[TUTORIAL] Morrigan Aensland’s Bat Wings (on the head)
Hello everyone! Today I’m posting a tutorial about how I made Morrigan Aensland’s bat wings (the little ones on the head). I did them as an experiment, because I won’t wear her classic outfit soon. The result quite satisfied me.
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You can find me on Facebook as Hachi Cosplay or on Instagram as rebirthjourney
What you’ll need:
- craft foam, or eva foaam, 2mm thick
- baling wire, 4-5mm thick
- baling wire, 2-3mm thick
- baling wire, the thickest one you can get
- drill machine
- pincers
- nipper
- scissors and nail scissors
- hot glue
- paper (for the patterns) and markers/permanent markers
- scotch tape
- acrilic colors (for the wings: dark purple, lilac, burgundy, white and black; for the hairband: emerald green, white and black, according to the color of the wig you have)
- vinyl glue with a little bit of water
- two paintbrushes, a big one and a little one (for the details only)
- fimo air (or another clay that hardens in air, not in oven)
- newspaper sheets
- a spray bottle of opaque clear varnish
- headbands, a thick one
Step 1:
Draw your pattern of the wings, taking inspiration from a drawing that you want to imitate. I’ve decided to refer to this one.
After tracing the contours of your wings, marking the bones, cut. You could use a single pattern for both right and left wing, just as I did, or create two differents ones.
Step 2:
Create the skeleton with the baling wires, imitating as much as possible your pattern. Use the pincers and the nipper. For the external base: use the 4-5mm baling wire (green one); for the internal bones: use the 2-3mm baling wire (grey one). Stick together the baling wires with hot glue, just as my picture shows, after tighten them with the tinnest baling wire you get, in order to strenghten the structure. If one wire is longer than another, cut it with pincers.
If you want to be sure you did a good job, do this: before using the hot glue, attack the skeleton to the pattern, using scotch tape. It will help you to do the right amendments (moving the bailing wires in the correct position, calculating where to glue them, etc.)
I recomend you to leave a little bit of baling wire out of the hot glue zone. It’s the place where you’ll insert your white claw/horn.
Step 3:
Take your foam and cut some little strips, pretty long ones. These little strips will be the “skin” which cover the baling wires, the bones of your skeleton. How to calculate the length of the strings: measure the length of each baling wire (the external and the internal ones), add 2 centimeters and you’ll obtain the needed length. Example: if the green one, the external baling wire, is about 10cm long, for the little string you’ll need 10 cm + 2/3 cm. The width of the strings must be less than 1,5 cm: you risk to not cover well the baling wires, cutting extra foam for nothing.
For the claw: cut a rectangle of foam – or a similiar shape – that can cover all of the glue. Leave out the baling wire I suggested to not cut off before.
Wrap the strings and rectangle around the baling wires, and use some hot glue to stick them together. When the glue is cold, if you need to refine the contours, use a drill machine or nail scissors.
Step 4:
Again, take your craft foam or eva foam. Put on the pattern (or patterns) that you’ve made at the beginning, and trace the contours. Draw the pattern of each wing. Cut and you have the parts you’ll glue behind the skeleton. This is the purple “skin” of your wings.
Glue it behind the skeleton. Cut the excess, what you don’t need, or adjust the shape with the help of your drill machine or nail scissors (do this only once the glue is cooled down).
Step 5:
For the horn/claw, take your fimo air or clay you’ve decided to use. Create a shape similiar to the Morrigan’s claw. Insert it in the extra baling wire. Mold it if needed. When the clay hardens, you won’t risk to see the claw falling down of your wings. Follow the instructions of the clay’s package, the ones that exlains the cooling process. If you feel with your fingers that the clay is still soft, let it dry again. Avoid the normal fimo, or a clay that hardens with warm, it would be hard to let it dry. I tell you this because I did this mistake, and I risked to burn down the two horns. HAHAHAHAH But with a great amount of patience, I did it anyway.
Step 6:
Painting time! First of all, take a little bit of vinyl glue and add to it a drop of water. A fresh coat of vinyl glue all over the wing is ok. For the purple part of the wings, I’ve used a mixture of dark purple, lilac, burgundy, white and black. I don’t remember the exact proportions I used, because I did it intuitively, trying to recreate the colour I’ve had in my mind with many experiments. For bones and wings’ back I’ve used black colour. For the horn/claw I used white one.
I suggest you to begin with the “purple part” of the wings, with a big paintbrush; then you could paint the bones, the horn and at least the back. In order to not make any mess, paint one part of the wings at a time. Two fresh coat of paint, on each part of them. Have patience and let the acrilic colour dry.
When the colour has dried out perfectly, go in a open place and use your opaque clear varnish. Be fast when you’re doing this, do not focus on a single point: you risk to create unpleasant spots on the wings. Leave it dry for a night, if you can. Use your spray bottle 2 times.
P.S. If you want to adjust something with the drill machine, do it before the painting process. You risk to take off the acrilic colour and do it all over again (I did this mistake ).
Step 7:
In order to attack the wings to the wig, I suggest a very thick headband: it could support the weight of the wings and, mostly, of the claw. It offers more security and stability. Before this, cover the headband with papersheets and vinyl glue (it’s unnecessary if you don’t want to paint it, though).
Try to mold the extra green baling wire into a solid circular shape. I’ve made it just like the picture shows. It will be the “support structure”, the connection zone between wings and hairband. Help yourself with a nipper.
I’ve covered the support structure with the thinnest baling wire I had, in a really tight manner, for a major support. Then I’ve set it with more hot glue and left to harden again. Cut off the remaining bailing wire.
P.S. Those cracks you see in the black part of the wing, near to the headband, were made by simply folding the foam. Folding it, the acrilic colour shatters. In my opinion this gives a more realistic effect to the wings, but you’re free to not doing so.
Step 8:
Wrap the headband with paperprints and vinyl glue. First use your vinyl glue, then attack paperprints on it and, at the end, use another level of vinyl glue. Use two layers of paperprints.
When everything has dried out, paint the whole headband with the colour of your wig. I’ve used a mixture of emerald green and white. I’ve tried to get closer as much as possible to my wig colour, so I suggest you to paint the headband with the wig next to you.
First: colour with black acrilic paint there where the wings are sticked to the headband. Second: colour the rest with the emerald-white mixture. Do it two times, and then spray the opaque clear varnish.
And here, finally, the result!
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