Tag: How to

What The *Bleep* Am I Doing?! Worbla Deco Art

*Walks In* Been a while since we’ve been here, eh guys? Well, here we are once again! A “What The *Bleep Am I Doing?!” This time we’re gonna be talking about how to make stuff and deal with Worbla Deco Art! It’s a cool Worbla-esque product from Worbla. I’m glad I get to tell y’all about it. And if I can save at least one person from getting sticky, uncooled moldable material on their fingers, I have done my job. So let’s get started eh?

Now, what exactly is Worbla Deco Art? I’m sure most of you have heard of and possibly worked with Worbla, but this is somewhat of another beast entirely. So here’s a short and long answer to what exactly it is and how to use it.

Well, the short answer would be, that it’s a very malleable material that when activated by heat you can mold into virtually anything. It doesn’t exactly act like cosplay clay–moldable EVA foam clay and it’s not entirely like resin either. Worbla Deco Art is, to put it simply, a mix of the two of these materials. And it works quite well for multiple things.

The long answer though is better said by Worbla themselves:

Worbla’s Deco Art is the Worbla branded option for moldable plastic pellets. Heat these pellets to 65°C (150°F) with a heat gun, oven, or hot water to create a plastic putty with a low thermal transfer that you can shape by hand, push into molds, and sculpt with tools! It’s an excellent option for sculpting things like skulls, filling in gaps in Worbla armor, making multiple copies of something without resin casting, building up dimension quickly, and adding counterweight to things like pommels on swords.

Deco Art, like all Worbla Products, can be reheated endlessly and scraps can always be reused, so mistakes are easy to correct and makes this material very friendly for those who want to begin sculpting things such as mascot teeth or horns. The surface of Deco Art is much smoother than other Worbla Products, making it excellent for detail work where priming is either not an option due to time, or difficult due to space. Deco Art can be painted with acrylics or spray paint, and the pellets can also be dyed in advanced with polyester dyes such as iDye Poly.

Deco Art is excellent for building up dimension quickly, allowing details in armor to be made quicker and smoother than with the traditional Worbla Scrap/Noodle method.

It’s a pretty handy material, to be honest. The things I have already made are astonishing. From hearts to animal claws. The details you can make for your cosplays are super impressive. I’ve even seen some cosplayers make a whole Master Sword.

Another thing I have learned that can be done with Worbla Deco Art is that if you make a project that you intended to be quite brilliant and it turns out, well not. You can melt it down and either attempt it again or make something entirely different. 

An example I can provide is I tried and failed to make Legend of Zelda’s Rupees. They did not look good at all. So I just melt those down and I created claws for my upcoming Sukuna cosplay. And they look pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

All in all, as complex as Worbla Deco Art might seem at first, it’s a material of many hats. You can make an entire prop or just the details on one. You just have to know how much heat it takes and for how long. Because if it starts browning, you definitely need to stop the heating process. You can even use either a microwave or heat gun. 

One major thing is that you definitely need water with you. So you don’t burn yourself and so when you finish the shape you want your object in, immediately put it in water so it doesn’t lose its shape. Because it will, thanks to a little thing called gravity. 

Well, that’s all I have to say about this material, for now, catch y’all later for the next article!

Rebel Fae out!

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What The Bleep Am I Doing?! A Rebel’s Mini Guide To: Creating Scales From Soda Tabs

Hey everyone, Welcome to a new version of What the Bleep Am I Doing?! Rebel’s Mini Guide To… Yep, you guys read right…Mini! I thought of this when I was working on a new project recently. It was a small thing, but I wanted to show y’all but…it would have been too short to cover in a regular article. So thus, Rebel’s Mini-Guide To was born! Well, enough leaving you guys in suspense this article will be covering how to turn regular soda tabs into cool-looking scales! So let’s get to it, shall we?

Okay, so you can do this one of two ways I’ve figured out. The first is taking the soda tabs and a jar of paint and immersing it fully into the jar of paint. Make sure you have a pair of pliers or something long to hang onto the soda tabs when you dunk them because immersing the tabs full of paint with just your figures is annoyingly messy. Even if you have gloves. Just trust me on this one, guys.

Then after you immerse it in the paint, make sure you put it on some kind of grate to dry—with something under it to catch the extra paint drippings of course. I suggest using a grate because if you just use something like tin foil or cardboard, the tabs will stick when you go to pull them off.  Plus, the side that was stuck to the material won’t dry properly, making it more difficult to have it painted completely. This is why I suggest using the grate.

The second way you can paint the soda tabs is once again to put them on a grate but instead of dunking the tabs, use a sponge and lightly pat them with paint. Ensure to hold on to the tabs slightly so they don’t fall off or attach themselves to the sponge.

After they’re painted just seal them with some primer and voila! You now have some pretty awesome scales! I chose to put some shiny mod podge. But, that was my opinion.

Well, I hope this info was helpful to you guys! I love providing new tips to different things I find out. Even if is just small things. What did you guys think? I’d love to hear your thoughts! And if you try it out for yourselves feel free to show me your results! I’d love to see ‘em!

Lastly, if you wanna support Rebel Fae and get exclusive access to things such as work in progress posts and stories I don’t post here or anywhere else, hop over to my Ko-fi page and donate. I’m eternally grateful for all that y’all do for me, you guys give me the strength to keep going so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Until next time…

Rebel Fae out!

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Rebellious How To: Dr. Facilier’s Hat

Materials needed:

  • 5mm EVA foam
  • Top hat pattern—I used a pattern from Kamui Cosplay but with a bit of measure and breaking down a hat to a flat design you’d be able make your own I bet. I believe in ya’ll. But if you want to use the pattern I used here’s the link to it. (For this tutorial I’ll be using the pattern I got from Kamui Cosplay)
  • Black spray paint
  • Reference of Facilier’s skull—so you can draw it out later.
  • A strip of red fabric about two feet long and four inches wide.
  • Black paint—I suggest using Plaid Fx just cause the look you get is so worth it. Plus, it acts as a protectant on the foam.
  • Mod podge primer
  • Exacto knife
  • Hot glue gun
  • Purple feather

First, after you gather all of your materials and get everything set up—if you’re like me, everything is gonna be spread out in nice little piles before you. Anyways, once you have the stuff get your pattern and start tracing all of the patterns out on to the foam. Making sure that you mirror the parts that need to be mirrored and mark which piece is which too, so you don’t get confused. Then cut them out with your exacto knife.

*Quick tip: when cutting your pieces try cutting at an angle so you can get the pieces out easier, and you won’t have any excess foam on the sides.

Now that you have all the pieces cut out, start with the brim—those are the long and curved pieces. Take your glue gun—be careful cause it’s going to be hot and glue each piece until they’re in a prefect circle. Then work your way up with the next set of pieces—the rectangle ones, these will make the whole hat aside from the top. When gluing these pieces though, make sure to start with gluing one piece to the brim base and then glue the other pieces separately so it’s easier to attach when their together. Lastly, take the two half circles and glue them to the top and voila! You have a fully built hat!

Now on to the designing!

Take the mod podge primer and paint on about two or three coats letting them dry in between.

After the mod podge is dry, take the hat out into a well-ventilated area and spray it down with black spray paint. I found when doing this it took about three coats so that’s probably the amount you should prepare to do.

Once that’s dry take your black paint and go over the hat just to really make the color stand out. Unless you want a more faded look then skip the black paint all together.

After that’s done, all you have to do now is draw out the skull on paper, cut it out and mod podge it to the hat. Then attach the red fabric to the rim of the hat with a safety pin. In case there’s more fabric than you planned just double wrap the fabric. It’ll even give it a cool look too!

Lastly glue the feather to the top of the hat and voila! You now have a completed Dr. Facilier Hat! I hope this helped and if you have any questions feel free to ask! I’d love to help out!

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A Rebellious Tutorial! Resin Anime Coasters

Hey everyone and welcome to another Rebel How to! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these but here it is! Better late than never eh? This time I’ll be showing you guys how to make anime resin coasters! Neat huh? Well, let’s get started, shall we?

Materials Needed:

  • Epoxy Resin
  • Measuring cups
  • Gloves
  • Circle mold, Rectangle mold, or hexagon mold
  • Anime stickers
  • Stirring sticks
  • Glitter—any color and if wanted
  • Plastic cup
  • Clean surface

Step one:

Gather materials and put on gloves.

Step two:

Measure out hardener and resin as per instructions on the box in the separate measuring cups.

Step three:

Pour each into one plastic cup and stir slowly for about ten minutes. Pour glitter in as well if wanted.

Step four:

Pour resin into the chosen mold. Either the circle, rectangle, or hexagon. Leaving at least one centimeter off of the top. You have to make room for the sticker of course!

Step five:

Place your sticker of choice face down and with the backing on so, the back of the coaster doesn’t stick when it dry and the sticker doesn’t curl up in the drying process. Because no one wants that.

Step six:

Wait for it to dry. This’ll take about a day.

Step seven:

Once it’s dry, pop it out of the resin mold and enjoy my friends! You know officially have an awesome new coaster for your drinks.

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A Rebellious Tutorial! How to build a sword out of EVA foam

What you’ll need:

  • 5mm thick EVA foam
  • Cosplay EVA foam clay
  • Painters tape
  • Primer – Creature Cast Rubber or Plasti Dip- Plasti dip can come in spray or paint can
  • Acrylic paint – Highly recommend Plaid FX paint
    • Colors needed
      • White
      • Blue
      • Red
      • Metallic silver
      • Black
  • ½ inch thick wooden dowel – length: as long as you want to make the sword, I did my 3 feet since that goes from floor to my waist and I wanted the sword long
  • Dremel rotary tool
  • Heat gun
  • 150 grit sandpaper
  • Regular printer paper
  • Tape
  • Exacto knife
  • Safety goggles
  • Face mask—preferably one with a filter
  • Clean, open, and well-ventilated work area

Print out a reference picture—for mine I printed out Giyu’s katana from the anime Demon Slayer

Grab your printer paper and draw and measure out separate patterns. One for the blade, another for the hilt, and then one for the handle. After that is done cut them out.

(make sure you measure these patterns out for the size and length that you want your sword to be. On mine, I measured 3 feet for the blade 2 inches long and 3 inches wide for the hilt, and 1 foot and 3 inches for the handle)

Now, grab your 5mm foam (it will come in a long roll so roll it out on a large flat surface and put some heavy objects onto it so it doesn’t roll back up.) trace your blade and handle patterns onto the foam with a seeable marker. You don’t have to worry about the markings because they’ll just be painted over later. Also, don’t worry about the hilt pattern, you’ll get to that in a moment.

After you trace one side, flip it over and trace it again so you have two halves. Just do it with enough space from each other so one half doesn’t end up shorter or longer than the other.

Once they’re traced, cut them out with your Exacto knife. But be careful also I suggest cutting at a slanted angle, so your cuts have a smooth edge afterward. If they come out a little jagged, don’t worry, this can be sanded down later. Label each side front and back so you know how to glue them together and insert the wooden dowel later as well.

Now that you have the two sides of the blade, and the two sides of the handle, sand the sides with sandpaper—150 grit, then if the sides are still rough, use your Dremel—make sure you have the sanding drum attached(it’s the brown drum with sandpaper on it.) Use your Dremel to smooth down the sides enough so they are nice and even. But make sure you don’t sand one side too much that you can no longer match up your pieces.

Once they’re sanded and smooth, take that same sand drum on your Dremel and create a smooth indent right down the middle of both pieces of the blade, and the handle. This indent will be used so you can insert the wooden dowel—with contact cement, of course, to be able to support the sword so it doesn’t move around when you use it.

As soon as you insert the dowel onto the first side of the sword glue the other half of the pieces onto the first half. (The second blade piece and handle.) Just be careful to place them as evenly as possibly else wise it will turn out crooked. Pieces glued together with contact cement will not move an inch once together.

After the pieces are together and you have the fully shaped sword, now it’s time to work on the hilt. Take the pattern you made earlier—it should be in the shape of a diamond. Then get out your cosplay clay and stick it to the part where the handle and the blade meets. Mold it to the shape you made with your pattern and let it dry, so it stays connected to your sword.

Once it’s dry—it usually takes at least twenty-four hours to dry. But once it’s dry, you’ll want to take your primer and put it on the entire sword front and back. (If you have Plasti dip be sure to spray a decent amount of feet away—at least five, else you’ll get bubbles on the foam.) (If you use Creature cast rubber be sure to paint with even strokes all the way down.) With either form of primer be sure to wear a safety mask because of the fumes. Also, once you apply one coat, be sure to let each coat dry before applying the next one. (It might take at least three coats to cover your sword completely.)

Now that your sword is completely primed, it’s time to get out your paints. I recommend starting with the silver paint for the sword. Before you start painting though, make sure you tape the top of the hilt with painters tape, so you don’t get silver paint onto the hilt.

As you start to paint the blade, to get that sword-like look, paint quick, upward strokes all the way down the sword. This will give the effect of looking like metal. Once one side has dried, do this on the other side. It will take at least two to three coats. Unless you are going for the look of having the lower half lighter than the top. Then the lower only requires two while the top will need three.

Once you have the blade completely painted, tape off the bottom of the hilt and start painting the handle with white paint. Use the same technique used for the blade Then carefully paint eight diamonds all the way down the handle with blue paint. (Unless you rather wrap the handle to look like leather then skip this step.

Finally, uncover your hilt and tape off the top of the handle and the bottom of the blade. Paint the top and bottom of the hilt black and the sides all around, red.

Once it’s dry you have a fully usable sword prop! Congrats!

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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!

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