Hello everyone!
Way down below is the picture of the pauldrons. Top pauldron is made out of Worbla and the bottom pauldron is made out of foam. So what I am going to go over is the Pro's and Con's of Worbla vs Foam.
Weight of Worbla- it is a little more heavier.
Weight of Foam - is well it is lighter.
Durable of Worbla - I think it can take a beating before it starts to crack
Durable of Foam- Can rip and can bind very easy.
Building with Worbla- easy, cut out and around the pattern that you would like but make sure you cut out two of the same patterns and stick or sandwich them together with a heat gun and push the worbla parts together , can get air bubbles trapped if you do not push out the air bubbles before sealing it all the way around. DO not use any glues can be very bad for breathing in, glue mix with heat that's a NO NO, worbla becomes sticky when heated so you can even stick foam with worbla. Let it cool all the way before handling it.
Building with Foam- easy , cutting out the pattern and sticking the foam together with hot glue gun.
Details with Worbla- Worbla forms around the design that you are trying to get, just warm up the worbla and push around the design. Keep in mind Worbla can stick/form to any plastics.
Details with Foam- Foam just cut out and glue it onto the other foam part, to make the design you would like make, just make sure to glue every corner of the foam together..
Painting with Worbla- Simple! just paint it with Primer first then color paint !! Nothing more to do. Does not pill off and paint does not crack, cause it does not bend.
Painting with Foam- Not so simple, have to seal the foam before painting( why? cause if you don't seal the foam first the paint with soak into the foam and it would not look very nice) , with either wet down Tacky glue , at least 3 coats , each coat has to dry then put another coat on until the foam kind of shines, or another sealer is called Mod Podge that is used for gluing puzzles together, needs only 1 coat on top of foam let it dry then Primer paint and then color paint.
Price of Worbla- Pricey runs about $80 to $100 which you can find some to buy at
http://www.cosplaysupplies.com/ They are the best place to buy Worbla or Wonderflex or friendly Plastics.
Price of Foam - Cheap for a pack of colored foam runs about $1 to $5 or you can find a roll of foam for $7-8 at Joe Ann's or Micheal's
All in All both turned out great ! I personally like the Worbla better, it looks more realistic compared to the foam. However they both work for cosplay, foam or worbla both are great products to use and build anything out of.
Also when sticking stuff onto worbla don 't use hot glue it does not stick to worbla very well once painted , use super glue instead.
Down below is my start of my crown for Zelda , this is going to be made out foam since it needs to form around my head and not stab or poke into me while wearing it. Worbla can be sometimes sharp and not so forming round the head area. However I have done different crowns or head pieces with worbla such as my Lady Loki horns.
Finishing touches in worbla , this is the one I will be wearing
Also I am done with the front part of the dress for Zelda put the belt part with the fabric part together.
I have to give credit to my fiance Jason , we worked together on this cosplay. He does have a his own blog which i'll have to put it up sometime, so if you would like to check out his blog as well.
Thanks for Reading until next time Just Keep Swimming!
