The Unsorted BBS Collection/thegreatunsorted.tar/thegreatunsorted/texts/txtfiles_misc/vamp14.faq

Text File | 1995-03-26 | 10KB | 218 lines

Making Custom Fangs

From:         'Illuminati?' (BENDZINS_THV@CTSTATEU)
Subject:      How to make fangs (long)

Greetings!

Okay, here's how I make custom-fitted fangs.  Everything I say here is
my own personal preference for what seems to work; feel free to
disregard anything or everything, and experiment on your own.  I'd be
interested in hearing about any improvements in the technique which
you might develop.  My original fangs were patterned after those
discussed by Tom Savini in his excellent book, GRANDE ILLUSIONS.  The
teeth he describes are, unfortunately, quite time-consuming to
manufacture, and it's difficult to speak with them in (all of your
front teeth, and much of your palate, are covered up with his method,
as opposed to just your canines).

The fangs described herein are the results of my own experimentation.
There are two types of fangs that I make:  I will describe each in
detail.  One type is really a subset of the other, so I'll describe it
first.

First, however, you must cast your own teeth in plaster.  For this
operation, you will need the following materials:


Alginate impression material (JELTRATE, Type I [fast set])
Plaster or casting stone (WHITE CASTONE, Type III)
Two paper cups
Two plastic spoons
Water
Dental casting tray (a 'partial' tray is sufficient)
The cap of a Bic pen (the clear, hexagonal pen with a bullet-shaped cap)


I recommend the fast-set alginate because you don't need to keep it in
your mouth as long, and it has a pleasant minty taste.  :-)  Type II,
while adequate, requires you to keep your mouth immobile for longer,
and it tastes like rubber.  NOTE:  Quantities given here are measured
for a partial tray.  For other tray sizes, increase the measurements
accordingly, as listed on the jar of Jeltrate.

As the operation of casting teeth can be messy, I recommend spreading
a dropcloth, newspapers, paper towels, or other such things.

Put one scoop of Jeltrate into one paper cup, and about twice as much
plaster in the second.  Put 19 mL of water into the cup of Jeltrate
and stir it with a plastic spoon until it's creamy, and no longer has
any lumps of unmixed powder.  Pour the Jeltrate into the casting tray,
making sure there's an even distribution.  Ideally, the Jeltrate
should come to the top of the tray.

Tilt your head FORWARD, and put the tray into your mouth, keeping the
edges of the tray equidistant from your teeth.  Don't let your teeth
actually touch the bottom of the tray if you can help it.  Some of the
Jeltrate will ooze out.  (If your head isn't tilted forward, the
Jeltrate will ooze into your throat and solidify.)  The higher up on
your gums the Jeltrate covers, the better.

Keep your mouth as immobile as possible.  While doing so, add water to
the plaster or casting stone, and mix it with the other spoon until
the plaster is at a fairly creamy consistency.  Use cold water, to
keep the plaster from hardening immediately.

After the Jeltrate is no longer sticky, leave it in your mouth for
about a minute.  Then wiggle the casting tray around for a few seconds
and pull downwards to remove it from your mouth.

Pour the plaster in, making especially certain that no bubbles form in
the tooth impressions!  I use the cap of a Bic pen to press the
plaster into the points of the canines (use the rounded 'clip' part
that's supposed to keep the pen in a pocket) and get out all of the
bubbles.

Make sure the plaster fills the impression completely.  Now let it dry
for a couple of hours.  Watch your favorite vampire movie or
something.  :-)  Remove from the mold, which you may then throw away.
If you wish to re-use the mold, keep it wrapped in a wet paper towel
in the fridge while you prepare more plaster (otherwise the mold will
shrink).

                        == Tooth Style One ==

This is the fastest way to make Vampire teeth.  The teeth fit on over
your own canines, and require denture adhesive such as Super Poly-Grip
to keep them on.  (Really disgusting stuff.)  It's easy to talk with
these fangs in, though you can't really eat anything, and you have to
use more adhesive every once in a while.

Take the plaster mold and cover the canine teeth, and the surrounding
teeth and gums, with COE-sep (or other liquid 'tinfoil substitute').
Rub it on your fingers, too, otherwise the dental polymers will stick
to them.

Take a pile of dental monomer (resin powder) and put it on a piece of
tinfoil or other non-absorbent, non-plastic surface.  Using an
eyedropper, thoroughly moisten the powder with the clear polymer
liquid.  Roll the resulting mass between your fingers into a rough
fang shape, moistening it whenever it becomes too dry or starts to
stick to your fingers, and adding more powder to increase its size.

Press the fang onto the canine (or outer incisor, if you're trying for
the 'Lost Boys' look), and work the edges so that they come up to the
gum line.  Don't worry if they go past the gum line; you'll be fixing
that later.  Moisten the fang whenever it gets hard to work.  Shape it
as you desire, but my advice is not to make it curve inwards too much.
Yes, it looks wicked, but it's impossible to close your mouth!

Take the pen cap that I mentioned earlier, and use it like a knife to
cut away any excess plastic past the gum line.  You CAN use a knife if
you wish, but the relatively soft plastic of the pen cap won't scar
the plaster (which you can then use again to make more fangs).

Make the walls of the fang relatively thin, especially on the back
side.  If you leave them thick, it'll be hard to close your jaws, and
you may have a tough time talking with them in.

Duplicate the process on the other side, making it match as closely as
possible.  Allow the teeth to dry, preferably overnight.  Remove them
from the plaster cast carefully!  (Scraping a broken-off plaster tooth
from the inside of a fang is a tedious process.)  Clean them
thoroughly with a toothbrush.  They may taste strange at first; the
taste will wear off.

There may be some 'flash', or excess plastic, around the edges of the
fang.  Trim with an X-acto knife.  Try them on.  If the edges are too
thick, use a fine file to reduce the thickness until they're paper
thin.  If there are any irregularities or bumps in the fangs, use the
file to smooth them out.

Put some denture adhesive on the inside, along the BACK edge.  (The
plastic will be somewhat translucent; if the adhesive is colored (as
is Super Poly-Grip) it will show through if you put it inside the
front edge.)

                       == Tooth Style Two ==

This style includes gums made of dental polymer.  They require no
adhesive to stay in; you can sneeze violently or even EAT some things,
and they'll stay in.  The drawback to them is that, as your teeth DO
tend to shift, you may be required to make a new pair every so often.
It's also more difficult to say S and Z sounds while wearing them,
though this can be overcome with a little bit of practice.

Make the fangs in the same manner as above, but at the point where
you're supposed to let them dry, you'll do this:

Sprinkle a layer of the powder on the plaster gums.  Using another
eyedropper (or the same one, if you clean it), cover the powder with
the pink liquid polymer.  Repeat this process until you've built up
some pink plastic gums.  You'll have to scrape away plastic from the
surrounding teeth, with your trusty pen cap.  The plastic gums don't
have to be TOO thick, but the thicker they are, the sturdier they'll
be.  Make sure the last layer is a good dose of the pink liquid, to
avoid bubbles.

Repeat the process on the ridge of the palate behind the teeth.  It
doesn't have to extend too far back; I usually extend it to just
before the palate angles up towards the roof of the mouth.

Let it dry.  I've heard that pressure-cooking the whole thing for a
few minutes gives it a nice shiny surface, but I haven't been able to
try that.

Remove carefully.  Trim the flash.  Wash with a toothbrush.  Take off
all sharp edges of the gums with an X-acto knife, and sand down all of
the outer edges so they're extremely thin (that way, the gums will
blend in with your own).

Try them on.  They may be a bit tight at first, but they seem to
expand after a while.  Swish some water around in your mouth, to get
out any bubbles between the plastic and your real gums.  The bottom
edge should hug your real gum-line, and it should look like there's
nothing there at all.  If the bottom edge comes a little too far down,
simply trim it a bit with an X-acto knife, and bevel it so the edge
doesn't show.

Now go out and frighten some small children.  :-)


From: [e-mail] (GerardS3)
Subject: Re: Vampire Fangs
Date: 17 Sep 1994 01:23:08 -0400

Here is a more simple method of making fangs, although they don't look as
good as the ones made from the plaster cast and such you can do a very
decent job in far far less time with far far less expenditure.

Go to any art or hobby supply shop and get a small pack of Sculpy III,
Ivory works best.

Don't worry if your first try doesn't work as you planned one little
package at about $1.69 will give you enought for about 12 attempts.

1)  Cut off a small rectangle of the Sculpy.
2)  Press the Sculpy firmly onto your teeth, so that the canine is in the
center and the sculpy moves up your gum line in the rear and somewhat in
the front.  You want it to half cover both the tooth in front of and
behind the canine.  (It might take a couple of tries to get it right
because the sculpy does change shape when heating.)
3)  Cook the sculpy as directed on the package.  Let it cool.
4)  Using a very sharp knife (eg eXacto or such)  carve the cap into the
size and shape fang you want.  Be careful not to carve too much.  Carve
around the teeth and gumline to hide as much of the cap as possible but so
that it still holds.

When you insert it it should fit snugly, suck air back into your mouth to
create a vacuum.  The caps will stay on for a very long time.

It might take a few tries to get the hang of it, but it is cheap and it
works.  Again total cost is less than $2.00 and you have alot of tries to
get it right.

Happy fanging.

Gerry