Wonder Woman build - New 52 Cliff Chiang version

[Adorabelle]

Hola friends. I'm new here and throwing my hat in the ring for my first "build" thread. It's a rather last minute build for SDCC 2016 based on New 52 Wonder Woman (Cliff Chiang's art, specifically). Here are some of my reference pics. I'm making everything myself and a lot of the materials I've never worked with before:

Corset will be a leather floating cover over a coutil/steel boned core.

Undies and boot cover are a navy ponte di roma fabric (I'll take some pics of the patterning process for the boots).

Armor will be either sintra or worbla. I have both and am going to test out both as I've never used either.

Planning to use Alclad II Chrome for my silver paint - again, I've never airbrushed anything.

SOOOOO expect to enjoy my documentation of a lot of mishaps and mistakes along the way. WOOHOO!!! To Themyscira!!!

 

[teragon]

It's a pretty cool design, so good luck !

I've got one piece of advice regarding the aclad, and take it from someone who started using an airbrush with aclad directly :
First, you need a good airbrush. The two first ones I had didn't cut it. The first one that did was a Tamiya, although eventually I broke it trying to clean it, now I have an Evolution that works wonders. With that you need a proper compressor, with a pressure gauge, moisture trap and all.

Then, you need to really prep the surface, sand it down with the finest sand paper you have, micromesh if possible (1000 up to 12000), and before applying the alclad chrome, you need a very good glossy black base. I personally never managed to have a good one with Alclad's own gloss black base, but that's maybe just me, so I use an Humbrol black gloss spray can.
Only then you can apply the Alcald, in very light coats, and make sure it's the recommended air pressure on the compressor !

It's a process, but trust me, from experience, if you don't do it right, it's almost worst than a bad spray can ! But if you do, I've yet to find a better metallic paint than Alclad.

Good luck !

 

[Adorabelle]

Thank you Teragon! That is helpful. Thankfully I have friends who've been extremely generous in offering to help teach me the painting process (Rick and Sam of Ponteworks) and I'll be using their machine, but that's definitely good to keep in mind for future gear when I end up buying my own.

Also good to know about the sanding. I picked up a range of papers up to 400 yesterday, but I'll be sure to grab some even higher.

I do have Alclad's glossy black base, so we'll see how that goes... if no good, I'll have to see if the Humbrol is available locally (due to a last minute opportunity on this upcoming Monday this is going to be a very last minute build so I doubt I could get it in time online). If worst comes to worst I may end up redoing the armor in the future and can try it then.

 

[Adorabelle]

Some quick updates:

I've decided on Worbla for my armor, primarily because of 1) the need for engraved details in my armor pieces, which would be easier with Worbla than Sintra, 2) I don't have a vacuform or molds (I know sintra can be shaped without these, but those *seem* to be recommended for Sintra), and 3) Sintra seems to be much stiffer than Worbla... since I have some pieces which will be wrapping most of the way around my body (the belt, the armband, the bracelets), some flexibility will be necessary to get them on and of. So, Worbla it is!

I made a first attempt at my Worbla pieces which... didn't go so well. Ha. You can see the breastplate, my first attempt, is rather lumpy looking below. I think this is due to both 1) me never having worked with Worbla before and not really being familiar with how it heats and handles and 2) the fact that I attempted to merely coat the craft foam underlayer with one layer of Worbla on top... I've heard of people using this method rather than the 'sandwich" method with a piece of Worbla both on top and bottom of your craft foam core, but upon seeing some more videos of people using the sandwich method, I think this helps keep the surface looking a bit smoother than the 1-layer of Worbla method I used, due to the 1 layer needing a lot of hand shaping and pulling around the edges of the Worbla. I THINK this is what made it a bit more lumpy and uneven. So, I'm going to be re-doing these and the remainder of my armor pieces using the sandwich method.

As you can also see below, my second attempt, the tiara, looks a little better than the breastplate, but still more lumpy than I'd like. So I will be attempting that again, using the sandwich method this time.

I also started on getting a pattern for Wonder Woman's chevron corset design. A couple quick notes on this: because the pattern lines cross across where multiple boning channels for the corset would be, and because no bones/boning channels are visible in her corset, this needs to be made as a "floating cover" over a real corset core. Essentially, you make the core layer corset, which is complete except for the grommets at the back and no binding around the edges, then you make a separate floating "cover" in your design (in this case, chevrons), lay it on top of your "core" layer, and sew them together at the back/grommet edges, and the top and bottom edges. THEN you add in grommets and bind the edges (I'll be using a fairly standard binding method of double fold bias tape).

So, I have the pattern I'll be using for my corset "core." In order to get a floating layer which will match up exactly to my core, in order to avoid wrinkling, gapping, etc, I have to use this same pattern, just with different seam lines. To do that, I made a "mockup" of my basic corset pattern, then, while wearing it, had my friend draw chevron lines starting from equidistant points in the center front (we made them 1" wide, but that's really just personal aesthetics, you could make them thicker or thinner). The picture below shows the resulting lines. I also numbered them in order to keep them organized once they're all cut out.

The next step is cutting along these chevron lines, then using these pieces as my new pattern pieces for my floating cover. I'll transfer them to a butcher paper roll I have, and then use those pattern pieces to cut out the red leather I'm using for her corset cover. Remember that you'll need to add seam allowance to these pieces as well!

Tomorrow's updates should include pics of my Worbla battle 2.0 and/or the leather chevron cutting madness!