WIP: Ninja Akali Kamas (Part 2)

Heat shape Worbla over Foamular Tutorial

 

Box 1. Heat Worbla over the Foamular shape on one side. It was a bit messy since I overheated the Worbla that caused it to rip. You’ll see some places that aren’t smooth due to the overheating.

Box 2-3. I cut the edges of Worbla /foamular combo. If edges aren’t smooth (shown in box 2), just heat up the edge and cut (shown in box 3). Be careful not to reheat and cut too much to avoid exposing the Foamular.

Box 4. Repeat steps 1-3 and you should have two kamas fully covered.

Box 5. Drill hole in kama where you will connect the pvc pipe.

Box 6. Layer details with Worbla. Get creative!

Next box is EXTENSIVE and please BE CAREFUL when following these steps:

Box 7. Prime with wood glue. Buy two PVC pipes measuring more or less 25″.

a) Wear protective gloves! About every ten seconds, heat pipe a few inches above the stove. You don’t want to overheat the pipe. Start a few inches from the top of the pvc pipe and same for the bottom, then bend to shape. The middle requires more reheating and bending to get more of a curve.

b) Glue pipes to the holes you drilled. I am a fan of clear gorilla glue. If you get the brown glue, it will definitely show and you’ll have to paint over it in the case you don’t want anyone to notice.

c) I added the small rim where the pipe connects to the hole in the kama as well as to the base of the pipe; and used a glue gun + gorilla glue + glue gun again for stability. Yes, Steamed Eggs takes EXTRA precaution. Let it dry a few hours.

d) Spraypaint all sides metallic silver and leave to dry overnight.

 

 

Spraypainted all four sides of kamas metallic silver; left to dry overnight

e) Time to paint four sides of the kamas! I used gold acrylic paint to make the details I wanted to pop out. When all sides dried, I painted the top and bottom of the handles brown. Then I covered the body with green electrical tape from Home Depot. I kept wrapping the electrical tape around until I got the bulk I wanted. This was just the way I envisioned my kamas to look like on a time constraint. The more practice I get with Worbla and the more time I have, it would have looked a bit different.

 

I’ll try my best to get back to you asap if you leave any questions for me!

 

Classic Ninja Akali rockin’ a winter coat at Pax East 2015

 

WIP: Ninja Akali Kamas (Part 1)

Box 1. Draw out the shape of the kamas. I recommend a tool called the Milkwaukee Sawz-All ($15 from Home Depot) to cut the shape.
Box 2. The black line indicates where to bevel on the left and right side of the prop.
Box 3. One sheet of Foamular was thick enough to use. Draw a black line to indicate where to bevel in the middle, outer edge of the sheet.
Box 4. Bevel and carve the edges with a small utility knife.
Box 5. This was how the final piece looked before layering with Worbla.

Steps on Making Ninja Akali Kamas

 

Note: Let me know if I should clarify. I will update the steps!

 

WIP: Ninja Akali Armor (Priming & Painting)

Priming

Wood glue is really the way to go! I used about seven to eight layers of Titebond II wood glue. I know it sounds like a lot but it dries fairly quick AND you’re still saving yourself time from sanding. However, I did have to cut and/or sand a few sections that dried up into accumulated drips of wood glue. There were times I covered the pieces with heavy layers of wood glue when I should’ve skimmed.

I tried hard sandable gesso on my pendants to test out whether it was worth having to sand. When it came time to sand, I was asking myself, “Am I even sanding correctly? Why are there still streaks? How long would this take?” I sand for half an hour on just one piece, started to see the Worbla underneath, and gave up. I had a total of fourteen pieces plus two kamas to sand. Do the math. No bueno. I figured, “Forget this. I’ll never be done in time for Katsucon. Let me layer these gesso pieces with wood glue until smooth.” I did not have to start over and make a new piece. It worked just fine and saved me so much time.

Layering with Titebond II wood glue

See how smooth wood glue dries?!

 

Painting

I spraypainted all items with Rustoleum Metallic Finish in Silver so I wouldn’t have to paint the trimming or details of each armor piece (and to save time handpainting my two kamas). After I let it dry overnight, I painted two layers on the sections that needed to be green with Michael’s Artist Loft Metallic Green Leaf acrylic paint (such a pretty color!). Then I mixed it with white to paint one layer of a lighter shade of green. Lastly, I blotted the sections white (about three layers) over the light green layer to give it that weathered look. It’s up to you to determine the number of layers you want to use as long as it gives you the effect you want.

Before the weathering effect

 

Dabbing paint for the weathered effect

 

Finish

I finished all my pieces with clear gloss spraypaint. Due to the time crunch, I only spraypainted one layer. I still have to figure out if spraypainting three layers of clear gloss would prevent my armor and props from chipping so quick. I saw how easily my armor and kamas chipped during my hectic NYC subway commute and my walk around the convention.

Finally! Some personality!

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!

WIP: Ninja Akali Armor (Base)

Paper armor template

 

Several pieces of craft foam armor base

 

Dry hands holding four layers of craft foam

Before I get messy with Worbla, I drew the templates on paper and made the base for my armor out of craft foam. I did not purchase thick EVA foam mats so I had to glue four layers of craft foam. I am referencing Kamui Cosplay‘s The Book of Prop Making with Foam and Worbla that I purchased the day I met her at NYCC14 (and was totally starstruck!) In the meantime, wish me luck covering these babies in Worbla!

Ninja Akali Preview

Happy Tuesday!

February is coming up soon and am on a tight deadline for Katsucon 2015. I will be joining a League of Legends group as Ninja Akali with my friend Alrisha.

Here’s a front and back preview of Ninja Akali’s tunic. I am using shiny milliskin from Spandex House. I know it can be difficult to see but I decided to have the side slits of the tunic begin around my waist to give it that va-va-voom! Next step will be adding the silver trimming. I’ll begin cutting up some Worbla tonight for the armor pieces. Stay tuned!

Katsucon 2015 Poll