If you haven’t seen the video for K/DA – POP/STARS, you’re missing out on some fantastic music and designs of everyone’s favorite League of Legends characters, including Ahri and her glowing nine tails.
Photo by Anna Cosplay Photography, Cosplay by Stella ChuuStella Chuu recently used TranspArt and cellophane to create her tails, and shared the process with us. You can also find the pattern for her design for sale on her Etsy if you want to try making your own!
Pretzl Cosplay used Worbla’s Finest Art to create a birdskull for her Xayah from League of Legends costume. Check out the video detailing the steps below!
KP Cosplay used Worbla to create a spear for her Snow Bunny Nidalee costume, and shared the video tutorial with us below!
Kazzy Cosplay created this tutorial for round three of our TranspArt Competition!
As part of the final round of the Worbla TranspART contest, all contestants are required to create a tutorial for their build. So buckle up, kiddos! This is a LONG read but hopefully helpful if you are looking to build your own geometric prop with TranspART.
For this round, I deliberated for quite some time over what I should make. I showcased the fire/visor capabilities of TranspART in my last build, so I wanted to look for something that would showcase alternate uses of TranspART. Many ideas later, I decided to create my own interpretation of Traditional Sejuani’s ice flail and battle helm from League of Legends.
First things first – for this oddly shaped flail, I sketched out the shape and started creating a pattern out of card stock. This tutorial should work for most bulky/geometric props that need TranspART sides.
This may take a lot of adjusting, but once satisfied with the smaller shape, scaled it up to your size. I multiplied mine by 3 so that I would have a large flail fitting of a battle mistress of the Freljord.
Translate these pieces to TranspART and add a seam allowance .
Ice time! Make sure you test your dye on practice pieces before you dye your final pieces! To figure out the appropriate shade of blue, I tested multiple pieces in varying times in different baths. Once satisfied with the test pieces, dye the large pieces. I used varying baths and purposely tried to get a bit of an uneven dye to represent ice.
Now let’s shape it up! TranspART does not adhere to itself very well while maintaining a strong, straight edge. To best represent ice, I wanted strong line edges but the TranspART was rounding with the heat shaping.
To combat this and get geometric edges, cut bits of thick craft foam (I used 5mm) on a 45 degree angle so you have triangular strips with a right angle.
Now use the angles to align your edges of your pieces. I adhered mine with Loctite but I believe most cyanoacrylate adhesives will work.
If your prop is big, use strips of worbla to line the edges for extra structural integrity.
Now glue your structure altogether!
Use craft foam and worbla-covered craft foam to create any details, structural points, handles, etc. For the flail, I used this for the “metal” bars, spikes, and top of the flail. I used a Gatorade bottle top as the center to connect to the chain!
Attach your flail to your chain with worbla and attach the chain to a pvc pipe.
Now seal your worbla and foam. I used flexbond for the first time with this project and I loved it! Strong and super flexible. You can also use wood glue, mod podge, etc. if you choose.
Paint and weather your weapon! Don’t be afraid to really dirty up the “metal” with some black and brown paints and bring attention to highlights/snow with a white or silver paint.
Ta da! Enjoy your new ice flail and swing that baby around!
BUT WAIT! There’s more?!
Helmet time!
Because I am a crazy person, I wanted to make Sej’s helm as well. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
To make this battle helmet, cover your head or wig head with plastic wrap and wrap it in masking tape.
Use a pen to line off your masking taped head to get a pattern. Carefully cut a long the lines, and translate the masking tape pattern to craft foam.
Trace the foam pattern to worbla pieces adding a bit of a “seam allowance” to shape over the foam. Use the “tab method” to fold the allowance of worbla over the foam edges so you get clean pieces. Adhere your pieces together with heat.
For the Viking horn, cut out a horn shape in pink foam. Sand and carve down the link foam til you get a nice smooth horn.
Use worbla and foam to add details to your helmet. Seal the helmet with flex bond (or your choice of primer).
Wrap your horn in HOT pieces of TranspART and be careful of your fingers! Use gloves or silicone finger tips for safety!
Adhere your horn with loctite or magnets for easy removal. Paint and weather your helmet and make sure you add some snow to your ice horn!
I hope that was helpful and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
The incredibly talented 9Flame Creations created this League of Legends Orianna Costume with Worbla, foam, resin, and lots of time!
Here are two videos she shared with us, on the process of making the hovering skirt, as well as Orianna’s Ball, below:
The incredibly talented 9Flame Creations created this League of Legends Orianna Costume with Worbla, foam, resin, and lots of time!
In this video below, she explains how she creates a gapless system to attach her armor, in areas where D-rings and straps would not be the best option.
Captain Izzy Cosplay (also on instagram and DeviantArt) shared this Helmet Tutorial from her Darkflame Shyvana costume with us.
1) Pattern that sexy troll face!!! Foil and painters tape is the new Sunday hat guys. Scroll to bottom for instructions on how I made the pattern.
2) I patterned the helmet detail panels in a similar fashion by applying the tape directly onto the helmet. Also see #7, 8 & 9.
3) To maintain flexibility in the worbla helmet, I used the folding technique rather than the sandwich technique. Since the tail adds a lot of weight to the back, the helmet had to be a rather tight fit in order to stay on properly. However, since the helmet covers so much of the facial and neck area, taking it on and off would have been impossible without some movement in the material. Even now it’s a bit tricky. The “hole” details are simply circular shapes pressed into the worbla to create depth.
4) The horns were built by creating the base shape in tin foil. Yes, getting these two horns to be relatively symmetrical is an absolute nightmare and you will cry, throw a tantrum, slam the horns onto the table a few times, and suddenly you’ll have the right shape
5) I covered the tin foil with duct tape to strengthen the structure and smoothen the texture.
6) I covered the horns in strips of worbla that overlap each other. This made covering the horn with worbla more cost efficient as you can primarily use scraps, which gave the horns a ribbed texture at the same time for some extra detail.
7) More detail panel patterning.
8) Cutting the patterns from EVA foam & worbla.
9) Folding technique for the detail panels to save some worbla and therefore money. The money you will need to buy comfort food after all the crying you have been doing from the painful test fittings
10) Still needs trims and a tail, but this is more or less what it should look like. At this point I was ready to mount some human heads onto the horns! No really, I have fun making cosplays
11) The tail is built from connecting vertebrae. Each vertebra is built from 3 basic pieces for which I used the worbla folding technique (with the exception of the few top and bottom pieces) to keep the weight as light as possible.
12) The 3 pieces combined create a triangle shape, allowing for a hollow tail.
13) Overall, with the exception of the base neck and bottom piece, the same triangle shape is repeated all along the tail, decreasing slightly in size per vertebra. Each vertebra is slid slightly over the previous one.
14) The top vertebra is connected directly to the helmet. However, each following vertebra had two holes in the middle on the backside (the side that rests on my back), both on the top and bottom. Through these holes I looped some fishing wire, tying two vertebrae together both on the top side and bottom. Doing so allows for movement in both a forward and backward direction, as well as sideways. Also, since the tail is hollow, it provided the perfect hiding spot for my own long hair, which was braided and tucked just inside the tail.
Lastly, the tail hair was a wig weft, glued to the bottom of the wig. To darken the eye sockets I simply glued the glasses of an old pair of sunglasses to the inside and sanded down the edges.
Photo by Lexa One Photography=== Pattern Making ===
To pattern anything for worbla, including the head, I wrap the intended area in foil and cover the foil with painters tape. For this helmet, I drew the outline onto the tape. To “flatten” the 3D pattern piece, I cut the pattern in half from the nose to the neck along the topside, and I created darts (like the sewing technique) for the rounded shape at the top of the head. Lastly I took the two pattern halves and applied them to EVA foam and worbla, which created the base helmet structure. Most of these seam lines that were created when I connected the worbla pieces were hidden by my helmet’s detail patterns. The others I worked into the design as details.
Kinpatsu Cosplay shared this video of the making of her Swords for her Katarina costume from League of Legends.
A gallery featuring builds that heavily rely on Worbla to form much if not all of their costume!
Scroll down to see their builds!
Tyrael from Diablo III by Littleblondegoth Cosplay
Barbarian from Diablo III by Littleblondegoth Cosplay, photo by Si Spencer
Tempest Jana from League of Legends by Element Cosplay, photos by Novii Photography
Valkyrie by Lightning Cosplay, photos by Martin Hola and Super Cosplay girls.
Female Barbarian from Diablo III by Lightning Cosplay, photos by Martin Hola.
Hildegard von Krone from Soul Calibur 5 made by Chiara Scuro. Last images by JL7 Photography and Sweet Sensation Photography
Hel, the Dragon of Life and Death, an original design by Erza Cosplay
Chaos Knight WIP by Drack Props, original design by Stranger1988
Kamui Cosplay’s progress video of her Dark Valkyrie Diana from League of Legends, sponsored by Riot.
The Glamorous Gamer Girls’ own Coco Rocha gave us a breakdown of her breastplate for her League of Legends Tryndamere costume.
Hello Everyone,
I’m still getting the feel for working with Worbla. It was an amazing experience as I mentioned in my other post and I’d like to share how I made my breastplate. When I was looking for tutorials I couldn’t find clear ones so here is my own version of how I made mine. I’m just going to go through a few steps/ tips when making your Worbla breastplate, it’s not extremely detailed since this was a rushed project but hope it helps anyways.
Worbla can stretch, mold within itself and be reshaped when reheated. I used a cut sphere as a reference to mold on top of. Just cover it in aluminum foil to prevent it from melting, and then put a plastic wrap on top so that when you mold on top of the half sphere it won’t stick on it. I used 2 layers of worbla for the cup so that its stronger and doesn’t melt easily and lose shape when I’m adding details.
Once you have the boob shape you can cut it down to a shape that’s more natural. I also used this method to make my helmet as you can see in the image. All you need is something to support it while shaping it and you can make any shape or size you want. I attached the boob molds on the band with a strip of Worbla on the front and back side. I made the bustier band part by wrapping it around my body and using a mannequin to see where I should cut the cups. Sorry I don’t have an image of this, but I just cut a straight band.
After securing the boob molds I just added the details I wanted. This is why I used two layers of the Worbla. When trying to add details on the base of a worbla project it can melt because you need to heat up both pieces to stick them together. The two layers prevent the Worbla from warping your base shape. The back I attached by using parachute clips. I wish I finished it another way because I find it ugly, but it was easy to put on and an easy solution to putting it on your body. An alternative I’ve seen other people use is metal loops and then string to tie it up with an overlap. The worbla is very strong, you can make straps and attach anything to it like the buckles shown below. Just make sure that you heat up both sides and ensure its stuck on so it doesn’t rip off. In my experience I had no problem with the buckles at the back and it withstands a lot of pressure.
Here is the final result of the Worbla breastplate armor. The inside you can see how I put the pieces of Worbla together. I didn’t double side it to save money, but if you can try to add the Worbla on the back as well.
Hope you enjoyed that and helped with your future projects!
Thanks again to Coco Rocha!
Taigakunn created this tutorial to explain how she uses clay and Worbla to cast pieces for her League of Legends Karma costume. This is an especially useful technique if you want to keep your piece as lightweight as possible, as it doesn’t require layering Worbla to achieve depth.
(We believe this would also work excellently with air dry clay should you need to make multiple copies of the same design.)
Click each image to have it open full size in a new window.
Many thanks to Taigakunn for sharing her tutorial with us.