Bloody mutilated torso

Like the last three years, I will be part of the haunt at the local zoo. Our theme for this year will be a film museum, and one of the featured movies will be Hellraiser! One of my friends has a Pinhead costume, and I'm gonna build a bleeding, mutilated torso.

I had been searching for a mannequin doll for a long time, only to find out these thing, even used ones, are expensive as hell. A while ago, I found a torso for only 4 euros at a thrift store! Since a torso was all I needed, I didn't have to think twice about this!

Materials 

• Mannequin doll torso
• PU foam
• Polyester putty
• Acrylic caulk
• Plastic primer
• Paint

Cutting and slicing

I started neck, shoulders and stomach using a Dremel. A messy job, creating lots and lots of dust. The torso is made of fibreglass, making it quite hard to cut. It took me an hour and a half and three cutting wheels to get the job done. I also put a thin PVC tube through it, emerging at the neck. My original intention was pumping fake blood up through the neck, but lack of time prevented this. 

I filled the empty shell with some PU foam and let it expand away. After the foam had completely cured, I carved a large cavity in it using a Dremel and a sanding bit. Next, I used polyester filler to create a jagged, torn edge to the wound. It took me a few passes, with lots and lots of sanding in between, to get a decent result. I could only mix up small batches of polyester at a time, because it has a working time of only ten minutes. The outside, where the polyester meets the skin, required a lot of sanding. The inside wasn't sanded at all, the irregular, rough appearance is exactly what I needed.

 

Next, I coated the entire inside with a 50/50 mixture of cheap white house paint and acrylic caulk. I added a bit of red paint so I could see when it was thoroughly mixed. The mixture is a very thick paste that covers the foam and the polyester, so you don't see any more seams, and it also hides the spongy foam texture.

It took a couple of days to dry completely. I used a paintbrush that was already more or less ruined. Don't use a new brush for this because you'll probably have to throw it away afterwards anyway!

Painting
I started by priming the entire torso, including the wounds, using a plastic primer. I had two cans that were almost empty, so the front was primed in gray and the back in white. No problem, it will be painted over anyway. For the basic flesh tone, I used raw sienna, and for the wounds I used carmine. It looks very pink on the picture, but that's because of the horrible light in my garage.

The wounds looked too brightly red, so I made a 50/50 mixture of carmine and burnt umber, diluted this a bit and splashed it on the wounds. When dry, it looks a lot like dried blood, with the bright red showing through in some places.
The skin was still a boring, flat shade, so I mixed a bit of pink and burnt umber and thinly applied it with a sponge to create darker spots. For the bruises, a mixture of gray and blue was used. I used some pictures of real bruises as a reference, wich helped greatly. A real bruise has a brownish outline, with a gray-blue center.

Almost finished! I added lots and lots of blood. I took some carmine paint and darkened it with burnt umber (I guess about a 3/1 ratio), and thinned it to a creamy consistency, thin enough so it would slowly drip down. After putting some black PVC tape on the breast (this was recommended by someone on a forum, since she doesn't have nipples), I started putting drops of paint on all the wounds and let gravity do its job.

Aaaand, here's the result! It looks quite gruesome. On Halloween, I will attach some hooks and chains in the wounds, and wrap some fake barbed wire around it. 

Posted in: Halloween