Encapsulated silicone wound prosthetics

Some pics of the encapsulated silicone prosthetic wounds that I've recently made with edges that can be blended off:

Large cuts:



Bullet wounds:



Small cuts:

Making a mould for 3D transfers: take 2

Today I made a new mould for 3D transfers. This came about after talking with Brian Sipe at IMATS and getting some useful tips from him. I has also recently tried making some encapsulated silicone prosthetics using our existing 3D transfer moulds and while some of the sculpts and moulds we have are pretty good, it is noticeable that our earlier moulds have a few technical issues. Another reason for this blog post is because my earlier post on making a mould for 3D transfers (found here) makes me cringe a little.

To begin with sculpt the 3D transfers onto either sheet styrene or foamcard (the longer route for this is to float off the sculpts from a positive of the model who they will be applied to later then rework them on a flat surface). The ones shown here are a series of bullet wounds to be applied to the body and a cut to be applied to the side of the lips on the face.



After taking my time sculpting these as neatly and with as fine an edge as possible, I build a simple box mould using foamcard, pins and duct tape (alternatively this mould can be made out of High Impact Polystyrene Sheets or HIPS and glue). Make sure your walls are high enough for the level of silicone you are going to pour into this to make your 3D transfer mould. I'm comfortable with using foamcard, pins and duct tape for this purpose and they are very easy to work with, but I'm also planning on using HIPS for this purpose for future moulds as it looks faster.



After the box mould is stuck together it is worth double checking any areas that might leak. This time I used a condensation (Tin) based silicone to make the mould for the transfers. Previously I had used a platinum silicone to make the mould from, which does give other options in terms of either doing prosaide transfers OR encapsulated platinum silicone pieces. Brian Sipe reckons that using tin silicone for the mould gives a bit harder mould that works better for 3D transfers. Remember to always mix your silicone thoroughly!




After the silicone has set, pull apart your box mould walls and you should have flat silicone mould for 3D transfers.



I am also planning on buying some better quality tattoo transfer paper and having another go at doing some more 3D transfers as well as experimenting with encapsulated silicone pieces for the same purposes. (See an earlier attempt at applying 3D transfers here.)

Catastrophy at Coffs

Making a mould for a 3D wound transfer

EDIT: to see a more recent post for a better made 3D transfer mould click here.

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In September I began work on a number of different projects, one of which was making a mould for a 3D wound transfer. Typically the wounds are sculpted in oil based clay onto a face cast of the actor who is going to wear them then floated off in a water bath before being put on a flat surface. I decided I wanted to make a small universal wound mould of a cut that could be applied almost anywhere. So I sculpted the wound straight onto a piece of plasticard (sheet styrene - although foamboard or even hard cardboard would work).



The sculpt was a simple slightly raised jagged cut made out of medium grade sulfur free oil based clay. I made the cut with an old hobby knife. I added some texture to the skin for pores with a metal skewer (a toothpick would suffice). Then I made a raised mould wall around the wound to act as an edge and stop the silicone when pouring the mould. I then poured silicone into the mould to form a negative impression of the wound I had sculpted. I used Pinkysil to do this, which is a skin safe silicone, but you could potentially use a tin based silicone for wound transfers if you are not going to also use it to cast platinum silicone prosthetics. My intention was to use it to make 3D transfers using bondo.



I then waited for an hour and pulled the silicone mould off my sculpt, which looked like this:



I then decided to immediately try and cast something off my newly made mould. So I filled it with slush latex and made an appliance. (As bondo also contains latex this use is not an issue.) Then I waited for the latex to dry. This resulted in a delicate appliance that could be stuck on with Pros-Aide then sealed with castor sealer and coloured up:

Stitched lip

Yesterday I created a stitched lip effect. The final effect looked like this:



There were three relatively simple (if not fiddly) steps to create this effect.

Step one - create cut

The first step was to create a realistic looking cut on the lip using the trusty bruise wheel alcohol / water based makeup. I drew on a darker reddish brown line in the centre and then lighter red on either side. This created an effective looking scar that I was quite pleased with as an effect in and of itself. Step one looked like this on me:



Step two - latex work

The next thing I wanted to do was to enhance the 3 dimensionality of the cut. To do this I used a little liquid latex on either side of the cut line, which I applied using a toothpick and did very light layers. I then dried this with a hair dryer and powdered with setting powder. Step two completed, I then got Alana to take another photo:



Step three - the stitches

The final step was to create some stitches. Using some very sharp scissors I cut up very short pieces of black thread. I then applied spirit gum over the area where the stitches were going to be. Then using a pair of tweezers I stuck the very small pieces of thread criss-cross down the cut. The final effect looked like this:



I think I could do some more research and get the stitches looking a bit better again. I could also apply some yellow around the area to make it look like some iodine has been used to clean the wound. However overall I'm quite pleased with this effect. Hope you enjoyed it!

Gashed cheeks

After our first attempt at making up a prosthetic arm wound I decided to try something a little more delicate - a face wound. This time Alana was my guinea pig. The whole effect took over two hours to achieve, probably because this was my first ever attempt at working with latex and makeup!

First I carefully cut out two oval shapes from two sheets of single ply toilet paper and checked their size on Alana's cheeks. They needed to be cut down and made smaller to fit. Then I created a flap of skin on one by dabbing water on the toilet paper and pushing my finger through. For the other cheek I made a gash using scissors. It could take several goes to get two pieces that you are happy with. Luckily both pieces worked out nicely on my first attempt. I then applied latex on Alana's face and stuck on my ovals. Using a hair dryer on cold I sped up the curing process. Then I gently applied more liquid latex to the toilet paper which acted as a base for the latex to adhere to. Again this had to dry before I applied a coat of Mehron castor sealer. This is what the first stage looked like:



After the sealer had taken effect I gently blotted off the excess. Then I applied Revlon liquid foundation over the top.

Tip: if you have not sealed your latex properly liquid mineral makeup will eat into it!

This gave the prosthetic a skin tone. Notes for the future: if I had to do this effect again I would have used foundation to cover the face to lessen the difference between the prosthetic and real skin. This would have taken more time. I'd also like to point out that this was my first ever attempt at using makeup too. And it looked like this:



Taking out our trusty bruise wheel I then applied some red makeup to the area under the fake latex skin. To do this I used a size 0 sable paint brush as I thought that size would give me a degree of control when colouring the surface. After doing this I used some setting powder. It turned out like this:



You may have noticed that the edges of the fake skin shriveled up a bit, while I don't mind this in some ways, I think this is far from what real skin is like. I think I will have to do some research into other materials to use as a basis for skin. Overall for a first attempt I think this works well enough for a camera range of a two or more metres (yards). After this I applied some Mehron coagulated blood gel, which made it look like this:



Blood helped improve the effect a lot. Watering down the blood gel a little gave it a bit of run which looked more realistic. The blood smears also somewhat disguise the join between the prosthetic and real skin. Again, makeup applied to the entire face would blend the tone between the prosthetic and the real skin underneath more. This would take longer again to get right, probably three hours total, but with practice I suspect I could get the whole thing down to 2 hours. I also noticed a little white under one prosthetic, which could be setting powder or perhaps the toilet paper base. This could be easily fixed with makeup. Criticisms aside, here is the final shot:



Alana was feeling tired by this stage, so she removed the prosthetics shortly after this shot was taken. As Alana has very fine white hairs on her cheeks they were a tad painful to remove as some of the hairs got ripped out.

Next up Alana will write about the zombie makeup effect practice we did on my brother in preparation for a zombie shuffle. Then I'll write about making realistic fake blood and 'pre-made' scabs.

Merely a flesh wound

This was our first foray into creating a wound out of latex. We obtained some instructions via the Instructables website and ordered some products required - liquid latex, setting powder, bruise colour wheel & fake blood and then we were ready to go.

Firstly Ed shaved the inside of his arm as latex has a tendency to stick to any hair and makes removal of the prosthetic difficult and painful. Wash and dry the area to be covered carefully then apply a thin layer of liquid latex over a slightly larger area than the wound is going to be. Wait for latex to dry or speed up the process using the cold setting on a hair dryer. You will know when the latex is dry as it will go from being opaque to clear (around 15 - 20 minutes).




Roll up some 1 ply toilet paper (preferably without colour or print on it) to shape the outsides of the wound. Apply a small amount of latex to adhere the toilet paper to the latex already on the arm then coat all of the toilet paper with a thin layer of latex blending the outside edges into the arm but keeping the inside edge of the wound blunt. Wait for latex to dry. Apply some setting powder to the wound to provide a barrier between the latex and make up to come. Mineral make up will react with the latex and spoil your wound effect. Apply some foundation make up to blend the latex in with the skin around it.



Next apply some reddish colour from the bruise colour wheel to the inside of the wound to give the appearance of an open wound. I used a lighter red colour all over then used a darker burgandy colour around the edges to give the appearance of depth to the wound. Once you are happy with the colour apply more setting powder to set the colour. The powder will soften the colours used but you can remove excess powder with a damp sponge which will bring some of the colour back again. You may like to add some more colour to increase the intensity if you like.



Then it was time for some blood. The blood we had was fake coagulated blood so it was a bit thick for this wound. We diluted it with some water before application. It's a bit tricky to know how much blood to put on and where to put it. I'm not very happy with my first attempt. Ed added some more which you can see in the final photo which I think works better. When using fake blood I think it's important to consider how it would naturally flow from a wound considering the movement of the arm and the force of gravity upon it.



Here's Ed contemplating the final result. He appears to be thinking 'Oh dear, I appear to have cut myself'. You can tell when the wound starts looking real when you start to feel squimish looking at it, usually this occurs when the blood is added.




When you are finished with the wound you can keep it for another occasion. Wash off the excess blood and blot dry with some paper towel. Carefully pull the latex off the skin being careful not to tear it (or rip out too many hairs!). Make sure the prosthetic is completely dry before storing in a snap lock bag.

All in all not a bad first experiment into latex wound making.