WIP: Ninja Akali Armor (Adding Worbla)

 

Ninja Akali Pendant Logo Symbol

 

Ignore the details I sketched! This is not the complete look of the bracers.

 

 

Hi all! I wanted to post earlier regarding my progress on the armor but I wasn’t satisfied with the way they looked so I started over. I totally wanted to cry. I just refuse to wear anything I’m not proud of.

Pendants

It took me a few hours to get used to sanding all the pendants with the Dremel 4000 and shaping the  craft foam to the desired form. When it was time to cover it with Worbla, it looked pretty good on my first try! Then I made another one… didn’t look as smooth. I figured that once I add the symbols/trimmings, the flaws wouldn’t be noticeable.

Armor

I cut up my armor pattern out of craft foam and heated Worbla to the foam.  Then I wanted to add the details (e.g., border, symbol) in which I assumed it was fine to cut only a front piece of Worbla to attach to the craft foam, and thinking it would save me more Worbla. Big no no!! I should’ve cut a front AND back piece of  Worbla to adhere to the craft foam base. Due to this mishap, the craft foam did not stick well to the base so I ended up having to use a glue gun to adhere the details to the base. I was running out of Worbla and it would’ve taken me waaayyy more time to cut and heat the back piece. Now that I think of it, it probably would’ve been best to just do the latter to save me all the tears shedded 😦

In case you were wondering, it took me a large sheet of worbla to create all armor pieces except the pauldron and two kamas. I am waiting for my jumbo sheet to arrive. Basically, it’s taking me less than $150 to use this thermoplastic medium.

Lessons I learned:

1. Apparently, Worbla has a sticky side and non-sticky side.

2. Use the craft foam as the base. Cut a front and back piece of Worbla to cover the craft foam.

3. Heat both the Worbla details AND your Worbla base.

4. Shape the pieces using your body or still object while warm rather than wait for the pieces to stiffen to do so afterwards.

5. Always buy a jumbo sheet! It’s very expensive making mistakes with Worbla!

Please share your experiences with thermoplastic! I could use all the tips I can get!