for supplying the items for us to make this armour!
ready?
On to the tutorial
The things you will need:
Scissors
Paint brushes
(of varying sizes)
Guesso
Heat gun
Sclupting Modeling tools
(I paid about 5$ at Michael's for mine)
The first thing you need to do is pick a small area on either side of your armour and heat it up with the heat gun. (I usually work my way from one side to the other from top to bottom, that way you don't miss any parts.)
Once the part is heated use your sculpting tools to gently push down into the sections you have cut away from your EVA foam. don't press to hard or you will find the worbla will tear and it will be hard to get it to look the way you want.
This is an optional step but I'm going to quickly show you hae to put edging on your armour if you so want it.
It's super easy Just cut out a bit of worbla the length you need and figure out what width you want it. Slowly heat up the strip of worbla you have cut on both sides then run the heat gun over the already embossed armour to make sure the worbla will adhear to it's self and apply it along the edges. make sure the measure your corners and make sure they fit together before applying the edging.
Your on the home stretch. It's time to finish the worbla assuming you don't want the ruff pattern that worbla has. if you do you can just skip this....I wanted something ruff but not quite as ruff as worbla so I went with about 5 layers of Guesso.
after that take a very fine grit sand paper and sand it to the softness you want. There are several methods you can use when doing this part.
Some people use friendly plastic and roll it on a marble or concrete surface to get it smooth.
Core geeks also came up with a pretty incredible way of making smooth worbla and I'll post that again.
check out the video at the bottom to see how I did it in sped up.
to see if there is a store near you carrying it :)
Until next time Geekies
Friday, 8 August 2014
We are back!
So sorry for the time away. Life for all of us at 519 geeks is getting a bit hectic. A few new members, a few old ones left but the tutorials will prevail!
Now we have the Second installment of our three part Tutorial series brought to you by....
So where we last left off you had created the pattern for your worbla Armour by wrapping your model in cling wrap and painters tape. Now we are going to put what we made to use and begin your Armour. (see the previous post under this one :D)
First step is to cut your template for embossing out of EVA foam. Make sure if there is alot of detail there is enough space to push the worbla down into itso it doesn't look like you just mashed it in.
Next you need to trace the pattern you made onto the EVA foam and cut that out
Alright got that done? awesome....
Now do it again....ON THE WORBLA YAY!
So for cutting out the worbla you will need to of each piece. Our Armour had three pieces to it, two in the front and one in the back so we needed to cut out 6 pieces of worbla in total. What I did was traced around the patterns once then just eyeballed the second of each piece to make sure it would fit over the pattern with a bit to spare on each side. That way you can do lots of trimming.
obviously the next step is to cut it out.
on the right you see me just eyeballing the second pieces for the front of the armour. Just making sure there is enough to cover and enough to trim off. ---------->
Finally whip out the Trusty old Heat gun and start slowly heating up both sides of your worbla. Make sure to heat it up slowly on both sides until it is malleable and starts to get floppy. then take the side that was shiny before heating it up and apply your foam to that side.
Trim all the extra foam from around all your edges
Now remember those second pieces you made? the ones that were just eyeballed and bigger and didn't really have anything traced on them? yeah those ones. Now you get to heat that up slowly on both sides and place it on the other side of the EVA foam, Making a Worbla Sammich and trim that up leaving about an inch and a half on each side. Normally
you would actually sandwich the pieces so the worbla would meet in the middle of the EVA foam on the side. However for the look I was
going for I needed something that looked big and clunky. Also since I
was doing embossing on some of the edges I needed to re-enforce those
edges with an extra bit of worbla on the side so I folded the front
piece over to make a lip.
I did use a sculpting tool to help me flatten the edges.
after getting everything sandwiched and ready to go you have to heat up your worbla again. yes slowly on both sides, but it won't be as floppy as before. do be careful tho the worbla can warp and you may not get it back to the shape you want it to.
Of course the best way to shape your worbla and make sure it's not going to be uncomfortable for you model is to shape it on them. You can also shape it on a dress form if that model is you.
and there you have it. If you have decided not to emboss the worbla you can leave it as it is and begin to prep it for paint... Coregeeks cosplay has found the best ways to make your worbla shiny and smooth!
HEY GUYS!
519 geeks has teamed up with www.cosplaysupplies.com to bring you some awesome new tutorials for their supplies. Starting with the best thermo plastic of all WORBLA!!!
Dani from Dani's cosplay supplies was nice enough to give us a good supply of worbla to try out. Now worbla is a thermo plastic Modeling material from Germany. You may have heard of wonderflex..well worbla is quite a bit like it without the grid pattern on it. which makes Worbla perfect for doing things like curves, (ahem certain parts of female armor ahem). It stretches and doesn't wrinkle as easy as wonderflex. Worbla is used by heating it with a heat gun...or a hair dryer if you have a bit more time, but a heat gun is almost as much as a hair dryer these days. We picked up one of ours at Canadian tire for just 14 dollars. for this tutorial we used old trusty...a heat gun Elicia had in her house that is probably older then her.
Worbla is also awesome in the way that it is easy to both bond to it's self and that it can be remolded back into the pile you have left over. It's also very easy to attach other things to what ever piece your trying to add to it. We did use some extra glue for the sholder straps of the armor but that was just because Elicia is a nervous Nelly.
without further delay here is the first part of a 3 part tutorial we are going to be uploading the next components as soon as possible.
Also if you wish to purchase some worbla and try for yourself or look for other cosplay supplies please check out Dani's cosplay's supplies for further info.
Making a Pattern For Your Worbla Armor!
First thing you need to do is gather a few materials.
You are going to need:
Painters tape
(or something like this. Duct tape is acceptable too)
Scissors
Cling wrap
A Pen
A Marker
(we tried using just a regular pen and I found it didn't work with keeping the lines straight)
After this you are going to cover whatever part of your model's body in cling wrap. make sure to get at least 4 layers or you may have some tapage sticking to your models shirt, leg, arm. (side note: also if you are doing a torso pattern, advise your model to wear a shirt they do not like....encase it gets cut)
Next step is to start covering the same area you just wrapped in painters tape or whatever kind of take you decided to use. Remember that your model may be in this for a bit, while you work out the details of their armor so be curious and make sure they can breath.....(ours could not:P). When covering the top, chest area of your model, make sure to do criss crosses with the tape. That will ensure you don't get any wrinkles with the tape and it fits more snug on your model.
One problem we did run into was the fact that the painters tape did not like to stick to the cling wrap so I actually just hit the tape with a bit of heat from a heat gun. It helps the glue heat up a bit and sticks much better. If you do load the model with tape you will find pieces will fall off, but as long as you don't need that tape and there is still a layer or two underneath just remove it. it will only get in the way.
After your making sure no tape is going to fall off you need to take the marker to your model.....no do not draw a mustache on them......(unless you want to...) You need to mark where you want the armor to end. This is the perfect time to give the armor a bit of personal flair. There may be a design your going by but this is going to be made for your models body alone, so make sure it looks right on them in comparison to the character you are trying to replicate. If you have no character make sure that the arm holes give them enough room to move and stuffs like that!
Finally The hard part of this process. Getting the pattern off your model without cutting their clothing XD. Remember earlier when I said to make sure they had a shirt they didn't like...there is a reason for this. Simply slide your hand along where you are going to cut it off them. If you are doing a full black plate it's still ok to cut it off them at the back You really only need half a piece. This is somewhat akin to cutting out a sewing pattern where you put the back part on the fold.
Now you simply need to cut out your pieces (however many you drew) make sure to have them all labled. You may know what they are now but you may not do all this work in one day. You don't want to come back in a week or so when you get the energy to work on it and can't remember which parts go where.
As an example here is the finished product with tracings of the pattern pieces over top. Your armor doesn't have to be intricate to be beautiful...with a
bit of imagination you can turn something simple into something
beautiful too.
Making a pattern before you order your worbla if you are on a budget will make it easier to figure out how much you actually need. To figure out your pattern try placing the pieces next to each other and measure out the length and width.(Side note:Remember to add detailing such as an edge or any raised designs you may want to add to your measurements)
You will need two of each piece. if you are doing the back piece like I did where You only make half of a full pattern remember to measure for 4 of the piece.
And then Trace it onto your Worbla!
and that's it! You have now made a pattern for your armor!
I've also done a video on how to do this, it has been sped up so we could show everything
Hello everyone!
this is 519 GEEKS signing on for our first post. This area will be mostly tutorials and walkthrew of how to make cosplay things or props. We may also do some sewing tutorials and link in with some of our members blogs as well to give you make up and other tutorials! Next to come will be a video/blog run threw on how to make armor out of worbla!
keep watching!
