Materials
- Worbla
- 1 mm craft foam
- Duct tape
- Plastic wrap (AKA saran wrap)
- Sharpie
- Scissors
- Heat gun (or hairdryer)
- Silver spray paint (I used Valspar Metallic in Silver)
- Star-shaped stencil
- Red acrylic paint
Step 1: Make Your Duct Tape Cast
The first step is to make a duct tape cast of your left arm. Take your plastic wrap and wrap it around your upper and lower arm, starting at just above your shoulder and stopping at your wrist. Then, wrap the duct tape around the area of your arm that you just covered with the plastic wrap. It will be sweaty and uncomfortable, but it will get the job done.
Step 2: Draw Out the Pattern
Take your Sharpie and draw out the pattern. Make sure you use reference photos for this step.
Step 3: Cut Out the Cast
Before you cut yourself out of the cast, mark the points just below and just above your elbow. Your metal arm will be in 2 pieces which allows you to move your arm. I wear a silver elbow-length glove underneath to cover the gap at my elbow and my fingers. Now, cut the cast at the inside of your arm, and at the lines at your elbow to make 2 pieces.
Step 4: Number Your Pieces and Cut Them Out
You will have a LOT of little pieces that will fit together like a puzzle, so you'll want to number them to keep track. Cut out the little pieces. Here's my forearm cast before I cut the pieces out:
Step 5: Transfer to Craft Foam and Worbla
Once you've cut out the pattern pieces, transfer them to your craft foam and then your worbla, and cut them out. Use your heat gun/hair dryer to form the Worbla and adhere it to the craft foam. FYI, I was very new to cosplay and didn't use many tutorials from others while making this, so I gave myself extra work by reassembling my duct tape cast so it's actually part of my final product, and I put the worbla/craft foam on top of that. I would recommend NOT doing that because it isn't necessary 😝 Oh well, we all learn from our mistakes. Once you finish this step, you should get something like this:
(Sidenote #1: That extra piece at the top of the shoulder it what helps that arm stay in place and extends under my jacket so you don't see where it ends. Sidenote #2: That note on my arm in the final picture says "This is the piece that I forgot :)" because I forgot to number it and couldn't figure out where it went.)
Step 6: Prime and Paint
Now, like I said before, this was my first time using Worbla. As a result, I didn't prime or sand it, which you really should do to help with the semi-rough texture. I went straight to the paint, but it ended up alright anyway. I used Metallic Silver spray paint by Valspar. Using a star-shaped stencil that I cut out, I painted on the red star in acrylic paint (I don't remember what brand). It looked like this:
Step 7: Wear Your Arm and Look Badass!
That's it! You now have a Winter Soldier metal arm! So go out and look awesome! Here's my full costume in action:
(Sidenote #3: In some of my photos, like the last one, I edited my arm to appear seamless. Like I mentioned before, I wear a long silver glove to cover up the gap, but in some photos I don't like how obviously it looks and so I edited it to appear to be one piece.)
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment! 😁
- Birdie 💚
