Indy Mogul
Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Fake Fingernails
This week I thought I would do a really simply effect that's been requested a few times, and I thought I would do my cheap-o take on it. Fake fingernails that can be peeled or broken off without putting yourself through excruitiating torment, or costing you an arm and a leg (though those seem related..). All without spiritgum or liquid latex. Catch more on how I did it after the jump.
Firstly, instead of trying to mold your own out of acrylic, I would suggest going to the "pros" for this. I got this pack of assorted fake nails in the cosmetics aisle at my local supermakret for about 3-4 dollars. Not a major investment, and there are an entire assortment of sizes here, so there will definitely be one to fit your actor, and if you want to keep going there are more than enough nails here to cover at least 3-4 actors hands (probably even more with some creative editing).
I got some cheap "peach" colored acrylic paint, and dabbed it on my finger, giving it a rough stippled texture with my brush, then let it dry completely.
Then I added a dab of blood (you might want to do this right before you apply the nail, it depends on how wet you want it. Some fake blood dries out a little and can give it a more crusty/gummy look.
After picking the right nail the fits your finger (it's nice if it's a bit too big), get a nail clipper and a file and trim it to the length you need (since fake nails bias towards the long side), and file it a bit to smooth the shiny/smooth coat it has, so it doesn't look like your character just got a professional manicure on a single finger.
Now, put the fake nail over your finger, and put a piece of toliet paper over it, then coat the toliet paper with white glue to smooth it out. Now wait for it to dry.
Once it's dry, scratch off most of the toliet paper on the nail, and push the remaining to the edges to give the nail a "lip". Now it's just a matter of adding a little more paint and fake blood to get it just right...
Then you can peel it off gruesomely to your hearts content. Great for zombie make-up, crime scenes (if your character maybe got into a bad fight and had their nails busted off), or horror or war films (if a character gets their finger injured or gets tortured for instance).
Add some more fake blood (like in the first picture), and pull it off a little more and you can have a great "hanging fingernail" look for a zombie or ghoul hand. Good luck!
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