Working with Worbla for a Marvel Black Cat mask

So one thing that I really love about cosplay, and I'm sure a LOT of cosplayers will agree with me, is the chance to learn new skills. I've learnt how to sew, how to style my hair, paint my face and more recently I've started to explore props. Up until now I've been working with craft foam a lot but I decided to take the plunge and invest in some Worbla's finest art.

If you're new to cosplay Worbla is a thermoplastic that can be heated and shaped using a hairdryer. It comes in big sheets that you can cut with scissors and it can be sanded and painted easily. Because of this it is becoming the craft material of choice for people making armour, masks, weapons and other replica cosplay items.

I decided to make something simple and useful for my first Worbla construction. A mask. I've dressed as the Black Cat before, but she is one of my favourite characters so I thought the chance to improve it a bit would be fun, that way I could make a fairly generic mask as a first project.

So I cut two pieces of the Worbla and stuck them together. I then heated them with the hairdryer to stick them togeher. Putting two pieces together means that it was a bit more sturdy and any of the overlapping edges can be sanded away pretty easily.

I then heated the mask again and placed it over my face (once it had cooled enough). Because the plastic is still soft you can press it against your skin and really shape it so that is snug.

I then spray painted the mask with an under coat of grey spray paint to fill gaps and smooth it out.

Then I coated it in matt black spray paint. I 'glued' the mask to my face using spirit gum, it really helped that the shape fit snugly to my face so I actually didn't need a lot of spirit gum.

And here is the finished thing, what do you think?

Here is a picture without the wig too so you can really see the shape of the mask.

Aaaaaaaand finally the shot after the mask removal... It left a horrible amount of gunk on my face that I then had to peel off, sort of felt like I was painlessly peeling pieces of skin off. A very odd sensation indeed.

Do you think you would try making some props out of thermo plastic? I can highly recommend it!