First I removed the clothing from both the dolls and set the Wild Wild
West outfit aside. James West's tie is really tied, so I loosened
it a bit to get it over his head, but not too much, as I didn't want the
knot to slip (I didn't feel like trying to retie a "micro-tie", I have
enough problems with a
real
one)
Data's character wore gloves in this episode. I took some Super Sculpey
compound and filled in Data's fingernails on both hands so they would give
the appearance of gloves when painted, rather than simply painted over
hands. There are air drying putties that can be used for this (DAS
or Milliput), but I had none on hand so I used the Sculpey. Sculpey
needs baking, so I used a hair dryer set on high heat for several minutes
to harden the compound directly on Data's hands. DO NOT put your
doll in the oven, it will melt at the 275 degrees necessary to harden the
sculpey!
After hardening the sculpey with the hair dryer, I painted Data's hands
black with acrylic craft paint. I also put a couple coats of craft
gloss varnish over the gloves, to protect the sculpted portions, and to
give the appearance of leather gloves.
Next the mustache. Using more of the same sculpey and a variety of
X-acto blades, I sculpted a mustache for Data right on his face to get
the shape and size I wanted. I also lightly marked the front of the
mustache with the X-acto blade, creating vertical lines to give the impression
of hair. I was going to use the hair dryer again to harden the mustache,
but noticed that Data's head was of a softer vinyl type plastic than his
hands, and I was afraid even the hair dryer would melt his head, so I chickened
out. I carefully lifted the mustache off his face and set it onto
a cookie sheet and put it in a preheated 275 degree oven for fifteen minutes.
I also had to be careful how I set it onto the cookie sheet, as I didn't
want his mustache to lose it's shape in the oven. So I set it down upright,
on the edge that would be above Data's lip.
Once it cooled it was nice and hard and I checked the fit against Data's
face. The shape was still right, so I painted the mustache with acrylic
craft paint, choosing the color Burnt Umber, which seemed like a very close
match to Data's hair color. Data's hair is also glossy, so I used
a couple coats of the gloss varnish again to make the mustache match the
sheen of his hair. Then I placed a small dab of Testors plastic model glue
on Data's upper lip and put his new mustache into place. I was careful
not to overdo the glue, as I didn't want the glue seeping around the edges
when I put the mustache into place. Tada!
Now all that was left was to dress him. Making sure everything had enough
time to dry properly, I picked up the outfit I'd set aside for him. The
pants were no problem, but I used a little extra care handling his new
gloved hands as I put on Data's shirt, vest, and coat. I put the
loop of the tie around Data's head now, and tugged on it to tighten the
knot around his neck. Then the gun belt and six shooter.
The sawed off shotgun and extra ammo belt were extras but could be used
for the Bandito Data if you plan to make all Data's incarnations for the
episode. I didn't make a mini cigar for Data, but may still get around
to that. Of course, the finishing touch was the hat.
And there you have him, Data as Frank Hollander from the TNG episode
"A Fistful of Datas". To me, he's about as dead on as you can
get. I know of a couple inaccuracies though. Frank's shirt was black
with a white collar and he wore a string bolo tie, not a straight
tie, but these are minor inaccuracies in my opinion, as the rest of the
outfit is very close. |
.
Safety
