I then wrapped around the elbow of the arm and wrapped it in tape. I was now able to dress the zombie in the hoodie.

I added a dribble of expanding foam and painted it red to the end of the stump's bone for added gore.

Step 5: Attaching the Head and Adding the Brain

Last step was to fix the head to the body. I got the idea to make it with a removeable brain since the head had a hole in the top which I had bandaged over.

I cut the bandage away from the opening. This also gave me access to the inside of the head. I placed the head over the PVC pipe adding some PVC glue to the bottom of the head to glue it to the neck. Then I filled the head with more expanding foam to make it sterdy. I made sure to spray foam down the pipe.

When the foam was dry I cut away enough so I could place a small round tupperware container in the hole. I then fixed it in place with epoxy and spray painted the inside of the container with red spray paint.

For the brain I used a pink Yogurt-to-go sistema container. This fit the opening perfectly. To give it a brain look, I drew a brain pattern on the lid of the sistema.

This is were I placed the log book.

Step 6: Placing the Geocahce

Now the geocache was ready to be placed.

I found my intended hiding spot and placed the cache. I then built up rocks around it to keep it in place and to make it look like the zombie was coming out of the ground. For added effect I added a small grave stone and decorated it with a fake spider web.

The geocache is there waiting to be found.