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True Sith (species) - Work in Progress


Guest Anonymous

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Guest Anonymous

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Hi all! It's delinquent me, back again after a long sojourn away. TheCloneEmperor asked me to post this and I am happy to do so, although things are in the veeeery rough stages for now. Working on doing a True Sith costume. So far, I am just in the makeup test and prosthetic phase. I figure if I can make that work, then I will tackle things like armor, hands (three fingered) and feet (two toed and heel-spurred). So... here's what I have so far and how I did it.

 

Oh, here is an image of a True Sith from the comics (not all had mohawks--this is the only one, actually. Some also had long extended "Pharaoh beard" chin bits, some looked more apelike, some less... presumably the differences were due to how much Dark Jedi was mixed with the True Sith species by that point, as the Dark Jedi did interbreed themselves with the Sith via Sith alchemy). Anyway, this gives some idea of what I was working toward.

 

Sitho.jpg

 

 

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Beginning of facial prosthetic sculpt

 

This is a rather inexact process - doing it on a generic mask because my real life mask was not available at the time. And I ended up doing a latex paint directly ON the sculpt rather than making a negative mold. Because of this, the prosthetic became larger and more "blurry" in detail. Anyway, this is showing how I started to rough in the shapes.

 

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Finished sculpt

 

I know that next time I do this I am going to eliminate the nose-bridge piece and decrease the forehead ridges. Also, on the mouth parts, I will slim them down a great deal, be SURE they are more symmetrical, and start their relief a bit lower down rather than right at the sides of the nose.

 

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Painting the latex directly on the sculpt

 

This is a "quick and dirty" way of making a prosthetic, rather than making a negative mold, etc. It does, however, lose detail in the process as each layer of latex accumulated blurs what the sculpt is like underneath. This was approximately 12 thin layers of latex to complete the prosthetic, allowing the latex to dry thoroughly each time. Note - you can use a hair dryer to speed the process.

 

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The prosthetic removed from the sculpt

 

I was amazed I didn't break the sculpt worse than I did--only the tips had to be reconstructed. As you pull the latex off, be sure to use baby powder on it as you go with a brush. This keeps the latex from sticking to itself.

 

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The prosthetic pieces, all on their lonesome

 

This shows the very thin edges - important to have. MORE important is to trim them, which I did a lousy job of. Bleh.

 

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Trial run...very trial...

 

Things I learned - an airbrush would be better for the makeup...but I don't have one. I need to trim the edges of the prosthetic WAY better than I did to get a better blend, even though I did spackle on liquid latex around the edges. Modify the sculpt itself in some ways. And instead of Ben Nye makeup next time, I will try out Telesis.

 

Eventually, the wig will be in a "Massassi topknot" a la the Golden Age of the Sith comics, etc. For now, I just slapped the thing on my head.

 

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Profile shot of makeup test

 

Yup, need to resculpt the lower facial tentacles to be less wide. And REALLY need to work on the blending of the prosthetics to the face. Still, not all that unhappy with this roughest of drafts. First time ever working with facial prosthetics, first time sculpting them...blah blah blah. :)

 

Thanks for taking the time to look! :)

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Guest Daritha

Possitive on that. ;)

 

The mask looks very good. Well, you see the latex lifting up a bit from the face but that's a test run as you said. And even for a test run it needs me more than one look to identify it as a mask. Good job!

 

I esp. like the painted skin on your vertex. ^^

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Guest Anonymous
Possitive on that. ;)

 

The mask looks very good. Well, you see the latex lifting up a bit from the face but that's a test run as you said. And even for a test run it needs me more than one look to identify it as a mask. Good job!

 

I esp. like the painted skin on your vertex. ^^

 

Thank you! Vertex? :)

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Guest Anonymous
A true follower of the Bogan if ever there were.

 

Thank you for sharing. So glad to have you back.

 

Glad to be back. Now, to skim the forums... :)

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Guest Daritha

Thank you! Vertex? :)

Did Google betray me with the translation? I searched for an equivalent of the German word Scheitel. In your first pic in the opener thread you also painted the skin of your head that is visible between your hair.

I just adored the accuracy of the work since I'm sure I would have forgotten to put paint there. ^^

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Guest Anonymous

Thank you! Vertex? :)

Did Google betray me with the translation? I searched for an equivalent of the German word Scheitel. In your first pic in the opener thread you also painted the skin of your head that is visible between your hair.

I just adored the accuracy of the work since I'm sure I would have forgotten to put paint there. ^^

 

Ah! I suspect there is not a direct translation for Scheitel. So probably Google did the best it could. I did not paint the "part"... in English, that is the term for the line created when hair falls to either side of the head. I will eventually, but this time I was in a hurry and did not. So later, I colored it in Photoshop. :)

 

So, in time, I will be worthy of your praise, but not yet. ;)

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Guest Anonymous
That scalp tinting would appear to be a slightly colour-helped version of the same photo seen farther down the post.

 

Still a fantastic creation!

 

~ Vonnor

 

Yup. Eventually, I'll paint the part, but I cheated it out in that one picture using Photoshop.

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Guest Daritha

Cheated? You cheated me Lord! *insider*

 

Well, I supposed the pic on the downside was taken before the first and someone made a comment like: "Dude, your par is in the wrong color."

 

Part ... thanks for info. ;)

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Guest StungunMoy

Wow I love it! Great job :) It was also great of you to write up a tutorial on how its done for those (LIKE ME!) who are curious as to know how you did such awesome work! :)

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Guest Anonymous
Wow I love it! Great job :) It was also great of you to write up a tutorial on how its done for those (LIKE ME!) who are curious as to know how you did such awesome work! :)

 

So many people have helped me with their web tutorials--both here and elsewhere--that I really try to post tutorials whenever I can. My feeling is the more the merrier! I'd rather go through a convention with a bunch of cool Revans or True Sith or whatevers and know I helped, than to be the only one in the costume because I didn't. :)

 

If you wanna be a True Sith, join me! BWAH HA HA!

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Guest Anonymous

Ok, decided to start tackling the True Sith armor, which I think I will mostly do in Sintra. That’s the current plan, anyway. And you know what they say about battle plans surviving the first encounter with the enemy! I figured that the Headdress would be one of the harder bits to do, and so I decided to tackle it first—both to make myself feel better if I manage it and because (bwah ha ha!) if I get it done I can try it with the prosthetic and at least know how my face will look. Yes, it’s all about the photo ops.

 

Here is a lousy pic (taken from my iPhone) of the type of headdress I am trying for, from the Tales of the Jedi comic. The headdresses vary depending on which Sith you are looking at, but all have features in common. I am trying to just come up with something that has all the right elements.

 

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Anyway, first stage was just to do an extremely rough mockup with—paper bags! (Hey, they’re free.) Put them on a wig form with the wig I will be using (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). Please pardon the wig form—I used it when I taught my self-defense classes, so many women have gouged out its eyes before it got drafted into this job. Anyway, here are some pictures of that, for laughs:

 

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Then, using the brown paper bag rough mockup, I went ahead and tried to make sure all the lengths were actually right, then redrafted the pieces by hand, scanned them in...realized I didn't have Illustrator on my computer and downloaded Inkscape. Yay, Inkscape! So far, I am loving it and it's an open source program! So, that's a small plug for Inkscape. If you want it for yourself, you can download it here:

 

http://www.inkscape.org/

 

Anyway, scanned the paper bag drafts, traced them, made vector graphics out of them, and began working on the design. They are not fully adorned yet, but I think they're at a stage I can print them out, cut them out, and do a mockup to be SURE I have the size and proportions right (they won't be on this picture because this is just an image of them all together as best I could fit them on a page).

 

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Anyway, moving along. If I can get this right, I think a lot of the rest of the armor will be easier--I already know how to do bracers and stuff with Sintra. The hand-pieces might be a little challenging. But I figured that the headpiece will be one of the most distinctive pieces so if I can get that right out of the gate, I'm well on my way and will feel more confident as I move along.

 

So... that's my progress for this weekend. (Pardon the crappy resolution--it is a gif file so to see it better you have to click on the image below so you can go to the full-size version.)

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Guest Anonymous

Ok, I am basically the most delinquent Flagship Eclipse-person... ever. :( But I have done a lot of work on the Sith costume, so I thought I should just gather my courage, tender my apologies, and post an update. Although I've not started really working on the cloth parts (anything you see me wearing is basically a t-shirt and an old LOTR cloak, of all things) I'm about a bit over halfway done on the armor. So, here's where I am at now.

 

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The armor is being made using hot glue casting (thanks, Thomas/TheCloneEmperor, for the idea!). The original model is out of craft foam, negative molds cast variously (so far) in RTV Silicone on the expensive end and Plaster of Paris on the cheap end. And then the final pulls are the hot glue. The designs are sort of a gestault "True Sith" from the "Golden Age of the Sith" comic books. I decided I did not want to do a particular Sith, like Naga Sadow, but more of an "everyman" Sith, as it were.

 

Below is a pic of the armor in craft foam form.

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The facial prosthetic is being redesigned to make the chin tentacles blend better and to prevent the brow piece from having a bad relationship with the headdress. For reference, below is a pic of the prosthetics the first time around BEFORE the headdress squished them. LOL! It's a learning process.

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Currently, I am working on the hands and feet as well as the armored belt and other parts. Here is a pic of the hands, although they fit too tightly and I will need to redo. Ah well, they will have armor over their backs, anyway.

 

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As for the feet... only just started working on them, but here's a preview. I am cannibalizing costume hand gloves rather than sculpting and casting from scratch.4559719576_246b7dc9b2.jpg

 

I will try to be better about posting progress as I go! :)

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Guest Daritha

That's a great update! That work is marvelous. I'm wondering about how the costume will look complete. Everything I've seen so far leads me to the assumption that this'll be a thrilling costume.

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Guest Anonymous

Some new things to post... not a ton, but getting there. Got the belt completed and drafted out the "skirt". It will be done in leather... hopefully by this coming weekend. Oh, and the arm and wrist bands are done and got their little connecting chains. That's all the news from Korriban so far...

 

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