First, here are all of the resin pieces that I have created from my silicone rubber molds:

The first and obviously difficult thing to do was to cast the emitter tip in clear resin. Its small size and my desire to make it as bubble-free as possible caused me a few headaches, but I managed to wangle it quite nicely. After my first few tries I was shattered however. The castings were not only full of bubbles, it looked like a can of soda had exploded inside the mold before the resin cured. It was that bad.

Of course I had the answer to this problem always in the back of my head: In my greenness I had foolishly attempted to pour the resin without degassing it first, because I shied away from the effort of building a vacuum chamber. No matter how cautiously I tried to mix the resin, the result was always a disaster.

So, I finally realized that there was no way around it: I had to build a vacuum chamber to be able to suck all of the trapped air bubbles out of the resin before pouring it into the mold. So I got myself a few components and started building: A small low-cost vacuum pump, a big stainless steel pot, some thick plexi as the lid, a flexible hose, a few connectors / valves and a rubber mat as a sealing gasket.

Putting it all together is pretty self-explainatory: I drilled two holes into the plexi, one for the hose that is connected to the pump and one for the valve which enabled me to re-pressurize the pot after the procedure. Then I connected the hose and added the rubber mat to the underside of the plexi to make the lid airtight.

Et voilà – my very own vacuum chamber! Not as difficult to build as I thought and it works like a charm! Resin degassed in there is almost bubble-free and cures beautifully.

Looking at the degassing procedure makes clear how impossible it is to get a bubble-free casting without it. There are a lot more tiny bubbles inside a resin mixture than you would ever imagine. Exposing them to a vacuum makes them visible, lets them grow bigger, rise to the surface and finally breaks them.

Bubbles or not, it is still very difficult to get the resin inside a mold this small though, because it is quite viscous. I use disposable pipettes to be able to allot the resin in small doses.

After the mold is about half-way full, I stop and use a toothpick to catch any bubbles that might have been caught inside the mold and try to push them away from the inner mold wall. This way no holes are created in the casting, even though those bubbles are still trapped inside and obviously visible. That’s not always possible to prevent. When I think I got them all, I continue and fill up the mold.

And here you can see the result. Almost bubble-free castings which will look fabulous when lit up by the electronics from behind.

The next element that required a special casting technique was the display panel:

Well, it didn’t exactly require a special technique, but I decided to do it a little differently from how it might normally be done to make it look more seamless.

The normal way of casting this would be to incorporate a hole into the master model so that the electronics could be inserted into the casting, which naturally also would feature this “window”. The other possibility would have been to work this hole into each casting, similarly as I did with the battery door of my ODN Scanner replica. With this experience under my belt however, I decided that I didn’t want to do it like this again because it’s just too elaborate.

Instead I put the LED digits inside the mold before pouring in the resin. This way the electronics get embedded into the resin and actually become one with the panel itself.

Doing this, a precise placement of the electronic components inside the mold is obviously vital. If they are not placed exactly right, they will later appear askew, which is of course not desirable. Also, the spaces from each short side must be enough to account for the screws and switches that are going to be placed there later.

To be able to leave the soldering joints on the back of the LEDs blank, I used one of the smaller molds (the one from the Emitter Base Strip) as a placeholder to put the components in their place and keep the resin from completely encapsulating them. That’s also why I made the master model for the panel slightly thicker than the LED digits, to have some room to work with. Just in case you were wondering.

While pouring the resin inside the mold, I gently push down the placeholder to keep the resin from creeping under the LEDs and between them and the rubber placeholder piece.

Unfortunately it is impossible to prevent this resin creep completely. Some of it always manages to get where it shouldn’t:

Thankfully thin layers of resin can be removed quite easily. After cleaning out all of the excess resin flash and sanding the surface flat, it looks like this:

The front is also usually affected be resin creep, …

… but just as easy to clean up:

The result is an extremely sleek element that looks like it was made from one piece, because it essentially is. No ridges, no crevices. Smooth as an android’s bottom, as it were.

As you can obviously see, I also experimented with dyeing the resin to make all the parts black. This worked so well that I won’t even have to prime and paint these parts since they basically look perfect right out of the mold. It’s also more accurate since the original prop was also made from black resin.

Following this thought, I also gave the end piece a special treatment to make it look like something made from metal rather than resin. To achieve this, I filled the resin with aluminum powder before pouring it into the mold. The more powder you use, the more the part will be made up from actual aluminum. And as such it will naturally look more like a metal piece, be a bit heavier than usual and also feel a little cold to the touch. Very cool indeed (pun intended) and a lot better than spray-painting a resin piece silver.

Coming out of the mold, this is not immediately obvious, though. The part has a dark grey color with a slight yellow tint coming from the kind of resin I use which usually has a beige kind of color.

Once you sand over the whole piece however, the aluminum particles inside the resin show themselves and the surface gets nice and shiny, looking very metal-like. And the best part is that it is scratch-resistant since this metallic appearance is not only on the surface like a delicate layer of paint but comes from the material itself which is two thirds actual aluminum!

Here are both side by side to see the difference before and after sanding.

All the other parts were pretty straight forward: I dyed my resin black, filled the molds and got beautiful looking pieces out of them. Everything just looks more badass in black.

And here are all of them together, again:

Not casting-related, but following up on my last blog post, I also wanted to show you what I’ll be using as the disc for the end cap. As I said in the last post, I wanted to use the real deal, which looked like acrylic to me from the photos of the original prop. So I got some discs lasered from 1mm thin black plexi by a fellow prop builder who has access to a laser cutter. Thanks again, Christoph!

The disc will also serve as a door to conceal the charging port for the built-in rechargeable battery. If everything goes according to plan, the door will be screwed on to the actual charging port, looking totally seamless from outside, without any sign of a door. Just the way I like it and did it before with my Voyager Desktop Computer replica. More on that in the next post.

Now that I have everything I need, I can finally start assembling! Yay!

To watch my progress, follow me on Twitter @trekprops and be sure to check back here soon to see the finished replica. If you have any questions, please also feel free to leave a comment below or E-Mail me at info@trekprops.de.

Thirdly, the color of the prop was way too light. Additionally, the backside of it wasn’t painted at all! The naked resin revealed itself which was simply unacceptable for me.

Here are a few pictures:

No doubt about it, I had to do some face-lifting work there.

My first step was to sand down the old paint completely and to remove the circuit graphic. I removed the paint residue from the “ground” of the circuit depression using an appropriate attachment for my dremel. This technique however didn’t work with the four upper small slots.

Next up was the backside. Since there was the raw resin visible – being everything but flat and even, I decided to strengthen it with styrene.

Some putty and sanding work helped here to make it look much better. There were however still imperfections left to eliminate.

After I had repaired all of the blemishes with spot putty, I could then primer and paint the piece. Since the original color – Plasti-kote 7173 – was never available in Germany and the original composition has been changed even in the US, I used a custom mixed equivalent that is indistinguishable from the original color.

Now I had to attend to the four small vents on the top of the prop. They had to be painted black again. Not an easy task to cover all of the insides with paint without messing up the front…

After I had cut the new circuit graphic, adjusted it to fit inside the depression and glued it in, I was satisfied with the result:

Looking back to the beginning I think that reworking this prop was worth the effort. The color is now accurate and the surface looks a lot cleaner and smoother. Only one question remains: How can I activate the darn thing…?

In the episode “Future’s End“, the Doc was able to get a piece of 29th century technology – the mobile emitter -, which enabled him to do a big step in his development: He now was able to not only exist in sickbay or the holodeck but any other room without holo projectors and to move freely on the ship, go on away missions, etc. In essence, he gained the same freedom any other (human) crew member took for granted.

Here are some reference pictures from various episodes:

Here are the pictures of my replica:

The exposed circuits can be modified using micro tools, …

… which can have different effects on the Doctor’s projected appearance.

Size comparison with a Standard Starfleet Comm Badge.

I got the circuit board graphic from a fellow prop builder, …

… who printed it on aluminium vinyl and then laminated it. Great work!

The inside of the four slots are hand painted.

The graphics were cut precisely to fit in where they should.

Once activated, these small devices enable the user to communicate with any other crew memeber who is also equipped with a smiliar badge. While the activation is done by a simple tap, everything else works through a highly sophisticated speech recognition system. Furthermore, these badged contain a personal ID beacon which can for example help to locate crew memebers in case of an emergency.

My replicas shown here are first generation castings from the original and are painted with authentic colors – unless you own a screen-used piece, this is as authentic as you can get. I acquired all of these items through eBay from the seller “JeepFX“.

TNG

TNG – Acting Ensign

TNG – “Future Imperfect”

DS9 – Bajoran Militia

TNG – “All Good Things…”

DS9/VOY/FC/INS/NEM

VOY – “Relativity”

Not only humans however use this kind of technology (see Voyager PADD), also several alien races like the Cardassians have realized the comfort of easy to use mobile information management. What I have here, is such a cardassian PADD, which was used primarily in “Deep Space Nine”. I was fortunate enough to add this piece to my collection by winning an eBay auction.

By the way: Although this PADD was designed to be a cardassian device, it was later repainted and also used as a Federation PADD!

First up, here’s a close-up shot from TNG for reference:

And here’s my replica:

• The buttons are decorated with gold and silver foil.

There are many details on this piece like ribbed parts…

… and stickers on the backside.

This replica looks rather rough…

… just like most of the original props as well.

This PADD is ergonomically designed and comfortable to hold.

Casting resin is available in many variants of different chemical and mechanical properties. I use a two component polyurethane quick casting resin without fillers with a working life of 2 minutes and a demolding time of less than 30 minutes. The resin is mixed with the hardener using a mixing ratio of 1:1 and cures to an opaque beige color. It has a very low viscosity and is suited for casting of highly detailed surface structures as well as complex parts.

Remember to wear protective gear such as gloves and a respiratory mask at all times when handling this chemical!

Modulor direct link: PUR fast cast resin G27

Here’s a closer look to the resin parts that come with the kit:

First up: Wash these parts in warm, soapy water to get rid of any mold release agent that might still be sticking to them. You need to get it off completely because it can prevent primer and paint from adhering to the surface properly.

Parts cast in resin are most times rough when they come out of the mold and have to be sanded smooth before processed further. In this case, the pouring of the resin created a ridge in the “walls” of the body shell. This is the area that will later be glued together. Here’s a close-up:

In order to make it possible to glue the parts together, you have to sand those areas smooth. I use a large piece of sandpaper mounted on a board to accomplish this.

The parts that come with the kit have already been pre-sanded, but you’ll still have to do some fine-tuning to fit the parts together perfectly.

Be careful not to sand too much material away – keep in mind that the electronics have to fit inside! Keep measuring the thickness of the two shells aligned to each other with a Caliper to make sure the prop will be equally thick on each corner.

Here’s the result:

Before continuing with the body, let’s pay some attention to the inner workings of the scanner first! Here are the electronics that are included in the kit:

Since the LEDs alone are not wide enough when placed next to each other, use some 1.0 mm styrene to act as spacers between them. This way, the width will be more accurate to the original prop.

This step can be quite tricky! Use some fast setting super glue and rough up the LEDs as well as the styrene with sandpaper or a file. When done, the glue will bond easier to the material.

Update: Since I wrote this tutorial, I’ve improved the set of electronics and am now using a LED bar instead of five seperate LEDs. Thereby the aforementioned (very elaborate) step in construction can be dropped:

Also, I am now using other super-bright red LEDs as the one shown here.

Next you’ll have to cut out all the windows out of the resin parts. Let’s start with the one for the front LEDs. As you can see in Part II, I specifically designed the silicone mold to create a particularly thin layer of resin in this area. That way this step is easily done with a sharp X-Acto knife.

Although the area of thin resin is fairly large, be sure not to create a window that is too big, because you wouldn’t want to have any gaps later. Keep comparing your assembled LED bar with the window to ensure a tight fit. Of course, if you want a bigger window, feel free to do whatever you think looks best. Gaps can be filled with putty later if needed.

Use a small jewelers file to smooth the edges. If necessary, use some spot putty to resculpt any imperfections here. Primer the part to reveal any blemishes and keep working until they are removed. When the electronics are installed, any work on this window will be very difficult, so complete it before the installation!

Next you need to cut out the battery door. The best place for it is in the handle on the backside of the prop. The opening can be conveniently hidden under one of the styrene parts that will be added later.

To determine the dimensions of the opening, simply measure the battery holder which is included with the kit. Then, cut out the matching styrene part using the included templates and place it on the handle.

Hint: Use spray glue to attach the templates to the styrene before cutting. This way the shape will be accurate and the paper can be easily removed in warm water.

Trace the outline of the detail piece and add the measurements of the battery holder like this:

The resin in the handle is approximately 5 mm thick, so you’ll need something more effective than an X-Acto knife this time. You can get good results if you drill four holes in the corners of the layout and then use a fretsaw to cut out the door.

This is the result.

Use a small and flat file to clean the shape of the door.

Now, the openings for both the trigger and the top LED have to be drilled. When doing that, it’s important to align the resin halves perfectly and to be careful not to bring them out of alignment during the drilling process.

For the trigger, simply drill a hole of 4 mm in diameter in the middle of the recessed area on the handle. Test fit the trigger and extend the orifice if necessary before continuing!

To determine the location of the opening for the top LED, use the template of the head piece, which will be added later. You can also use this and other pictures in this tutorial as a reference.

You’ll have to make sure that the electronic components have enough room inside the body to perform their function. To do this, you’ll need to dremel some of the material away.

This is where the battery holder will be put. You’ll have to align it to the door in the other body half, which will be placed on top of this one to enable easy access to the batteries. Again, use the dremel to create some more room if necessary.

This is how the electronics are arranged inside the prop:

To attach all of the components permanently into the resin shell, use a strong putty, for example a 2-component polyester putty which I use in my builds.

As you can see, all of the LED components are placed very near to each another. In case of the green running lights, this is on purpose and not a problem. But as far as the super-bright red LED is concerned, there is a problem with the close proximity to the green LEDs: Light bleeding. To make sure that the red LED doesn’t light up the green ones next to it when activated, you’ll have to putty up the entire area around the green LEDs and use black masking tape around the red LED.

When inserting the LEDs into the window, be sure not to make them flush with the front of the resin body. There needs to be some space for a piece of the included translucent plastic to go in there later.

When the electronics have been successfully installed and tested, the resin body can be permanently sealed. First, use 5 minute epoxy glue to attach the resin body halves to each other. Then, putty up the seam lines and sand them smooth when the putty has dried.

This is the most elaborate part of the buildup. Use primer to reveal any blemishes in the finish and remove them with spot putty and sandpaper until they’re all gone. Be sure to mask all LEDs and the trigger to protect them from sanding, puttying and priming!

Next, the head piece needs to be attached. Before you do that, sand a good portion of the top array off so that it will have the original thickness afterwards when the styrene is in place. Use the templates to cut out the shape and then use 5-minute epoxy to glue it on.

Again, putty the edges and use sandpaper to round them. Try to make it look as if the part was integrated into the overall shape of the prop from the beginning. As before, repeat the puttying, sanding and priming until the result is acceptable.

When everything is done, it’s time to paint!

You don’t want to glue the greeblies onto the paint later, so mask off all areas which will be enhanced with details. Then, paint the entire body with PK 7173 or a matching equivalent.

Don’t forget to drill the holes for the battery door screws!

When the paint has fully dried, mask off everything but the handle and the top scanner array and paint them with PK 7179 or a matching equivalent.

After this is done, remove the masking tape and continue with the last step.

Here all of the detail parts at a glance. For the emitter, shorten the acrylic rod to a length of approximately 12 mm and cut it in half. Sand the flat side of it to achieve a frosted look and a light diffusion effect.

Here are the color codes for the greeblies: Handle details, front ribbed piece and one of the small top details: copper metallic. The other small top detail: red. Rim strips and pointed front detail: PK 7179 or matching equivalent. Square additional detail on pointed front piece: beige. If you want, you can also paint the screws in the same color as the handle details to blend them in.

Again, use 5-minute epoxy or CA glue to attach the greeblies.

Screw the battery door in place after inserting two AAA batteries.

Fit the translucent plastic into the front LED window and insert it.

Cut out the display graphics that you wish to use and test fit them. When your display graphic fits the recess perfectly, use some thin double-sided adhesive tape to glue it inside. You can also use spray glue for this.

That’s it, your ODN Scanner is finished!

Now, go ahead and scan away!

Because the finished prop was supposed to contain an electric circuit with a super bright red LED and five green sequencing lights, the mold had to be done in a way so that the later resin casting is hollow. This could only be achieved by doing two resin halves which were then put together. This circumstance didn’t make the task of molding the prototype any easier…

Here’s again the finished master model just like it was about to be duplicated. To reveal small imperfections, I already applied some coats of primer and then repaired whatever didn’t seem right.

Since both halves of the cast resin parts should be as symmetrical as possible, I marked the middle of the body using a pencil. This helped me to accurately shape the clay bed later.

Next I had to make sure the work surface was leveled. This is checked best using a spirit level. If the work surface is not leveled now, the seam line of the two resin halves will not be straight later and they won’t fit together.

The next step is the most difficult and time consuming part of making a two part mold: The master model has to be half embedded in clay to create the first half of the mold. The above mentioned marking on the body of the prototype now helped me.

Be sure not to use just some material for this but non-reactive clay to avoid inhibiting the chemical reaction of the two silicone rubber components. To ensure that, I use a clay that doesn’t contain any sulfates and is oil-based. It works very well together with the additive cross-linked precision casting silicone I use.

The master model has be mounted evenly on the work surface. I achieved that by sticking chunks of clay under it to stabilize it:

Next up is the task of shaping the clay bed. I started by putting material close around the prototype body and then worked my way away from it.

Now the mold box had to be created. It determines the final size of the mold. Most people use styrene or wood to construct this box and seal the corners with clay but I found that LEGO bricks work very well because they can be re-used every time to create boxes of different sizes and the buildup of the box is fast and easy..

Now comes the tricky part: The important thing is that exactly half of the model has to be embedded in the clay. This just alleviates the buildup of the kit later. Also very important is the fact that the clay needs to be aligned exactly to the body. There mustn’t appear any gaps between the model and the clay. This could be repaired later, but it’s easier to do it right here. So, precise modeling work is in order here!

Of course, the entire inside of the mold box has to be filled with clay. As you can see here, I first did this only roughly and then did the fine tuning later to get the surface smooth and to close all the gaps between prototype and clay.

Still quite some work to do here!

The next picture shows a pretty good progress on the clay bed. To do the shaping I use a putty knife which makes it easy to reach tricky areas, for example corners.

Remeber to wear gloves! Otherwise the clay will get stuck under your fingernails which is quite uncomfortable. Furthermore, the clay will get dirty rather quickly if it is exposed directly to your fingers even if you washed your hands before!

Here’s the result after a lot of work: The surface is now very smooth and there are no more gaps anywhere.

Next I used a pen shaped tool to create several small indentations in the clay around the model. They will later become pins as the silicone flows into them and cures. The other mold half will then again show these troughs and both halves will be perfectly aligned to each other.

This is important for creating solid castings by pouring the resin into the mold while both halves are closed. Even though this was not the type of casting I wanted to do, I nevertheless chose to implement this step because it’s not possible to add it later.

After I had enlarged the mold box up to the desired height, I was ready to pour the mixed silicone rubber into it:

The deepest areas have to be filled with rubber first to avoid air bubbles. For the same reason you should pour a thin stream so that bubbles cannot occur in the first place and those created by the mixing of the silicone components can break.

When the prototype is completely covered with silicone, you need to add at least one more centimeter in height to make sure the “base” of the mold is thick enough.

After the silicone has cured, the entire mold can be turned around, …

… the LEGO bricks can be dismantled and the clay can be removed. Be careful not to move the master model in any way. Note the above mentioned pins in the silicone.

Remaining clay residue has to be removed.

Most silicones are self-seperating, which means that the master model won’t get stuck to the rubber so it can easily be demolded. This however isn’t the case when silicone is poured onto silicone. In this case, the two rubber parts would bond together and become one piece.

So, to avoid enclosing the prototype into a solid block of rubber, I had to apply a release agent to the first mold half. I used vaseline for this, which I brushed on carefully. Don’t be stingy with the release agent! The more you apply, the easier the demolding process will be. Remember to mask the master model off to avoid blemishing it with brush marks which would be transferred to the new mold half.

After I had removed the masking tape, I repeated the above pictured step of pouring the silicone into the mold, waited until it had cured, demolded the prototype and disassembled the LEGO frame. Here’s the result:

The silicone mold is now finished and ready to be used for resin casting. However, if I had used this mold as it is to cast parts, they would have been solid just like the master model. This however, wasn’t my goal. I wanted to create two resin shells in which I could install electronics. So, I had to do a little more work on this mold to make that happen.

In order to get hollow resin shells I had to find a way to displace the resin that I would pour into the mold halves. The first step to achieve this was to use clay again to shape “walls” which had exactly the thickness that I wanted for the resin pieces later. Everything that I made out of clay here, would become resin later.

Note the recess for the LEDs!

Next, I placed wooden slats with screws in them over the mold. The screw heads had the purpose to attach themselves to the silicone rubber I was about to pour into the clay lined mold. This way I would have a comfortable handle to place the inner silicone displacement piece inside the mold later.

Here’s the result of this rather complex mold making process: two two-part mold halves (front side and back side, only one half is pictured) which produce two resin shells that fit exactly together (well, more or less since there’s always some excess resin that needs to be sanded off).

The development of the two most important parts for the ODN Scanner kit is thus complete and the buildup of the hero prop can now begin!

This excitement of mine led to a passion for engineering tool props. As a matter of fact, this is what brought me into the hobby of prop replicas in the first place! Even as a kid I always wanted to have these little blinking devices, so why not build them myself now?

Since these types of props are not very prominent within the Star Trek universe – Phasers and Tricorders for example are more dominant – it is rather difficult to get any information regarding them. So, there’s only one method to get some reference material: To watch episodes and capture as many screenshots as possible.

Here are some reference pictures I have collected for the ODN Scanner:

Version 1: Early seasons of DS9 – color scheme 1 – medical application.

Version 2: Late seasons of DS9 – color scheme 2 – engineering application.

Version 3: Late seasons of Voyager – color scheme 3 – engineering application.

As seen on the pictures, these kinds of props often don’t have a “fixed” field of application. Because of this, they can be seen in the hands of an engineer as well as in sickbay.

In the Star Trek universe, the explanation for this is simple: All of these devices are composed of modules, so they can operate in different configurations and with a different programming to perform various tasks.

Production-wise of course, the prop department has a certain amount of these “miscellaneous” props in storage and then decides which one suits the requirements of the script best. If necessary, they sometimes repaint it to make it look a little different.

This is also why these types of props usually don’t have an “official” name. Therefore I had to make one up which would correspond to the shown usage scenarios of this prop: The ODN Scanner (ODN = Optical Data Network). I chose to ignore the medical usage here.

Using my reference pictures, I could then draw the following illustration, which also contained the final dimensions. Although some minor details are different from the finished product, the most important features are outlined here:

Careful planning is very helpful in this hobby.

This replica is a so called hero version. This means that it’s not just a painted chunk of resin but a hollow shell with working electronics inside. In this instance, there is a running light with five green LEDs above the display and a super bright red LED on the top side of the scanner. This brings the prop to life, increases the authenticity and is just so much more fun!

The traditional color scheme for Starfleet equipment: PK 7173 & PK 7179

Several greeblies add authenticity to this engineering tool: Styrene, clear plexi.

This prop can be seen in “Deep Space Nine” as well as in “Voyager”…

… and also had a short appearance in the show “Borg Invasion 4D” in Las Vegas.

I also made the display graphics myself…

… and got it printed on high quality photo paper.

This so called hero version contains an electronic circuit, …

… which lights up 5 green running LEDs and one super bright red LED.

The button to activate the lights is located on the handle.

The batteries are installed into the handle, …

…which can be opened to replace them easily!

Here is a flash animation to show the scanner in action:

The glowing LEDs are not simulated but actually photographed! The speed of the running light matches almost exactly the real thing.

As discovered in the sixth season Episode of DS9 “Who mourns for Morn?“, the truly valuable component of gold pressed Latinum isn’t the outer shell, but the inside which is filled with a silvery liquid – similar to quicksilver in appearance – that is the Latinum itself. The outside is composed of gold, which is considered worthless since it can be easily replicated.

There are several different sizes of gold pressed Latinum: slips, strips, bars and bricks. Here’s how they relate to each other:

100 slips = 1 strip
20 strips = 1 bar
1 bar = 2000 slips
1 brick = ?

However, specifications made in the episodes sometimes contradict each other. Quark for example states in one episode that one bar and 25 strips is less than 2 bars although one bar is supposed to be as valuable as 20 strips.

For more information regarding Latinum and its value visit Memory Alpha.

I have one piece of each size of latinum in my collection except a large brick. I also have a piece that is supposed to be a kind of “in between” size between a strip and a bar which is supposedly called an “ingot”. I don’t know however if this is the correct name from the Star Trek universe.

Here are some pictures:

Left to right: 1 Bar, 1 “Ingot”, 1 Strip and 1 Slip of Latinum.

A lot of money…

For 17 strips of latinum (almost 1 bar), you can buy a suit in Garak’s shop.

Cast from resin and painted with a beautiful golden color.

Every Ferengi’s dream…

Solid on the outside, liquid in the inside.

Those Ferengi letters are supposed to be names of the film crew members.