Spidey-style Tortilla. That’s what the results of my first Worbla outing resemble. But not in a bad way. That’s just what the unpainted Worbla material looks like.
Above, on the left, are the foam sheet versions of the eye frames, which I traced from construction paper with chalk onto the foam sheet and cut out with scissors and an X-acto knife.
To the right is the roll of Worbla thermoplastic. While looking at a shaped, curving piece of it might remind one of taco shells or tortilla chips, touching it will put you in mind of those “rawhide” dog treat things. When cool, it is stiff (yet somehow rubbery), with a rough surface. It has a shiny side that is slightly tacky. When it is heated, the shiny sides will stick to each other, which can be useful.
Step 1: I eyeballed how much Worbla I would need, made marks on the roll and cut it out with scissors. It’s tough stuff, but even the crappy scissors I use when I don’t want to ruin good scissors didn’t have too much problem. The trickiest part was that it was rolled, thus curved, which made it hard to cut, and then, of course, it wasn’t flat for tracing. But that’s where the cool part comes in.
Step 2: The whole point here is that Worbla becomes pliable when heated, and that came in handy even for this basic first step. I took the fairly standard hair dryer above, set it to the highest heat and highest fan setting, and then moved it over the curvy Worbla pieces. In a surprisingly short time, they began to soften, and I could sort of push down the edges to coax them into flattening out.
NOTE: In my experience, the Worbla did not get so hot that I ever felt like I was in danger of getting burned, but definitely proceed with caution in case your particular hair dryer or heat gun or heat sensitivity surprises you with a different experience!
ALSO NOTE: I am using a crudely homemade “heat-resistant” surface clumsily crafted from aluminum foil wrapped around cardboard. See this tutorial for a better way to do this, especially if you find yourself working with a heat gun.
Pretty quickly, I had two flat pieces of Worbla.
Step 3: I laid out the foam frames for tracing:
NOTE: The tutorial I referred to (see said tutorial at worbla.com) called for layering two sheets of Worbla around the craft foam for each shape involved. I realized that made sense for armor, but I didn’t want my frames to be that thick. So I just used one layer of Worbla, minus the craft foam. But I still traced and cut the Worbla slightly larger than the foam so that I could fold over the edges for neatness. That may or may not have been necessary, but we’ll get back to that.
Step 4: Next, I cut out the shapes. Cutting around the outside was easy enough, but it was tricky getting to the inside portion. I had to poke and saw out a small section with the X-acto knife in order to get in there with the scissors. I think I’ve read that people use a heat knife to cut precision shapes with Worbla, but for this I got by with an X-acto and scissors.
Step 5 (no pics, sorry): I then used the hair dryer to heat up each frame for working with it. I made small slices along the inner edges and the bottom edge in order to fold over those edges and kind of pinch them together. I neglected to take pics of that part, being rather involved in the process. But it might not have been necessary anyway. The top edge is un-pinched, and it seems to look all right.
Step 6: Anyway, once I had done the detailed shaping with my fingers (again, be careful in your own efforts!), I heated each frame to softness once again and gave each its turn on Bob’s face for final shaping:
Within maybe–I don’t know, 30 seconds to 1 minute, each frame had cooled, and could hold the shape.
The curves are a bit wavy, but that’s a reflection of the wavy surface they were cooled on (I’m talking about you, Bob). It might be good enough, but if not, the great thing is that I can always smooth out Bob’s face and then re-heat and reshape the frames on the newly smoothed surface.
So, there they are. I feel pretty good about these as a first attempt, if nothing else. The next step is to paint them. First, a base coat or two to smooth them out (the surface is pretty rough), and then the final coat of black. I think if I go with a good matte black, the waviness of the curves won’t be too obvious. Or I might try to fix the waviness first. Once they’re painted, the reshaping is not an option.
To sum up, here’s what I learned about working with Worbla:
- Not Scary: It’s not as scary as I thought, and is actually pretty darn cool
- Tools: You can get away with using a hair dryer, scissors, and an X-acto knife for small, simple projects. I am guessing you may indeed want a heat gun and heat knife for larger and/or more complex projects.
- Working Surface: Even just using a hair dryer, it’s probably good to use a foil-type, heat-resistant surface. If nothing else, it is slick and non-stick (hey, that rhymed!), so that the Worbla will peel off of it easily when hot. But I recommend using metal insulation tape (again, see this tutorial for more info) as opposed to overlapping sheets of foil. The hair dryer kept blowing under the edges of the foil, thus inflating it annoyingly.
- Mold Mimic: The shape of your Worbla will follow the contours of what you are molding it on, so get that figured out, and the Worbla will cooperate nicely.
- Finishing Work: Even after shaping, the Worbla has a very unfinished surface, so be prepared to finish it with a base coat (or two) and paint. You can even sand the edges before painting.
- Free Your Mind and Stuff: Follow a tutorial for the techniques, but don’t be afraid to adapt the techniques for your own needs. This is fairly forgiving material, what with its reshape-ability and all, so feel free to play around.
Up next: Finishing and Painting the Frames (or more about web-shooters if I don’t get a chance to get paint today…)
Spider-Man Mashup Cosplay Costume: 
