Thought I’d throw some pictures up of some of the sizing, straps, and mounting solutions that I tried and why it did or did not work.
Forearms
I reduced the sizing on these by 10% from my height of 69”. My first big problem was being unable to fit my hands through the holes. Using a Dremel and sanding wheel I trimmed down the wrist hole small bits at a time until I was able to squeeze my hands through
The arrows in the picture above show the widest points where most of the trimming was done. If I remember correctly I took off about ½” max and that was all I needed to get my hands through. The foam keeps it centered on my wrists.
The picture above shows my hasty foam padding placement. I used 1” chair foam and the forearm was quite snug. However, it did have a tendency to slowly slide towards my hands after the first mile of the walk I participated in. I haven’t figured out a good way to prevent that yet.
Buckles
For many of the pieces I tried a center-release buckle thinking it would be easier to disconnect with one finger versus trying to stuff my hand in there and squeeze two sides. On one hand they were easier to disconnect but on the other they weren’t strong enough and often slipped apart.
I found these at JoAnn fabric store and Hobby Lobby though I’m not sure I’d use them again.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=prd38016
Chest
My first mistake was where I separated the chest pieces. I didn’t take into account how I’d manage the strapping nor how much the pieces would shift when I did install it.
This is the top of the chest. In hindsight I wished I had made the cut along the flat area just above where the arrows are pointing.
This is the cut along one of the side pieces. It actually turned out nicely and the pieces fit together nicely up until some warping from storage. Notice the velcro…I found it was much simpler to use a couple short pieces of adhesive-backed velcro to secure the halves than messing with the traditional parachute clips that I had on the inside. I’ll likely use just buckles on these parts and rondo them in as I did for the boots.
For connecting the chest pieces I started off with some 1” nylon webbing, parachute buckles, and hot glue. After about half an hour everything fell apart not to mention the nylon stretched and twisted so much that it constantly needed adjusting.
To remedy the stretching of the nylon webbing I tried a 2” piece of vinyl upholstery that was doubled over and sewn together to give me a solid 1” strap to permanently attach the buckle too. With the chest piece held tightly together where I wanted I hot-glued each strap and buckle half to the chest and back since I didn’t expect major gut extensions any time soon. I then rondo’d the straps in place. I also decided on throwing in that velcro strap as a backup in case those flimsy buckles failed though I never ran into any problems throughout the 2 mile walk.
This is the top left of the back piece with the vinyl, velcro, rondo and receiving end of the clip. Notice the protuding area which made the whole joining process difficult. You can also see the remains of the nylon strapping that I tried with machine screws to secure it. There was simply too much play and I had to get a quick solution for the Zombie Walk which was the following day. I forgot an arrow and text box but there is some ½” black weather stripping on the right side of that piece that worked great as padding. The chest left some funny bruises before I thought to add it.
Belt
I thought I was being pretty clever with my cod piece and belt but I couldn’t find a quick solution to the side pieces and I discovered some major sag once I hooked up the thighs to the belt for support.
Not more than 25 feet away from the start of the walk and I’m already trying to pull things back up. Also, notice how much the belt pulls downward from the front piece.
Since I had just 1 day left to figure out how to mount all the pieces I went with something easy and quick that I call plumber’s strap. It’s basically ¾” galvanized steel that comes in a 10+ foot roll with holes punched in it. I simply bolted 2 pieces each on the front and back of the cod piece and ran a 3” tool belt through it that I found at a hardware store. It served it’s purpose but and left me with some goofy sagging once the thigh pieces were connected. I might try steel belt clips in the future which would let me adjust the belt easier and properly attach the suspenders.
Thighs
These were fairly simple although in my last week or two I noticed that the scaling I chose didn’t match well with the shins. Additionally, the weight of the resin kept warping the pep’d pieces even with the supports. I ended up going with some slightly warped thighs on the assumption that zombies could care less about perfect symmetry.
I did the foam and rondo’d the straps an hour before I left for the Zombie Walk and didn’t notice I threaded the buckles backwards until it was too late (simple fix). I didn’t have time to cut out and install the black foamy pieces for the inner portion of the thigh but I’m working on those now. The double straps kept each thigh relatively stable and centered and I don’t see any reason to change it.
Shins
The shins were somewhat of a nightmare. I decided to make a fairly simple cut from top to bottom to split the shins in half. If I were to remake them I would cut them further down at the ridge that is notorious for making it difficult to put on for some folks.
Notice lots of hot glue and velcro. I was anticipating that these pieces wouldn’t hold together very well so I ended up using what velcro I had as tape since I was working on these nearly right up until I threw them in the car and went to the walk.
These came apart almost immediately after my first few steps and ended up being taped together. Those center-release clips are great for guiding pieces together where you want them but are terrible and staying fastened. I may rondo in the clips as I did the boots and try to hide short velcro straps inside where I can reach them.
Boots
These were a bigger nightmare than the shins and I ended up leaving the tubing to my dad since I was so pressed for time (we’re talking an hour or two before the zombie walk started). They were also the only parts that actually fell apart at some point on the walk. The boots are military jungle boots that I picked up for $30 at a local army surplus store. Funny story: I put these on the wrong feet and didn’t notice until pieces started falling off after several miles. For that connecting tubing I used flexible drain spout extenders that I picked up at Menards for about $6.
Those screws seemed to be the weak link. Note that they are indeed backwards because my dad was having a tough time securing them from the back. The vibration from walking loosened the nuts and the toes came off. Fortunately, I didn’t start losing the toe pieces until the walk was over.
The view isn’t the greatest but here is where I placed the male end of the buckles for the part of the boot that covers the laces. Again these worked great as guides but didn’t hold without some quick tape on the outsides.
I used 1” nylon elastic webbing to hold the front and back boot pieces to the army boots. I also rondo’d these in place. My biggest complaing from the boots was the noise. It sounded like a sick pony galloping on the sidewalk. I tried some weather stripping again to deaden the noise but they tore off easily.
