Help with my feet!

depending on how crafty you are you can use paraffin wax to mold your actual feet, then cast them in either latex and foam (both easily available from online stores). I used this method to make hands for me werewolf prop and it worked out well. the only issue is getting it OFF your hand / foot. The ankle will be the issue, but I have ruminated about tying a piece of dental floss to a finger (in your case toe) and using it to create a relief cut to get my hand out.

other then that, take a look at TERRA's you tube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7mMHOFOggo. she takes some rather generic looking props and dresses them up to make them look a bit better.

The quality on this foot:
http://www.amazon.com/Severed-Foot-Halloween-Prop-Size/dp/B00NT6OPBC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1433569971&sr=8-10&keywords=halloween+severed+feet

looks decent, but at $10 US it seems a bit steep.

Making your own may be your best bet. I just alternate warmed (not blazing hot) paraffin and cold water to build up a decently thick layer on my hand. Once I think the layer is thick enough I will leave the wax in the cold water for a bit to set it. Then wiggle my fingers slightly to break them free and slide my hand out.

The dental floss as I mentioned before may be a decent option for casting up further than the heel...just run it up the top of your foot, cast it as I mentioned before, and then pull the dental floss to cut the wax along the top to allow for your foot to come out. Tape (or wax) the cut shut after reforming the wax and then you have a mold for a foot. Not sure if you can make multiple castings from this as I have only ever made one from each wax cast.

Sorry if this provided more confusion than help, sometimes I ramble on a bit. Another resource you could check out is "stiltbeast studios" on youtube. Alan has GREAT tutorials on all kinds of props and as a picture is worth 1000 words, his videos would then be immeasurably more valuable than my ramblings.

good luck with your project and keep us up to date with your progress!!

-dK

Welcome englishhaunter from a fellow UK haunter! It's nice to see more of us from the UK joining. It's a great forum with loads of really talented people, and I have had some great ideas and help given. Your foot problem...I had a similar thing when I was doing Haunted Hospital a few years ago, and I just got five pairs of those legs you can get in the pound shop and I covered them in a simple flour and water mix to give a bit of texture, let them dry and then sponged on a kind of white, grey, yellow colour and and abit of blood here and there depending on how old you want them to look went over the lines on the hand with a fine marker pen, then put a luggage tag on the toe. I actually used the same method with a couple of hands hanging over also. I used an old black shelving unit that we had, five tier, painted it an old silver colour, and I had one body laid on each shelf, just put pillows under in different shapes and old dirty sheet over each of them. It actually looked really good with the feet and an odd arm hanging over also. I've put a picture of the hand before painting, and a picture of the type of effect afterwards, it would give you an idea of how they could look. I will try and find the pictures from the party, it was few years ago but I will have them somewhere.

Thanks for the compliment! You have set me a challenge now ryanlamprecht, as I made these about three years ago when I did Haunted Hospital and been using them for different props each year since. I have had to raid my very large craft box and go through my mountain of scribbled notes, as if I find some paint effect or craft that works it gets scribbled down so I know if I need it again, but they are by no means in any sort of order!. I used the same effect on skulls, masks, bones all kinds of things the main thing is you have to have patience with this one, so here goes:

1.Firstly give the plastic hand/arm whatever you are painting a good wash with water. I find it easier if you do all the arms, hands, legs whatever you are painting all at the same time. That way, as you are doing each layer of paint, by the time you get to the last one, the first one has already dried as you are using such small amounts of paints, then you are ready to start the nest one.
2.Then make up a mix of flour and water to the consistency of a very thick wallpaper paste (that won't run off) and apply it to all the areas that you want to raise the skin, such as ends of fingers, wound areas (eg the wound running down little finger, graze on palm near thumb,fingertips) or veins. I have tried using latex etc for this, but had difficulty getting it to stick and to paint over.
3.As it starts to set groove out any parts that you want to look like a deep wound, I just use the end of a knife for this, then let this completely set hard
4.Then using a sponge (make-up sponges are the best as they are soft) start by dappling on a base of white acrylic paint using a very small amount to give a light covering but enough to get rid of the orange plastic colour (I use Crawford & Black and Crafters Choice Acrylic Paints but don't know if this available in US) let this dry
5.Then start to build up your layers of colour, again using the sponge and a very small amount of paint begin with a warm grey applying it to the wrist, towards the end of the fingers and lightly across the palm, leaving some of the white showing through, allow to dry
6. Using a sponge again, I then use a yellow ochre and fawn to add that kind of skin effect that you see on the palm and fingers, you can apply this as light or dark as you want, allow to dry
7. I then go onto a paint called Red Wine it gives a more kind of congealed look to the blood, dappling with sponge across the palm and fingers or where you want, I then use a brush to add a thicker amount to the wound parts or where you want the blood to look a deeper shade, allow to dry
8. Next to the black, use a really, really small amount of this on the sponge and dabble where you want to get that kind of dirty look (eg on the last two fingers and down the wrist) allow to dry
9. Finally using a Sharpie permanent black fine liner just go over any areas you want to emphasize (eg the creases of the skin on the joins in the fingers or nail edges)
10. If you wanted the blood to look more fresh, I have put some drops of fake blood on the wounds on the night, just depends how old you want it to look

The main thing with this is to use each layer of paint sparingly, as the plastic hands already have the skin creases, veins, nail edges etc on them you don't want the paint to be that thick that you loose them. It really is just a case of building up the paint layers until you get the look you want. If you want more skin tones use more yellow ochre, if you want them more de-composed looking you could bring in some green and blue shades. I hope this makes sense, and you will have a go with them. I got the hands and legs in the Pound Store so really were a cheap way of creating this look, they have been used in our Thriller Re-Make, on some sea battered Pirates last year and will be going in the Creepy Carnival this year