NSFW – Slaaneshifying Sornob: boobs for the boob god!* ( Mythodea 2013 recap part 2 of 3 )

Since 2011, part of the Slaaneshi brainstorming included how to incorporate «gifts» from our Chaos god, body mutations ranging from tentacles to crab arms. Our priestess once considered extra rows of breasts, as shown on some Warhammer illustrations or figurines. Faced with the challenge of making good-looking props that were practical enough to wear and survive four days of mass larping, these plans never materialized. As in 2013 my character would return after two years of intense chaotic worship and as I, the larper, had gained some crafting skills, I stole the extra breasts idea to really play with Slaanesh’s hermaphrodite aspect.

Note: If you’re in a hurry just look at the headings and pics, the rest is my usual rambling. 

 

0. Concept

The original plan was to make some sort of open-back «skin» t-shirt:

– to allow greenish shoulders and cleavage to be shown while allowing the back to breathe

– to avoid having to stick fake boobs on my real chest with spirit gum everyday, and doing make up on my regular skin to connect. I was already doing this for my face and ears prosthetics, connecting with neck makeup and didn’t have more than the half-hour it took every day

– to be fast to put on and take off during the day, as the boobs wouldn’t fit under my armor and I would need to switch from battle mode to more civil activities

Because I wanted the details to be sharp, I reused the general principles of latex mask making, and wanted to sculpt details added to my actual body.

 

1. Cast your body with plaster bandages

I molded my chest in plaster band, in two parts, first the front then shoulders and upper back. Working with water and plaster bandages alone meant I wasn’t standing really straight, slouching with my belly sticking out. This is normally done with two people e.g. the famous duct tape method, but the crazy summer schedule meant I just needed to grab whatever time I had and progress on my own. So there I was, dumping plaster dust all over my bathroom while applying the bandages looking in the mirror, enjoying the heat from the plaster as it was setting after the initial cold wet cloth feeling. If you’re hairy it’s probably a good idea to use vaseline/baby oil to avoid trapping chest hair in the plaster. I did this straight after from Mad about the Boy so no issue there . Once both sides were rigid I assembled them together with more plaster and left the whole thing to dry overnight

 

2. Fill the cast with stuff to make it more solid

I then filled this hollow cast with cheapest hard polyurethane foam spraycan from the local hobby store (all the really messy steps like this one were done on a small downtown balcony somewhat protected by plastic sheets, always work in a well-ventilated area and with protection, gloves, goggles etc). It was therefore both light enough to be carried around the apartment and solid enough to withstand the sculpting steps once impaled on a supporting stick. I sawed off a few pieces to make the neck closer to my real neck size and started adding plastiline.

 

 

 

3. Re-sculpt your chest and add the extras with clay

Natural clay is very fun to work with from a tactile point of view but drying issues, cracking etc really suck. So i went with plasteline/plastilina clay. As I wanted to be able to use silicone for the final mold I had to find non-sulphur plasteline (and use non-latex gloves as they contain sulphur). The softest, nicest plasteline I had was Caran d’Ache Model’Art, which did not mention whether it had any sulphur. Well it did, yay testing! I tried Chavant NSP and it’s ok but a bit hard (even the medium one), sticky and with a dubious smell. I eventually settled on Prima Plastilina and bought around 10kg during a trip to the US. It felt so Crying Freeman to see the TSA note showing the suitcase was searched on the way home.

 

Just laying a thin layer of plasteline on the plaster and polyurethane mannequin was easy, but smoothing it to make ot look like skin was challenging. Likewise, deciding on size and location of the breasts while taking into account the height of the corset took some thinking. I went for two pairs, a large one matching my body size and a smaller one “growing” under it, highlighting the in-progress transformation. Hands-on sculpting boobs onto a model of one’s chest is an interesting experience, especially once they start looking a bit realistic. You’re kind of groping a life-size, headless and armless copy of your transgendered self. A very different experience than just seeing yourself dressed as a woman in a mirror.

 

Adding the final touches, an eye and a tongue instead of two nipples made the thing become more chaotic and alien. Sculpting those was fun, but in retrospect I should have made the tongue bigger to be more recognizable, as seen in some of H.R. Giger’s sculptures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Brush/pour on the silicone

Smooth-On is my friend.They make silicone compounds that can be mixed in very simple ratios, e.g. 1:1 volume by volume, meaning you don’t need an actual gram scale and can just wing it with disposable plastic cups and knives from your local supermarket. I went with Rebound 25 Self-Thickening Brush-On Silicone Rubber because it can be applied easily to vertical surface like this sculpture. Cheaper equivalent like Oomoo maybe have worked, I don’t know. With the weird undercuts around the armpits, I wanted it to be very stretchy to avoid it tearing apart when demolding so went with the 25 ShoreA version. In retrospect it was too soft and didn’t hold its shape very well, so next time I’ll try the harder Rebound 40. Otherwise the process was uneventful, I just followed the instructions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Make a supporting mold

This is where everything went really wrong. In the past, I had already done supporting molds with plaster bandages which worked great to keep the flexible silicone mold in place. But these were for for small and light pieces. With this huge piece, the plaster just didn’t hold the weight, and the silicone tended to collapsed onto itself.  Worse, when I cut the plaster cast open, I cut through and damaged the silicone mold. Next time I’ll do a real, thick, solid supporting frame. Lesson learned. So to react quickly I just laid half the supporting mold open on the table as some sort of supporting «dish», laid the silicone in it horizontally trying to maintain some shape and poured the skin in. I said goodbye to the t-shirt plan and scaled it down to a bib.

 

 

6. Pour your new skin in the silicone mold

The standard material for fake skin is latex but it has many disadvantages:

– it stinks, basically rendering a room in an apartment unusable for as long it’s drying

– it’s fragile, taking many layers or reinforcement to build something that can withstand a fight

– it takes ages to dry in a silicone mold. And speeding drying by heat or chemical additives can affect solidity or detail fineness. I had no time this summer, so it needed to be fast and sharp.

I originally wanted to go with plasti-dip, my favorite stinky, very-toxic-but-super-precise and fast to use chemical. But the makeup I wanted to use did not hold on plasti-dip. So I settled on Flex Foam-it, self-skinning polyurethane foam from Smooth-On, which did retain makeup. I picked the types that expand the least to keep the “skin” thin enough. I tried two types, and worked very quickly, spreading it thin while it was reacting. It was ready rather fast, and a second layer was enough to cover any holes I left the first time around.

 

7. Attach a fastening system

You should probably do this part after makeup, but I didn’t have the time. I had originally planned to hide the connection between the t-shirt and my neck with a collar, but had not time to make one myself to match the corset. So I ordered a custom-made one from Goblin & Crumb who was great to work with, took my extra large custom measurements well and shipped quickly. Because the bib would not hold by itself I glued the collar to the neck area of the bib with the same contact glue I used for the leather corset – and it worked great. So every morning I would tie on the collar after makeup and would hide / secure the rest of the edges with clothing. This last part was rather annoying and I will incorporate the next version better with clothing items, e.g. some fabric t-shirt I could change  instead of having the polyurethane bib in direct contact with my skin.

 

The boob bib at the end of the larp

 

 

 

8. Makeup

I used the same Kryolan Dermacolor color to ensure matching with my face. Makeup was done last minute onsite, to much skeptic looks from camp neighbors. I picked whatever color I had for nipples, and the purple pigment for the tongue was from MAC, the same I used as lipstick, applied on top of the greyish green base. I had to touch up the bib makeup a bit every day due to friction by clothes, belts, fights etc. Dermacolor is waterproof but not frictionproof.

Overall, I was really happy with the final result, but didn’t show it off as much as I had originally planned, which will be explained in part 3.

*”Blood for the blood god” is a slogan of Khorne worshipers, whom Slaanesh hates.