Production Methods for Borg Prosthetics

I’m working on a project — one, to learn more about effects makeup and prosthetics, and two, to make a set of Borg prosthetics for my friend’s cosplay for Emerald City Comicon. I’ve gone through several phases of research, and decided against foam latex (as building the safe, sturdy oven I want is out of the present budget), tried out Kryolan cold foam (ye gods, that stuff is horrid), and finally decided on encapsulated silicone, which isn’t strictly necessary for this project, but I want to start learning the techniques.

If you look at the original prosthetics (above), at least the eye and ear pieces were made of black-tinted latex, to give the details pop under what I assume was a sponged-on metallic PAX paint, so I am going to try to duplicate that look. I thought I might need to tint the silicone, and I haven’t experimented yet, but it seems like it might be difficult to get the deep black I want.

In this “Flat Moulds” catalog, Stuart Bray offers a tutorial on pre-painting the cyborg implants that he sells molds for, and he instead tints the cap plastic black to give a nice dark base for the silver he dry-brushes on top. Almost exactly what I want to do with the borg pieces, as I’m sure that tinting the cap plastic will be easier (and perhaps more economical).

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818965155702706178

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818965348418351104

I intended to just quickly thank Stuart on Twitter, but he quickly came up with a host of other suggestions for how to produce the piece.

what colour are you going for? I'd suggest trying Greasepaint or oil based makeup

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

depends if it's alcohol or acetone based

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818969003972431872

I think latex pieces from plaster moulds would be ideal. The real ones were opaque foam latex? No need for silicone if so.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818969489098215425

That is in reference to my post on Neill Gorton’s Make-up FX 911 (private) group on Facebook. This was my attempt with the Kryolan cold foam, with a latex skin:

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818969861367865344

then maybe try Acrylic inks like FW Acrylic Inks. I believe they mix with alcohol.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818970084957790208

that occurred to me that just latex, no need for any foam, would probably do it. Several layers and use paper towel in between.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818970467847401473

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818971599739109376

you could use straight silicone with no cap plastic. Gel 19 with no deadener for example.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818971071869173761

depending on the finish cast a base colour and dry brush highlights on the top. Metallic pigments are not shiny IN silicone.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 11, 2017

they need to be ON the surface instead. Iron would be black, for example. Then dry brush silver over the finished piece.

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 11, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818972132482772992

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818972509814996993

yes. You can thin plat gel and the like with naphtha and use it as a paint base

— Stuart Bray (@sili_faces) January 11, 2017

https://twitter.com/swizzlevixen/status/818972941392064512

I should have the materials on hand to try both encapsulated and non-encapsulated methods, so I plan to give both a try and see which is the least troublesome for producing multiple pieces. I’m betting in the long run, it will be the bare silicone, but now I have the latex contamination to contend with from my cold foam trial run which will cause the platinum silicone not to cure. Guess I’ll be shelling out for a bottle of Inhibit X!

This story originally appeared on Station in the Metro.