DIY CARDBOARD ARTICULATING WINGS

DIY Cardboard articulating wings costume, child is dressed up to look like The Falcon.

Moving articulating cardboard wings have been something I have been playing with for a while now. I had seen mechanical costume wings and had thought, I'm sure I can create something similar. Using pieces of cardboard sliding over each other, creating wings that would open and close. And so the challenge was set.

DIY Cardboard articulating wings view from the back with the wings extended.

And I had to finish it before this halloween because one my boys are huge Marvel fans and wanted the wings for their Marvel Falcon costumes. The styling of the costume has all been created by my son who had specific styling notes on how he wanted his Falcon Marvel character to look. 

 

Cardboard articulating wing template and tutorial front view being worn by a child dressed up as the Falcon.

He has used a face mask as part of his costume and I think it actually works really well with his character. The eye mask is a really basic diamond shape with black stockings stretched in-between the cardboard to create his eye shields.

Back view of the the cardboard articulating wings with the wings closed.

The cardboard wings also can make the best fairy or angel wings, below I interchanged the nature coloured webbing for a white, to help it blend into the costume. 

DIY Cardboard articulating wings worn by a young girl by the waters edge with the wings extended. The girl is dress up as a type of fairy angel with a white dress.
The wings are opened and closed manually by pushing up on the lower wings and brought down the same way. My sons are quiet comfortable doing this however I think younger children may require some help.

I really want to make a note that this template takes precision and careful attention to detail to enable the wings to work. The wings simply won't work if one pivot point is out of align or the wings are in the wrong order. Hence this template is not for the faint hearted.

The template gives you the framework to make a set of wings that measures when open 145cm width, 71cm in height with each wing measuring 71cm from base to tip.

The wings will fit both a child and adult, as the straps are adjustable (however this was design specially for a childs portions). 

What you need:

The above links are to amazon products we currently use for making cardboard costumes. (they may differ from the video) but please use whatever available, these are suggestions.


See how the you can easily put the cardboard articulating wings together by watching this video.

 

By Zygote Brown Designs