spocks-kaathyra

[spocks-kaathyra]

experimenting w making little trek dolls for the STLV craft swap :))

[spocks-kaathyra]

pythas lok im ur biggest fan

[spocks-kaathyra]

@kalessinsdaughter here's some of the Garak gifs/pics I referenced!

If you download the gifs you can see them frame by frame! This picture I found of some Cardassian prosthetics was helpful, too:

how did you make those holy shit!!!

jfjskdk okay I'll take any excuse I get to talk abt this more

How I made my Cardassian prosthetics

Disclaimer: I'm no expert, it's my first time doing this!! All the resources I used can be found online. In fact, here's a playlist of all the youtube videos I followed, in case you don't want to read the whole post. You can pretty much make any facial prosthetics following these steps, not just Cardassian ones.

What you'll need:

Plaster bandages, plaster of Paris (a lot more than is pictured here), modeling clay, and liquid latex. You'll also need some things you probably already have around the house, like vaseline (or cooking oil), plastic wrap, wood glue, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, cotton balls, and setting powder (or baby powder).

Step 1: Face cast

The goal here is to make a plaster copy of your face that you can sculpt your prosthetics on, by covering your face with plaster bandages and then casting that in plaster of Paris. This is the video tutorial I followed for this step. There are many methods, and you'll find tutorials for all of them on youtube, but this is the easiest way if you're doing it by yourself, and it results in a perfectly useable face cast for our purposes. And, if you're cosplaying Garak like me, it's a great way to get into character by experiencing claustrophobia for the first time in your life!! (Jk it's not actually that bad. I lived.)

The video explains the process better than I could, but here's some tips I learned from doing it! Wear a shirt that you don't mind ruining. Go a bit closer to your eyes than I did here. When you're propping up your mask in a bowl, make sure you're not squishing any parts of it or tilting it! I ended up with a dent in the chin of my face cast because I accidentally dented the mask while I was casting it. And make sure you have enough plaster of Paris! I probably used 2-3 pounds for this part. Here's what I ended up with, before sanding or sealing it with wood glue:

Step 2: Sculpting

This is pretty self explanatory, but also probably the hardest part. Just use lots and lots of reference photos. I've got a pretty good stash for Garak, if anyone's interested hdjkfhk. I found that gifs made better references than still photos, since they give you a better sense of the 3D shape. You want to make sure you're using modeling clay that doesn't dry. You don't need any fancy sculpting tools! I used my trusty palette knife to get the small details, but you could probably accomplish the same thing with, like, a spoon and a toothpick. It depends on what kind of clay you're using, but you can dip your finger in a solvent to smooth out the surface of the clay and blend the edges into the face cast. I used rubbing alcohol, but I also heard people recommend acetone. Once you're happy with your sculpt, you can move onto the next step!

Step 3: Casting negatives

This step is technically optional. The video I followed also outlines an easier way that skips this step, by simply building your prosthetics directly on the sculpt. But casting negatives allows you to get a lot more fine detail, and a smoother finish on the final prosthetics, so that's what I chose to do. Basically, you pour plaster of Paris over your sculpt, and it hardens into a mold you can use to build your prosthetics on.

Again, the video explains it better, but some tips! If it's possible with your sculpt, do it in small pieces instead of the whole face at once. I did the chin, nose, and forehead separately. If you try to do the whole face, there's a greater chance of it getting stuck or breaking. Of course, if you were doing, say, Odo, then it might not be possible to do it in multiple pieces. Another thing to watch out for:

If your underlying face cast has any "undercuts," or places where it's, like, concave, then if plaster gets into those areas and hardens, your face cast and your negatives will lock together, and you won't be able to use either of them. For me I was worried about the sides of my nose and under my bottom lip. As long as those parts are filled in with clay, then you should be fine. It's okay if your clay sculpt has undercuts! You can see in the (shamelessly stolen) diagram that their sculpt has a lot of undercuts, but that's okay because the clay is soft and won't lock with the plaster, it'll just come off. The video I got the diagram from was also pretty helpful, even if it's meant for casting with different materials than I used. Here are the completed negatives:

Step 4: Making the prosthetics!

Now you have negatives! Your sculpt may or may not be intact, but if your negatives turned out okay then that's fine. This step is also covered in the video for step 3. Using a stippling sponge, foam brush, or q-tip, stipple thin layers of liquid latex onto your negatives. I found that a q-tip worked best, even if it took longer to cover larger areas. Make sure the edges are very thin, so you can blend them into your skin when you apply the prosthetics. Wait for a layer to dry before adding more latex on top of it, or you'll end up with fucked up results like I had:

(Left: first draft, where I didn't let it dry enough before layering more. Right: second draft. Much better!)

Build up bulky areas with pieces of cotton balls, then cover the cotton with a thin layer of latex. Emphasis on thin! It'll take forever to dry if you saturate your cotton with too much latex. This step mostly involves a LOT of waiting. When the latex is fully dry, brush everything with a liberal amount of setting powder or baby powder to prevent the latex from sticking to itself as you peel it out of the mold.

And now you have your prosthetics! You can tear away some of the excess latex at the edges to make it fit your face better. I ended up tearing away almost all of the edges around the eye ridges, so it would blend better and I wouldn't have to get adhesive so close to my eyes. Tear, don't cut! It'll result in a more natural edge that's easier to blend. This video shows how to apply prosthetics. Use whatever prosthetic adhesive you want! I used spirit gum because it's what I had on hand.

Now you can go forth and live out your lizard alien dreams!!

[spocks-kaathyra]

oomfs help me out I haven't watched star trek in too long. in which episodes does garak hold a weapon and what kind. I want to make a prop

[spocks-kaathyra]

I feel so proud whenever someone tags me saying they used my garak prosthetics tutorial 🥹🥹 like I've made an impact in our little community! I've inspired ppl! I've given ppl one of the tools they needed to create something really cool! ik I'm not really active on here anymore but it makes me so happy when I log on every once in a while and see one of those notifs...

[spocks-kaathyra]

Garak goes to London Film and Comic Con!

Day One:

Day Two (I gave up on the chin piece, it was too annoying):

I sewed the Day 1 outfit myself and made all the prosthetics using this amazing tutorial by @spocks-kaathyra - Couldn't have done it without you!!!

[spocks-kaathyra]

Universal Fan Fest night was so fun!!! I got some pictures of my outfit/prosthetics but they are blurry and bad (I will add some at the bottom)😭. It was so fun getting stopped for pictures. My favorite comment was someone yelling “is that Garak drip?!” and getting stopped at Quarks. The security people kind of put me in a mood because they kept stopping me since my prosthetics went below my eyes even though their manager gave me permission (typical Bajoran attitude towards a cardassian I guess 😂). Other than that it was awesome and I probably spent like over an hour just sitting at Quarks and trying the food (the plomeek tea was 10000/10). Thank you again @spocks-kaathyra for that post you made because I would have never done this if I didn’t have a prosthetic guide🩶🩶. Now i’m ready for some conventions I can cosplay at! 🖖

Again warning my pictures suck. 👇

[spocks-kaathyra]

Working on my Universal Fan Fest night cosplay. I can’t thank @spocks-kaathyra enough for their amazing Cardassian face prosthetic guide which I used

[spocks-kaathyra]

gonna go get Tuvok pregnant, y'all need anything?

[spocks-kaathyra]

plain and simple, I assure you

[spocks-kaathyra]

Very fluffy, just thinking about how much i wish they got time away to just be happy and relaxed for like even a week. Sit in the sun and stuff. I feel like in most post canon stuff i write/ read it’s like hopping out of ds9 narrative and straight to saving cardassia. Give them a week in a sunny cabin to chill for a sec

[spocks-kaathyra]

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (1993 to 1999) - Behind the Scenes

[spocks-kaathyra]

He's like an anime girl to me

[spocks-kaathyra]

2025 lets all internalize "its my fault for not taking enough stimulants"

[spocks-kaathyra]

doodling in a more cartoony style hrmmm. yuppp Wahoo

[spocks-kaathyra]

okay it's almost a wearable garment. almost. featuring plushie garak who helped by being a very good tailor's ham for pressing the armscye seams

guess who I'm making for STSF...

[spocks-kaathyra]

pieces cut out, then the progress made tonight! successfully installed an invisible zipper following the pattern's weird instructions without having ever done an invisible zipper before and also without an invisible zipper foot. everyone clap

guess who I'm making for STSF...