Taboo's "outfit" goes through a fair bit of change between when she starts out in the Wildstorm series and where she ends up, as a fully-armored, bat-winged vampire lady (of sorts). By the time I started the shoulders and mask, the convention in Cali that I was initially making this for had been cancelled due to the pandemic, but I'd still like to have a fairly transportable cosplay for any future travel plans, so I'm still trying to keep her fairly low-key. That means no bulky items like huge, spiky shoulder pieces or a big mask, so I kept it simple.
Started out on the shoulders with a simple shape, cut out of rolled paper so it would hug my arms. Copied it out 3 more times, and taped them along a paper "strap" to see how it would look in a series down the shoulder. The results were surprisingly good (I might be getting better at this!) so I went ahead and cut 8 pieces out of Worbla and shaped them appropriately. Added some channels for the connecting strap, and more on the bottom piece for an armband to keep it in place around my upper arms, then went to cut out the leather. I'd initially planned on making these out of canvas and leather, like the greaves and bracer (see previous post), but the gentleman pointed out that the shoulders on the character were 100% armor - no base purple showing through - and there was already a lot of purple right next to them, on the vest. I grudgingly conceded his point, and cut them 100% out of leather.
While I was waiting for the weather to clear enough to glue all that together, I grabbed some paper and traced along my face, tweaking until I got a decent looking shape. The single layer of Worbla covered in leather seemed a little flimsy to be around my hair, which tends to eat things, so I made the mask out of two layers of Worbla, then heated it until the shape was right. If you've never stuck very warm plastic to your face and then pressed an ice pack onto it until it hardens, let me tell you, it's a very odd experience. Got a good fit, though, and it didn't seem too heavy on its own:
The weather still wasn't cooperating, so I took the time to paint the inside of all the pieces. I'm still figuring out the best glue consistency for priming the Worbla, so the inside of the mask and the underside of the shoulderpieces are a little rough, but thankfully they won't be seen much. Same as with the other costume bits, these pieces got 3 coats of glue, 2 coats of acrylic paint, and then acrylic sealer over top. I was a bit worried about whether the sealer would be enough protection; I wore the mask for an hour while prepping lunch, and you could see little drops of sweat beaded up on the inside when I took it off and no paint on my forehead, so that worry is settled.
I finally got a break in the weather or Memorial Day weekend, and spent a good amount of time outside, gluing all the leather bits to the Worbla. With all the pieces of this cosplay so far, I've gone through about 7 tubes of glue (they're not large), and had to order them online, as the stores near me are all out (and I didn't want to go into stores anymore, anyway). While waiting for those to dry, I cut out a smaller piece of Worbla and leather, and made the extra little horn for the front of the mask. In hindsight, I probably should have made the bottom of it pointy, not rounded, but eh. I'm counting on that not being obvious when it's on and people are more than 2' away.
I had been a little worried about the raw edges of the leather fraying over time, and the edges weren't always quite as securely glued down as I'd hoped (the Loctite flexible adhesive dries very quickly, and I was covering a lot of ground), so I went along the edges and added a couple coats of wood glue, then black paint to make it match the Worbla. Followed with acrylic sealer, and it feels solid and well sealed.
Once the paint and glue had dried, I sewed the shoulder pieces into place along a nylon webbing strap, glued Velcro to the top layer, and sewed the other side of the Velcro onto the vest. Turns out that sewing through heavy canvas, glue, and leather is no easy feat - each side took about an hour to get a 6" strip of Velcro in place, and of course, when I tried out the first one, I'd placed it incorrectly and had to take it off and redo it. Tried them on with the vest, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out:
I sewed the armbands closed with elastic, so hopefully they'll stay in place, and those are done. I was a little unsure how to attach the mask, whether it would need heavy elastic or a certain angle, or even a strap over the top of the head to hold it up. Did the same thing I'd done with just the Worbla pieces - tied elastic around the edges - and wore it for another hour. Aside from bonking the horn into cabinets because apparently I usually stand within 2" of them, it worked well, so I just glued the elastic ends in place on the inside. It seems pretty solid, though I might put some hot glue over it to smooth them out. No picture, but I'm sure it'll show up in later ones. 19 hours on the shoulders, 7.67 hours on the mask. Getting close!
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