Teaching First Aid can be difficult, it is a very important and serious subject but somehow, placing crisp white bandages onto an imaginary injury just does not conjour up the image of a real accident.
Over the years, the Troop has come up with a number of ways of doing casualty simulation on a shoestring.

For the Kit you will need the following:- A cheap watercolour pallette (cheap and nasty toy one will do) Vaseline Tissues - plain white and thin Fake skin (see instructions below) Butterknife Double-sided fabric plaster (most chemists will sell the stuff in rolls) Skin toned foundation powder Fake Blood (see below) Stuff to stick into wounds (nails, wood etc.) Bones of various sizes (chicken and Sunday joints are the simplest source) Scissors
BURNS Burns are great fun to play with. Not only do they look realistic but the blister will burst if handled too roughly. Firstly redden the area using a damp fingertip and red watercolour Apply a dollop (technical term here) of Vaseline to the area and shape it into a blister shape. Place a piece of tissue over the vaseline and very carfully rub it until the vaseline soaks in and turns the tissue transparent. Very carefully, tear away the excess tissue and smooth the ragged edges into the vaseline. Tips Play around with the red paint before adding the vaseline to produce a really nasty burn. Don't add too much vaseline, most blisters don't stick up like half a ping-pong ball

	Wounds This is what the Scouts really love, blood and guts!
How To Make A Nasty Wound Cut a piece of double-sided fabric plaster to the approximate size and shape of the wound and stick it down to the arm or leg or whatever. Using small pieces of flesh, build up flesh on the bandage Carefully blend the flesh with the real skin Use make-up to blend the skin tones together Now for the wound..... Decide on the type of wound you want and simulate it in the flesh Incised Wounds - these are clean cuts from knife slashes or glass, make these by cutting the flesh with a blunt butter knife. Lacerations - these are made by blunter objects like barbed wire. Simulate these by dragging a pencil point through the flesh. Punctures - a stab wound made by a knife, nail etc. Use a blunt pencil to make this by working it in slowly widening circles in the flesh until the desired hole size is made. Next you need to dress up the cut. Use the paintbox to redden the inside and the edges of the wound Add a few drops of blood inside the wound. You can have fun by inserting foreign objects such as nails or wood into the wound.
When you have finished with the basics you can really have fun. Open fractures with bones sticking out of the ripped skin. De-gloved fingers (see right) where the flesh has been ripped off the finger taking most of the bone with it (finger bent over, false stump made and a broken chicken bone used)   Let your imagination run riot!

So How do I use this in a Troop Night?

Well what we normally do is to have the Patrols decide on a plausible accident and the dress up one of the Patrol as an accident victim. After half an hour of casualty simulation the Patrols move to a neighbouring Patrol's corner and must treat the casualty as best they can.
One warning though, post a warning on the Scout Hall door. Some of the wounds can look very real and can cause the GSL/ADC/DC/Parents to panic.
Another thing, although this is not real and the Scouts know it is all fake, some Scouts can get a bit queasy about this so it is a good idea to have an alternative for them to do in another room

The Delia Smith Guide to making Blood and Flesh
 

Flesh To make flesh, you will need the following:- 2 cups of Self raising Flour 1 Cup of salt 4 Teaspoons of Cream of Tartar 2 Cups of water 2 tablespoons of cooking oil Food colouring or liquid foundation

Put all the indredients into a pan, stir and cook until the mixture forms a soft ball. Couldn't be easier. Making the flesh to the correct skin tone depends largely upon what skin tones you have in you Troop. I can get away with the bog standard pink tone most of the time. Minor variations in the pink skin can be dealt with by make up. I have not investigated the use of food colourings for darker skin tones but I should imagine that they should not be hard to get a hold of. One way of getting round the food colouring problem is to use a liquid foundation of the correct colour instead of the food colouring.

Blood To make blood, you will need the following:- Cornflour Water A nice Blood Red food colouring

Make a paste of flour and a little water and blend it into the rest of the water. Slowly bring to a simmer and stir constantly until the mixture just begins to thicken. The exact amount you will need will depend upon the number of Scouts you have, however I rarely use more than a cupful. nothing looks more fake than buckets of blood! The mixture should be used quickly as it will  thicken on standing.