A Rebellious Tutorial: Wonderous World of Worbla!

Hey everyone and welcome to the first installment of Rebellious Tutorials! Today I’ll be discussing what this magical thing called Worbla is and its magnificent uses! Or another term for it I suppose is, thermoplastic if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of it term wise. So let’s get this tutorial started shall we? I’m sure all of you fellow cosplayers are just dying to know how to use this sucker. I know when I was a beginner with Worbla, something like this would have been helpful. Anyways! Let’s get started!

What is Worbla?

As I’ve already stated, Worbla is a thermoplastic. When it’s heated up, it can literally be molded to anything—just take care to not burn yourself, it will get really hot after using your heat gun. And the most convenient part about Worbla is that if you mess up, you can just let it cool then heat it up again to reform it! That’s the really cool—not to mention handy, thing about this material. But don’t forget to keep your scraps because you can heat those up and mold them to little details you may want to make for a project later.

What it can be used for in cosplay

With Worbla, just like EVA foam, you can make all kinds of props and armor with it. Armor is the most frequent use of it. It makes it so your projects are a lot more sturdy and they give a better look to them as well. I prefer just EVA foam as is, but whether you just want to use EVA foam or Worbla, or even a mix of both is a purely personal opinion. No matter what you’re sure to have an awesome cosplay!

Examples of Worbla

Finally, we have the various types of Worbla that you can get your hands on. Just like EVA foam, it comes in various types. First, we have Fine Art, which is the most common Worbla type used. It easily adheres to itself so you can mold it into different shapes. And it is very durable, so it is commonly used for large project builds.

Then you have Worbla Black and Pearly Art. These types of Worbla are harder to glue together seeing that its adhesive is not as sticky as its Fine Art counterpart. But luckily that’s where contact cement comes into play. These types of Worbla are also mainly used for very fine details in a project. For example, if you were making scales for your prop or armor, these types would be the best option to go for.

I could go into all of the other types, but that would be pages worth of information. So, I only cover three of them. The ones that you will most likely use the most.

Anyways, that’s all today for this Rebellious Tutorial, see everyone next time!