How to make cosplay wings!
If you’ve been to an Anime convention or browse through cosplay social media often, then you’ve probably seen cosplayers with wings attached to them. Whether it’s Tracer from Overwatch or Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, cosplay wings can really make your outfit stand out.
But how do you go about making cosplay wings? Is it really that hard to construct your own? What steps do you have to take in order to successfully make your own cosplay wings? That’s what we’ll be discussing today!
In this post, you will find a complete guide on how to make cosplay wings. I’ll go over the materials and the 5 steps you need to take from start to finish. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you’ll find this guide helpful.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
1. The cosplay wing materials you’ll need
Before crafting your cosplay wings and giving it the fun detailing, you first need to compile the materials in order to make them. Don’t worry; you don’t need an entire garage or construction site to make cosplay wings. As long as you have a separate area or an unused room, that should be more than enough space to get this all done.
Here are some of the materials you’ll need to make your cosplay wings:
- The foam as your base material. It can be either lightweight foam or craft foam, up to you!
- Scissors to cut the foam. Make sure you get quality scissors for the cutting. Your hands will be thanking you after.
- PVC pipes. This will hold your wings together! You can find PVC pipes at your local hardware store.
- Pen or marker to trace the pattern. I recommend using a marker made specifically for tracing, as it will be much easier to use than a regular marker or pen.
- Glue gun. You’ll need this to put everything together.
- Heat gun. You’ll need the heat in order to shape the wings to your liking. Foam works well for this!
- Masks, safety goggles and gloves. I recommend having these to protect yourself.
- Any materials for decorating the wings. This could be stickers, paint, fabric or feathers.
- Straps to attach the cosplay wings to your costume. The wings won’t stick out on their own!
These are all basic materials you’ll need to make the cosplay wings. You can also add some fancy materials such as thermoplastics and Worbla to make the wings look even cooler. But since this is more of a beginner’s guide, we’ll focus on the basics instead.
2. Finding the cosplay wing template
Much like cosplay armor, you’ll need to find a source material to trace and shape your cosplay wings. Fortunately, you don’t have to create your own template to do so; there are many talented artists and creators who have already done the hard work for you! Websites such as Etsy have plenty of cosplay wing patterns.
Once you find the template, it’s time to print and cut out the pieces. This will be easy; after you cut out the paper, all you have to do is trace the pattern into the foam using your handy pen or marker. The cosplay wing template will be the correct size and proportion, so you shouldn’t have any issues once you are done tracing.
3. Shaping and layering your cosplay wings
Here comes the fun part! We are going to create the shape of the cosplay wings. Let’s start with the PVC pipes first.
- Create the shape and structure by modifying the PVC pipes. This will be the shape of the wings. Bend or heat up the PVC pipes to your liking. All cosplayers come in different shapes and sizes, so be sure to modify the PVC pipes to properly fit you.
- Now it’s time to cut out your template and shape your cosplay wings together. Like I said, I hope you got some good quality scissors for cutting! Using the PVC pipes, you’ll be gluing the wings onto the pipe and this will be your basic shape for entire cosplay wings.
- What’s important to know is that you should layer each piece onto one another. Just like how a bird has many feathers, so too will your cosplay wings have lots of layers stacked on one another. With your glue gun, you’ll be able to attach the pieces together and be able to create a nice stack.
- Once all the pieces are nicely layered together, it’s time to modify the wings themselves to make them more curvy and 3D (unless you want your wings to be super straight). You can use your heat gun to soften the foam and shape it to your liking. You definitely need to be careful though; the heat gun can get very hot!
- Once the wings are all glued together and shaped with the heat gun, you have your basic structure ready to go! Now it’s time to create the detailing on it.
4. Detailing the cosplay wings
The next step is now giving the finishing touches and detailing to your cosplay wings. Now this can really vary because characters have different stylings materials you can use. You can use a variety of materials such as fabric, paint, stickers, Worbla, feathers, etc. You can use the tools you already have to keep everything all together.
5. Attaching the wings to your cosplay
Last but certainly not least, you will want to attach the actual cosplay wings to yourself! This can be done with numerous methods such as using straps or attaching fabric together. The nice thing about wearing a cosplay is you can easily hide the straps or fabric underneath or behind you. You’ll want to make sure that the attachment feels comfortable to wear, especially if you plan on wearing the cosplay for hours on end at a convention.
Conclusion
As with anything cosplay-related, it’s going to take some practice in order to get good at making cosplay wings. I recommend starting with a character with smaller and easier wings to create, such as Bloom from Winx Club or Makima from Chainsaw Man. Once you get some practice in, you can try to do the more complicated cosplay wings. You’ll be a master in no time!
Summary
To summarize, here are the 5 steps on how to make cosplay wings:
- The cosplay wing materials you’ll need
- Finding the cosplay wing template
- Shaping and layering your cosplay wings
- Detailing the cosplay wings
- Attaching the wings to your cosplay
And there you have it; a complete guide on how to make cosplay wings! I hope you found this post useful.
If you have any questions or feedback, leave them in the comments below!
My name is Roger Senpai. I’m a cosplayer that’s been in the community for well over a decade now. I’ve traveled all over the world to Anime and Comic conventions and hosted my own cosplay events. Now I’m writing articles for new and experienced cosplayers like you to help inspire, save you money and improve your cosplays!
