Star Trek Next Generation (Data)

The pants are like fishing waders, they have 2" elastic suspenders and a bib in the front. No way those are coming down.
 
If you use black velcro it shouldn't be very visable. If it really bothers you, you could always make "covers" so basically take extra of the pant material and put velcro on it and velcro the velcro together so instead of belt pouches you have black strips of cloth.

While on the subject of pouches, what are you using?
 
I don't think I'd be happy with that. The covers would add more bulk and make the pants less streamlined. I might be able to work something out with magnets though, same as the comm badge.

As for the pouches, I'll be making them the same way as the originals. Wet molded leather covered in black knit fabric.
 
If you go with magnets you'll need to use some rare earth or other very super strong magnets. You could sew them to the inside of your pants so they can't be seen. The other magnet would go inside the fabric of the holster but not through the leather, it just won't stick otherwise.

You'll want to use 4 magnets as well and spaced out in a square pattern. If you get them too close they will stick to each other causing issues. A single magnet won't have the surface area to hold the holster flat against you and it will just pull your pants oddly. (unless you can find a really wide magnet like a bar)

One thing to remember is magnets will mess with electronics so keep that in mind if your carrying around anything else, especially at the pocket height.

As an FYI there is a convoluted way you could do the velcro with covers and still have it flush. It would require sewing the velcro on the inside and cutting holes in the pants. If you pants were lined you could do it virtually undetectable, but it would be a heck of a lot of stupid work for something that could be resolved a different way.


I'd love to see how your pouches work out. I'll be making mine soon. I previously used belt clips but have always wanted to improve that.
 
I was actually thinking I would connect the velcro to the pants with the magnets, then keep the velcro on the pouches as it is. I wouldn't want to mess up my GMProps tricorder electronics, though.
 
Hi,

Be interested to see how this costume pans out; Data is my favourite as well :)

With regards to your contacts, I have to use soft contacts because I have astigmatism (eyes are rugby ball shaped not spherical), and they can be exceptionally easy to flip inside out. All I will say, is if flipped inside out, try gently squeezing the lens between two fingers, if its the right way around it should 'fold' nice and evenly in the middle. Also, even with softer contacts, if you have them inside out, it is physically uncomfortable to the extreme.

In my experience anyway; good luck with the costume :)
 
So your setup would be velcro on pouch, then velcro to velcro with the second velcro being held to pants via magnets so the sandwitch would look like this: leather,cloth,velcro,velcro,magnet,pant,magnet, leg.

Fixing the magent to the velcro will be slightly tricky. If you don't sew the magnet to the pant leg it will shift. If your pants arn't lined your leg will rub on the magnets could be uncomfortable. Beyond that it should work but it adds several layers of potential fail points and I'd worry about its longevity.

Your tricorder should be ok with magnets while not is use. Infact the GMProps uses a reed magnet to trigger the racket sound. I myself am in the process of upgrading to the GMProps tricorder. There are other tricorders that employ the use of a SIM card which could get interfered with as could a cell phone and various magnetic strips on credit cards. Your Trek stuff should be ok, its primarly the mundane extra stuff you might be carrying.

A question I would ask is when do you see yourself not wearing the pouch? I always bring along my props as part of the costume and having a hands free way of carrying them is a must.

On a side track, did you have many issues getting your GMProps electronics inside your tricorder body?And which body did you end up using?
 
I would attach the magnets to the inside of the pants the same way I'll be doing it for the comm badge, iron on interfacing around the magnet on the inside. No stitches.

I haven't done the mod on my tricorder yet. I picked up the boards and a playmates tricorder years ago but never had the tools to do the job right until recently. Once I get caught up on other stuff the tricorder is my first fun project.
 
Cool, we can work this together :)
I don't expect it to go according to plan but it should be fun.


Iron-on interfaceing isn't exactly supposed to be used in that fashion. It might work fine for a lightweight com badge but could be problematic with heavier objects. You're probably going to have to sew it in to make it hold the weight. Try it, jump up and down and see what happens.
 
Yea, I'll definitely do tests. If it doesn't work, I can try sewing, but holding a magnet in place while I iron around it is one thing. Trying to sew around it is a whole different problem.
 
Tried the contacts again today. I got one of them to stick to my eye, one half of it anyway. It kind of hung there for a second while I tried to slide it around on my eye to get the other side to pop down until I blinked and it fell off. Feeling better about touching my eye now, and I figured out once and for all which way is right side out, I just can't get the damn things to stick to my eyes.

Also got a new makeup sealer, it's a liquid spray bottle by Urban Decay. Did absolutely nothing, and this stuff came highly recommended by a makeup pro, so I'm thinking nothing short of spraying my face with furniture lacquer will stop this crap from wiping right off.
 
Well, several more attempts and still no go on the contacts. I'm going to stop trying until I can get in to see an optometrist.

In the meantime, I've been working on my chirping comm badge over in this thread:

http://www.therpf.com/f9/next-gen-comm-badge-chirping-173204/

And tonight I bought all the fabric for the uniform. I found some stuff locally in LA that perfectly matches the pants fabric, it's absolutely dead on. It's a wool/poly blend twill weave gabardine, very pronounced weave. It ran me $6 a yard. I'm going back on Monday to pick up a bunch more for my girlfriend and her brother to have matching Dr. Crusher and Riker uniforms. I also picked up the jacket fabrics, which was only half the work really.

Black Wool Gabardine - Discount Fabrics

Pale Yellow Wool Gabardine - Discount Fabrics

My girlfriend dyes fabric as part of her job, so she's going to dye that pale yellow stuff to the correct color once I get my hands on a decent color reference. Anybody have a screen used or Anovos jacket and want to take it in to a local Jo-Ann's to find something the same color? No purchase necessary, just give me the article number and I can look it up here. It would be hugely appreciated, and in return I would be willing to rig up a chirping comm badge for you (minus the badge itself and assuming I can get the whole thing functioning properly).
 
Getting the color right and even is a bear good luck. I'm not happy with mine. The Mustard Gold is technically correct but never looks quite right.

I should have time to get my tricorder put together on monday depending on how things go so I'll keep a little log incase you're interested. Found some great info.

Trust me, I've tried all the sprays in the world, they won't help. Powder the crap out of it and eventually it won't come off on a glancing touch and that is about as good as you can get it.

I have discovered a different type of makeup i'm thinking of spending the cash on to see how it goes. Its an Alchohol based makeup so it won't come off when you touch it. It won't even come off with water. Once the site comes back up i'll post some links.

Good luck with the com badge I'll have to check that out. I figured at some point I'd get around to that but not for a while.
 
Excellent news on the makeup, I look forward to what you come up with.

As for the dyeing, she does it for work and she's really good at it. She isn't too worried, we just need a color reference.
 
So after following a trail of leads, I've finally found the makeup artist that worked on Brent Spiner in TNG, and I've asked him if he could help. Just waiting on his response. Also, I've decided since I'm going to have to go with a wig for this, I might as well take full advantage of the only upside to that and I'm going to add in a section of the wig that can be lifted up to reveal the positronic circuits. I've also found a color match for the gold fabric and I've sent it out to a friend to compare it to the real thing (well, an Anovos uniform).

So does anybody on this board have a screen used TNG uniform? I'm trying to find pictures of the trim around the collar. The Anovos uniform has a twisted rope trim, but I've never seen any shots on the show to suggest that's what it really was. I wouldn't judge Anovos for going with something more decorative, but I want to make mine as close to the original as possible. I haven't had any luck finding good pictures of a screen used costume on auction, either. Can anybody point me toward somebody who can help?
 
The new makeup I tried I was not happy with.
So I'm going here
https://shop.temptupro.com/c-38-dura-airbrush-makeup.aspx
Alcohol activated makeup - Special FX Wiki

I'll let you know how it goes.
In my experience no spray or amount of spray will hold the makeup on for a Con. Photoshoot sure, on stage with makeup artists following you around sure. A convention where you're moving about, not a chance. This makeup listed above however might work because you can take it underwater, but even it apparently flakes off with scrubbing.

Would be very interested to know what the actual makeup artist says about the colors used and what color he dyed spiner's hair.
keep us posted!
 
I wasn't going to bother asking about the hair, I know to my own personal satisfaction what color it was. He still hasn't gotten back to me though, so it's not looking good.

A friend recently told me I should use alcohol based makeup, he's had a lot of experience with it and it doesn't rub off. If I don't get the actual stuff from the guy I'll try to find a match there.
 
OK, so can anybody recommend me a good place to buy alcohol based makeup? All I can find is huge color palettes for $70 and up, I just want one or two colors. Also, I never got a response from the guy, which is disappointing, but whatever. Getting the makeup just right isn't as big a concern to me any more since I know they didn't use alcohol based and that's definitely what I'm going with now.

Also, I was super excited when I got an email from Anovos this morning and went ahead and placed an order for both of their new Next Gen neckties. I found a perfect weave off-white gabardine a couple weeks ago and once I send the gold tie to my girlfriend she can color match the dye bath and I can finally get started on this thing. I also need to dye the wig I got to the right color because it only came in brown, not dark brown. Whether or not I follow through with the positronic circuits for the first outing will depend completely on how well wonderflex forms to my head. The tricorder and chirping comm badge are definitely out for DCon, though. Next time.
 
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