Basic Materials

Please keep in mind that I was doing this stuff away back in 1962 and so we didn't have a lot of the plastics and chemicals which are available today. We managed to do a very credible job even so. Our makeup was good enough to gross out apprentice EMTs at simulated accident scenes. We called it casualty simulation and it was used for first-aid training and demonstrations.

There were four core materials that we used for nearly everything:

1. Greasepaint
2. Plasticine
3. Saran wrap
4. Vaseline

Fake blood can be purchased, but it's easy enough to mix your own with corn syrup and red dye. This is so basic that I didn't bother with it in the materials list.

Grease Paint

Sticks of this stuff were used in almost all our effects. They probably have better materials nowadays . I've heard of manequin paint in spray cans being used to color large areas of skin. Back then it was all grease paint and we had to learn to blend it to different hues and then feather the applications out to match the background color of the actual skin.

The best thing about grease paint is that it sticks to almost any sub-strate and it can be removed fairly easily with cold cream.

You don't want to do really large areas with grease paint, though. For pallor due to shock use a cheap face powder and pile it on. That's much more effective than paint and its cheaper.

Plasticine

This is the actual base that you can sculpt to create gashes, punctures and sores. Find a color that comes close to matching the skin tone of the area of the body it is being applied to. Once you have a color match, start kneading the plasticine. When it is properly warmed up it sticks well to clean skin and it can be feathered out till its paper thin. Grease paint sticks to it and that gives you your final color match. The amount you will actually need to use depends on the depth of the wound you are simulating. Carve the wound with whatever strikes your fancy. We used cuticle sticks a lot because the were common and cheap. The best thing we found for gross shaping and feathering the edges of the plasticine was a small metal spatula from a dissecting kit.

Keep in mind that big gobs of plasticine can be heavy and might tear loose under their own weight. Its often possible to use a hollow plastic or thin metal cup to provide the basic shape you want and then just use the plasticine to provide the final surface. This saves weight. Nowadays you might use carved chunks of styrofoam to get the basic shape, but it hadn't been invented in 1960.

You can carve some truly horrific wounds into plasticine, and you can stick all kinds of foreign objects into the wound for extra effect. Broken bits of bone can be inserted to achieve really cool compound fractures. Metal shards and pieces of glass can be used to good effect. And don't forget to color the inside of the wound you carve out. This is key to making it truly convincing. You can also conceal a thin plastic tube in the plasticine that leads ot a reservoir of fake blood and a hand pump. Presto, arterial spray!

Saran Wrap and Vaseline

These two things kind of go together. When combined they can simulate truly gruesome burn blisters , pox pustules etc. The vaseline provides the goo inside and the saran wrap makes the skin. You have to form the vaseline into the correct shape inside the wrap and leave a fairly wide flap all around. Apply to the site and then seal it down with plasticine. Color it with grease paint. Done properly it can be real enough to cost you your lunch.

Summing Up

As I said, these techniques date from the 1960s. A lot has changed since then. However, a lot of these changes are expensive to take advantage of and aren't really necessary. We managed to produce simulated injuries that impressed doctors and experienced first-aid attendants using nothing but these simple ploys. If you are doing these effects for a play, where you have to do the same thing night after night, it may pay to go with modern latex castings and prostheses, but for a simple one-off use you can't beat the old standbys.

The main thing that is needed is knowing what you are simulating. Pore over medical books and get an idea of what this stuff really looks like, then you can simulate it with artistry.