Thread by @DanAmrich

Here is a megathread for the prep @KatrinAuch and I have done for our return to the #StarWars #GalacticStarcruiser. I'll update this thread a lot! I'm happy to go into detail on our props and processes.

The story so far, if you care:

📢🧵 bit.ly/katdanstarcrui…

First, lekku. Kat suggested we go as Twi'lek this time, and we had blue lekku (head-tails) from Disney, but we didn't want to do blue face & body paint. After spotting flesh-colored Twi'leks in The Book of Boba Fett, she set about repainting the lekku to match our skin tones.

These are latex skullcaps, but the rubber is finished and coated, so although we got paint designed for latex masks, we couldn't make it stick.

The answer turned out to be interior latex paint. We live near a Lowe's, so we walked in and matched paint sample swatches to our necks, then ordered small testers of a few shades. It took several coats and blending of different colors but she made it work.

Kat deconstructed one of the gray bonnets that came with the lekku (which Disney based on Hera Syndulla's) and sewed a few of her own versions -- two options in leather-look brown stretch vinyl and one in navy blue for me. This hides the edges of the skullcap.

She also designed and built some jewelry cuffs -- 2mm foam layers that we cut on the laser. They fit around both her lekku tails and some matching armbands. She went through a few prototypes but the final gold-painted ones look really cool.

Kat also made several prototypes of a crown headpiece that also includes the "ear cones" that are unique to female Twi'lek. The first two prototypes rode a little high and didn't achieve the look she wanted.

The third prototype crests lower and has magnets to keep it in place. Kat is reworking it for a 4th version right now, to see if she can make it work with the bonnet instead of just a headband. It might not make the final cut.

Both Kat and I had some pieces from previous outfits that we could repurpose -- pants, boots, shirts -- but I knew I couldn't use my blue jacket, as it was specific to the character. I found two vests that I liked.

The one from Poshmark wound up being the winner. I couldn't design something that looked more like it belonged in Star Wars. Hugely lucky find -- but you know, in my experience, there's no such thing as luck. I built the whole outfit around this vest.

I tried a few new shirts, too, as the heat is going to be a factor. Amazon didn't have much that I liked, so I went to AliExpress and found some good ones. If you can be patient and work out the sizing, AliEx is a great resource.

I attempted to dye one and it came out a lovely shade of purple, but ultimately it didn't match my color scheme, so that goes into the reserve costume trunk. Sometimes you don't know until you put in the work, you know?

We'd previously done smuggler & spy characters, but we wanted to see some of the Resistance & Force plotlines this time, so we came up with curators at the Galactic Museum who specialize in Jedi lore & artifacts.

One of the benefits of being an older cosplayer is I can reasonably say I was part of the Rebellion back in the day. I was in comms, helping get those Bothan spy transmissions encrypted & delivered. As a result, I still have my Rebel dogtags.

I also bought new glasses for this.

Kat found a cool leather belt from the 80s and wanted to re-create it. So after she reverse-engineered it, we headed out to Tandy to buy some leather hide and then set about cutting the pieces on the big laser.

Lasering leather is smelly, messy business. You are literally burning flesh. My job was to clean and condition the links in the belt. Before long, Kat had the links assembled around a 1" blank and boom, instant badass belt.

I decided to lean into the academic nature of the character -- a shy bookish guy who'd read more about the galaxy than he'd experienced it. So the main prop became a handwritten journal with 3 sections: Jedi lore, languages, and sabacc. Kat created a logo for the Museum.

Found leather journals on AliExpress for cheap, so after Kat created a logo for the Galactic Museum, I laser-etched it onto the cover of my journal.

Everything inside is canon. My sabacc section has hand rankings as well as chip allocations for the set of sabacc betting chips I'll be bringing with me, so I can open this and quickly start a game with 2 to 5 players. Puts the fun in functional!

Kalikori beads are how Twi'lek mark family history, and part of @KatrinAuch's character's work is recovering and researching beads that have been lost after years of Empire oppression. So a string of orphaned beads became one of her main props.

Kat got plain wooden beads from a craft store, then individually stained, painted, and lightly torched them.

As a finishing touch, Kat's journal includes all her research and backstories for each bead she's discovered, including maps of where she found them. I've sat next to her while she painted the watercolor illustrations and I'm super impressed.

Oh! Once we had the logo, we realized we wanted to have something to give out to other guests. Kat made us cool in-universe business cards. Guess where the QR code takes you?

With so many extra props and giveaways, I wanted a bag that was a little bigger but not unwieldy. I found this leather satchel and knew I'd need to cover the logo with something in-universe. This turned into yet another job for the laser.

I got a vector version of a sylop, the wild card of sabacc, and with Kat's help created a little design representing an unusually lucky hand. Using leftover leather from the previous SW jacket, I made a little patch that fit perfectly. E6000 cement and clamps did the trick.

When shopping for leather journals, I found this unbelievably tiny one, so I turned it into an Aurebesh alphabet book to help Kat learn to read. It's not only silly, but she barely needed it. We're now both fluent in reading and writing.

I still wanted some Aurebesh on my outfit. After some brainstorming we hit on good crossover between my interests and my character's: A literacy campaign! So I will wear and give out these badges that say READ AUREBESH. Conversation starters either way!

We found these fun LED business cards on AliExpress, and realized we could laser-etch anything we want on it. So one of Kat's props is her fan club membership for Gaya, the Taylor Swift of Star Wars.

Cannot wait to show Gaya herself!