The Qang Qahsa

Whew, well for one reason or another (mainly lack of funds/time) I haven't been able to update as much as I would like...until now.

Not many photos or much to say at the moment, but I am still acquiring funds after a large house-move and a wedding to plan!

Anyway, that's not why you are here. This month, I have mostly been experimenting with skin paints. I found some that a friend, who is in film and tv, uses for some strange outlandish skin colourations. The paints are water-based but do not transfer onto fabric very easily at all. Do a fabric-transfer test if you are not sure about the transfer qualities of your chosen paint, I really had to scrub hard with this one.

WARNING
I strongly advise anyone painting themselves to do a skin test before hand, cos if you have sensitive skin like I do, most oil-based paints will bring you up in a lovely rash *blush*

Note: Get a friend to help you with the painting if you plan to go for the all over look, and to avoid staining anything, paint in a tiled room/outside/on newspaper. This takes a short while to dry naturally, you can speed up the drying time with heat lamps or a fan heater, but it can give you a streaky appearence.

To apply I used a makeup sponge for all those nooks around the fingers, I mixed up a paint-water solution in a spray bottle for the rest.

This photo was taken with my phone, so it's not the best in the world at showing up how strong this colour is. This was a really watered down mixture of sky-blue with ash-grey thrown in to dampen down the brightness. I will be doing a few more tests as soon as I get chance, to work out a good consistancy. The tattoo's were thrown on with my eyebrow pencil just to see if any overlay makeup pencil would smudge the paint at all. As you can see, it didn't.

Well a new house and a new entry, it's taken me a little while to get set up here - but finally I have been able to have a good mess around with my project!

Here's what I have been meddling with over the last day or so.



Above: Thickened liquid latex was applied to the fully dried clay moulds, this is the first layer going on this test piece that you can see here. When applying the latex, it is important to make sure that each layer is completely dry before applying the next. Also, I found that applying the thickened latex for the initial layer, does not always pick up the fine details of your mould, for this first layer, the slightly more viscose variety is best.

Be sure to paint over the sides of your mould, as you will need the over-spill to help in removal later. This can also help prevent damage during the removal of the dried latex from the mould.

NOTE: Make the lower part of the prosthetic thinner in terms of layers, so that it gives the piece a more seamless look when being applied to your skin before painting.



Above: Several layers and a whole lot of drying later, you can carefully peel the two sides of your piece, out of the mould. Beware! Your mould may be damaged in the process, so be sure to have some extra clay on hand if you mean to replicate the piece more than once - insurance ;)

Once they are out of the mould, line up the two sides until they fit together.
Cement them together with a light coating of thickened latex.



When that is dry, you can begin to cut around the basic shape of the prosthetic. I used really sharp scissors for this, but any sharp implement with low - drag and good handling will work lol.
If any holes do open up in the seams of the two sides, these can be closed with another brush-over of liquid latex.




Try it on for size and adjust where needed, this is the results of my first test piece.

Well hello there, it's been a while! Real life has taken a firm hold of me and I have been forced to put certain things on hold, but that doesn't mean that I have forgotten about this project, oh no. And in the spirit of updating this as I go along, I managed to get some spare time to devote to the making of the shaper's hand...

Firstly, the original hand mould I made was extremely brittle and unstable, I also wanted to try using finger-tip prosthetics as opposed to the entire hand - unless, of course, I eventually get a bit ambitious and decide to go for the whole Master Shapers eight fingered hand that is!.
Never say never.

I am now one step away from applying layers of latex to create the final finger prosthetics.
Have a look....



Above you can see the beginnings of a two piece relief mould, with the modified cast of one of my fingers beside it. Using the finger-tip prosthetics will mean my hand will be slightly more on the mobile side, with little ristriction of movement and uncomfortableness at the joints. It occurred to me that I was going to be in this costume for a long time and as much as I love embracing pain, I should probably make it somewhat comfortable ;)



These moulds were made from softened air drying clay, so that when they are dry, they will give me a rigid surface upon which to apply the latex. The moulds should only take aprox 24 hours to dry, but give them a little extra to ensure that all those brittle edges are a little more toughened. Accidents will happen, parts will be broken, but the beauty of these moulds is, that as long as you keep the original cast intact, you can make as many as you need.

Once you have the basic relief outline, you can then begin to smooth it out on the inside, applying any additional markings you might want to along the way. I placed my finger inside the mould, to make sure it was going to be a good fit, you will probably find that using the relief process will warp the dimensions slightly, so it is advisable to check.
I also deepened the mould in places where it appeared too shallow, such as the 'tool creature' at the end.

Once you are happy with your mould, leave it to dry for at least 24 hours - and as for what happens after that, i'll be getting back to you on that - hopefully a bit sooner than last time!

Ok so where are we this week? Removing the cast from your mould. I did this by carefully dampening the plaster strips and peeling them off very slowly, the cast at this point is extremely fragile, as you will find out ;) Again to remove the alginate or molding gel, you need to be extremely carefull, especially around fiddly bits of detail like the fingers *blush*

I was able to remove the plaster cast from my mould, but as with everything, nothing turned out perfect, the fingers pretty much all broke from the bottom most part of the joint, I think this may have occured whilst trying to remove the hardened alginate.



That shouldn't deter you however! Believe it or not, this cast is still extremely useful - the shape of the hand came out near perfectly - with every line and scar showing I might add- but at this stage it's more the scale i'm concerned with rather than detail which can be added later.
As I was quite careful in trying not to damage the broken pieces further, during removal of the alginate, I was able to piece together something salvagable.




The cracks you can see where the breakages were, can easily be filled in with any sort of plaster filler. For this though, I have used an fast air-drying clay.



The fingers being detached as they were, is actually somewhat of a blessing in disguise. By only reattaching the very tips of the fingers, I am able to work on each one in detail, this also gives me more freedom of movement when it comes to shaping some of those shapers' finger tools from the clay also.





If you are intending to keep working on these pieces, you will need to either cover your clay-work with a thin layer of vaseline to keep in the moisture. Or you should carefully cover your work with wet cling film/plastic kitchen wrap. If you decide to do the latter, make sure that no air can leak in to dry the work too much.

That's it for the time being, it's been a very busy week and I haven't been able to get half as much done as I would like, but there is certainly more on the way.

I know there is much more in the way of research that needs to be added, but I had a bit of a scanner malfunction lately, so that will be added in due time (Vista is a bitch, what can I say?).

Anyway! I have been quietly working on the most proficient way to replicate a Yuuzhan Vong shapers, shaping hand. A master uses an eight fingered hand, so if I was going for this option, I will need to work out ways of attaching extra digits to my hand via prosthesis, or I could create a new hand from scratch, to fit over the one I already have (ala Onimi in NJO rebirth don't you think?). For the purpose of experimentation, I have been keeping things as simple as possible and have gone for an adepts hand, thus keeping only five digits. I am by no means a pro at this, so all this has been one massive learning curve for me.

Primary cast:

To start with, I took a cast of my hand, covering it first with quick setting alginate. This sets within about 4-5 mins and is very easy to rip and tear, so you will need to strengthen it with some plaster-mesh strips (or modrock, depending on where you are from.). Be sure to leave a seam in the plaster mesh strips, or else you will end up with one rock-solid hand that you'll be forced to break to get out of there! Useful as a blunt weapon, not so good for your hand ;)

Alginate...mmm sea weedy



And now for the plaster strips - it's very cold!







NOTE: Set everything up before hand, cut the plaster mesh strips into small sections and have it soaking in a tray of water. This way they are ready to apply once the alginate is set.



Once the cast is set - you can use a fan-heater to help this along, but be careful not to burn your hand - carefully remove the two halves from your hand, then seal the edges together using another few layers of plaster-mesh/modrock. Be careful to make sure the alginate cast inside is still in place. Wait for the new layer to set, then prop the cast upright.

Removal - beware of tears and holes!



Prop and heat! ( for those more stubbornly damp areas, try using a hair dryer)






Make sure any holes in your cast are filled in with clay or more plaster-mesh, as the plaster your pour in next will leak out (and trust me, this stuff gets everywhere!). Mix up some plaster and pour into your mould. Tap the edges of the mould wherever possible, to dislodge any air-bubbles that may have become trapped in the fingers and other little nooks, as these will weaken your cast and also appear on the surface as gaping holes.
It's also worth noting that this will NOT come out perfect first, second or even the third time you do this, but don't let that discourage you, the reject casts can be useful for experimenting on too - and eventually, you'll get there. Practice makes perfect.

Prop your cast upright and made sure it isn't likely to fall over during the filling.




Measure out as much plaster as you thing you'll need - always best to over compensate here.



As you can see....I over compensated :p



Pour into mould



And now comes the boring bit....waiting for this to dry - I'm still waiting DX

This journal is to document the progress of my personal project, to create a Yuuzhan Vong Shaper costume. Over the coming months I will update this journal with pictures, techniques used and the problems i've faced along the way, i'll also start with the research I have put in so far. Please feel free to offer any tips and advice for this along the way, as everyone needs a little bit of help here and there - I'm certainly no exception! So...Why the Yuuzhan Vong? Why not! I was rereading the New Jedi Order Star Wars book series and kind of fell head over heels for the new extra galactic species,  they are just so different and fresh, like nothing the usual SW heroes have had to face before...they are just many kinds of awesome which are too many to list in one go. So as I said before, i'll start with some of the research. First off you really need to define what the Yuuzhan Vong are, wookieepedia sums it up pretty nicely in a nutshell, but the NJO sourcebook has also been helpful. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong_shaper In particular, as there are only a small amount of pictures of the Shaper caste, I have found this stage one of the hardest. As a freelance artist, I have sketched Yuuzhan Vong shapers quite a bit in my fan art - using the cover of the NJO book Conquest as a visual refference. Here it clearly states their skin is a grey-blue, but that differs from many other refferences, where their skin is a light flesh tone, or grey - there have also been instances, where a shaper's skin tone has been completely white (below). So I really needed to take from these refferences, bits of information that would ultimately fit together in the end. Combining the visual references with the textual references made it a little easier to come up with a definite idea of how I want this costume to turn out. NOTE: This is still very much a work in progress, so I will post more pictures to accompany past entries and those in the future, as I go along.