springsteel
Well-Known Member

Photo by Jonny Hackett of No. 9 Photography
When I built my warrior version of Wonder Woman, I was hoping to get more mileage out of the armor by designing it meet the needs of multiple costumes: both Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman; Worbla isn't cheap and I had a hard time justifying the cost on just one costume. However, I had such a fantastic time making it - and learned an immense amount from my mistakes - that I've decided to screw the cost and start a new build!
Thus, warrior Hawkgirl:

This is the design I'm going for, though I'll likely rework the bracers and leg armor. Materials for the armor will be the standard Worbla + craft foam, and I have some aluminum tent poles to use for the base of the wings. I'm planning to make the feathers out of fabric and glue, likely with a wire shaft. The wings are going to be a challenge!
For the corset, I have a wonderful piece of metallic, white silk that I just dyed with onion skins, and I love the result:

For the mace, I really wanted something lightning-like to reflect the magical properties of the Nth metal, so the idea was to cover an acrylic orb with Worbla, and light it from the inside to shine out through the cracks. However, plastic balls of any and all kinds ONLY come in 6" and 8" diameters. Only. And for whatever reason I just HAD to have a 7" orb, so that's a hamster ball with the air slits filled in with hot glue, and skewered with a rake handle. (What's extra nice about the hamster ball, is that the bottom screws off, making it quite handy for LED installation.)
Then, I covered the ball in bits of Worbla that I stretched and tore to give it a nice crackly edge. The spikes are just cones of craft foam covered in Worbla.




The helmet I'm having trouble with. I started out with this little paper mache number, but really wasn't satisfied with the shape, so instead of scrapping it and starting over, I got hasty and over-zealous and covered the whole thing in 10 bucks worth of Paperclay. Having now wasted $10 worth of Paperclay on a lousy shape, I decided cut it apart and cover it in Worbla. While it's an improvement, I'm still struggling with the front and mask portion.




So, that's where I stand at the moment.

I'm hoping to change gears and start working on the wing frame this week, but that may require a bit more R&D. Working with the wings will be a major challenge, as will LEDs in the mace, but I'm looking forward to it.
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