Recently I finished making a pair of Weeping Angel wings. They took me a little over a month to make start to finish, working on them on and off, and I decided to share how I made them. I do have details on how I made them on my WIP photos on facebook but I thought I would go into more detail.
Please note I used EVA foam otherwise known as those foam mats people use for camping.
First I went looking for some good reference photos of both the front and back of the wings. Once I did that I did a little math. I measured the length and width of the wings in the photo. I than decided how long I wanted them to be, which was 1m. Using the measurements I took from the photo, I worked out how wide I would have to make them if I wanted them to be 1m long.
With that work out, I took some paper and stuck it together to use as a pattern. Using the final measurements I drew a rectangle as a base. From there I drew the final outline of the wings
For the first wing I cut each feather out and than traced them on to EVA mats, and from there cut them out, along with the top bit. For the second wing I did not as I thought it would look just as good and it would be less time consuming. I ended up having some problems with the first wing. There was a gap where the feathers and the top piece joined which I fixed by using scraps to fill.
From there I cut out the top pieces and glue them on
Now on to the front. For the front I drew a pattern just for the top piece and I traced just the under side of the pattern on to the EVA foam, and I traced the top part of the wings so I knew it would match up later on and I wouldn't have to change it much later. When I went to lay the top piece on to the wing with gabs, I found that the gabs would show up on in one area which I fixed by making a feather for each wing to cover this.
As you can see in the photos one side of the feathers is flat and the other has a pattern on it. I wanted both sides flat so I sanded the pattern side down, but I only sanded the area that would not be covered. This is to save time. This photo is to show the top pieces all glued on to the sanded down base.
From there I covered both wings with PVA glue. I tried to lightly cover the wings with silver spray paint and from there drew on the black lines. You can see some uneven color, this is from where I covered some joins in the EVA foam with some paint over silicone.
From there I made a back piece to join the wings to and hold them on to my back. I glued two bits of EVA foam together and angled the edges where I was going to glue the wings to. I used seat belts to attach the whole thing to my back. I had one going around my waist with two going over my shoulders and attached to the one around my waist as shown in the photos. The seat belt going around my waist is the only one that I made go though the foam.
From there I glued the wings to it. The weight of the wings pulled a bit on the seat belts particularly at the top. It need a lot of hot glue which I ended up getting my heat gun out and using it to heat up the glue. In the end I get some Liquid Nails and used it at the top of the seat belts and I added a extra layer of EVA foam.
Not the best photo of the wings on, but so far this one is the only one I have. I would also recommend the use of clamps when gluing and sanding, it helps a lot.
