Lux is League of Legends’ peppiest and brightest doll-faced champion who can give you a thorough definition of the double rainbow phenomenon while simultaneously lasering you in the face. This article is a cosplay tutorial on how to make Lux’s wand based on her Spellthief skin.

Spellthief Lux Sprites from LOLKing

Spellthief Lux cosplay tutorial? What does it mean? Well, in this cosplay tutorial, you will find step-by-step instructions on how I made my Spellthief Lux wand, which I modeled after the League of Legends champion’s in-game sprite. If you follow these instructions, you will learn how to make the to-scale wand with functional lighting you can really use to illuminate the enemy. Does that explain it?

What you’ll need

1” x 2’ PVC Pipe

3/4” x 2’ PVC Pipe (will need to be trimmed by about 2-3”)

Crayola Model Magic

Worbla’s Finest Art

Worbla’s TranspArt

Heat gun

Scissors

Paintbrushes, one small and one larger

A sea sponge (for detail painting)

Small pen flashlight (I used this pen light by Husky)

4 O-Rings with a 7/8” outside diameter (I used these by Danco)

Matte Mod Podge

Acrylic paint (brown, black, and a bit of gold)

Hot glue and hot glue gun

1. Shape the “claws” of the wand

The first step to creating your Spellthief Lux wand is to shape two clawlike/rootlike ends onto the 1” x 2’ PVC pipe, which is the main body of the wand. You can use a variety of materials to mold these shapes, but I decided to use Crayola Model Magic. It’s moldable and lightweight, especially compared to oven-bake clay. One caveat to note, however, is that Model Magic is putty-like and will droop when you try to make the points of the claws. To stiffen your Model Magic a bit, leave it out of the container to “air dry” for a day or two. Once it’s dryer, you will be able to use the Model Magic to shape the claws directly onto the main pipe of the wand. Do not cover the opening of the pipe; you’ll need to keep it hollow to add the lights to your wand.

Tip: Before molding the Model Magic onto the pipe, try sanding the pipe with one low-grit and one high-grit sandpaper. The Model Magic will adhere better to this sanded surface, and so will the primer in step 4.

2. Cover the “claws” with Worbla

You may have heard of Worbla, the multi-purpose, Frito-resembling thermoplastic hailing from Cosplay Heaven (aka Germany). Worbla has been a reigning material in the cosplay community because of its extreme malleability when heated and its reliable durability when cooled. It comes in sheets, and while this tutorial does not require a large sheet of Worbla, if you plan on creating more cosplay things like weapons or armor in the future, it’s worthwhile to buy it in bulk to lower the price overall.

In this tutorial, you’ll first use Worbla to cover the Model Magic claws you made on the base pipe. Some cosplayers are very skilled at smoothly covering their props in Worbla; I am not. But that’s okay. Because Spellthief Lux’s wand looks natural and raw, a rough and patchy Worbla coat will do the job just fine. Using your heat gun, warm up the flat Worbla so that it is flexible and soft. The shade of the Worbla will get slightly darker as well. Be careful not to overheat your Worbla, otherwise it will bubble. Then, take your heated pieces and wrap them around the claws, using scissors to cut off any excess ends. After a few minutes, the Worbla will dry and harden into place. You can sometimes correct errors by reheating them, but this doesn’t always work, so try to be as precise as possible the first time.

3. Create “roots” with Worbla scraps

After covering the pointy ends of your wand with Worbla, you probably have plenty of leftover scraps. These are perfect for adding details to the wand. When you reheat scraps of Worbla and mush them together, you can roll them out to create roots to attach to the wand. Roll out several long roots and, while the rolled-out roots are still hot, wrap them around the wand one at a time. They can overlap and wrap in different directions to add to the natural and raw aesthetic that we’re going for.

4. Prime, paint, and seal

Use your matte Mod Podge to add at least three layers of primer to your entire wand. This will even out the texture of the rough Worbla. After your three layers are dry, start with two or three layers of brown paint for the base. Make sure you cover all the nooks and crannies with this base layer, then use a black or black and brown mixture to paint shadows in all those nooks and crannies. You can then lightly sponge a gold and brown mixture of paint all around the wand to give it a mystical and antique enhancement. Seal your paint job with a final layer of Mod Podge.

Tip: The instructions for this step are short because they’re straightforward, not because they’re quick to do. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to prime and paint. Each layer will take an hour or more to dry. Don’t cut corners by brushing on top of wet layers; you’ll get the best results if you’re patient. Do something else while you’re waiting, like laundry. You know you’ve got a big, dirty pile waiting to be washed anyway.

5. Lights!

To upgrade your Spellthief Lux wand from standard to exceptional, you need to make it shine. Many cosplayers are in the business of doing fancy wiring with LEDs, but for this prop I found I could just as easily use two small flashlights. The pros for using flashlights instead of LEDs is that they’re generally a lot brighter, and they’re prewired so you don’t have to worry about calculating voltage, amps, currents, and other things I don’t really understand. The con is that there’s no fancy switch; you have to turn on the flashlights before you put them in the wand, and you have to dismantle the wand a bit if you want to turn them off, but you’ll see it’s really not very much of a hassle.

5a. Make your flashlight apparatus

In the What You’ll Need section, I listed two different sized pipes for this cosplay weapon. The thinner pipe is used to hold the flashlights inside of the body of the wand. If you use the exact same materials as I do (listed above), then the handle of your small flashlights will fit inside of the thin pipe, but the rubbery part around the bulb will not. This is good.

Try fitting your small pipe into the base pipe with both flashlights stuck in the opposite sides of the small pipe; the arrangement is flashlight-pipe-flashlight. You’ll need to trim your thin pipe by a few inches so that. When you put the flashlight apparatus inside the body of the wand, the flashlights do not stick out on either side. At this point, everything should fit inside the wand, but is likely not secure. To secure the flashlight apparatus, add one or two O-rings around the rubber part of the flashlight (as seen above). These will keep the lights from sliding out of place. If it still seems precarious, step 5b will add a final precautionary (as well as cosmetic) lid to the wand.

5b. Make your light-harnessing gems

The bright lights of the flashlights are great and all, but if you’re twirling your wand around as is up to this point, you run the risk of 1. flinging your flashlight apparatus at someone, and 2. blinding someone with a direct beam of light. To prevent these things, and to add even more cosmetic flare to your wand, you can cap the ends with some light-harnessing gems. I made mine using some leftover Worbla’s TranspArt that I received from a friend. To make the ball of the gem, I crumpled up a small heated piece of TranspArt, then added several layers of heated TranspArt around the crumpled piece, resulting in a jagged gem with interesting squiggles and shapes inside. Afterwards, I cut a rectangle of TranspArt and made it into a tiny tube that fit around the base pipe of the wand. Gluing together the tiny tube and the gem creates a sort of lid that fits to cover the flashlight apparatus. The gem also diffuses the light from the flashlight to create a soft and bright glow.

6. Admire your new prop

This is a necessary step, especially if you were able to follow all of the steps in this tutorial. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to make your wand, and take breaks when necessary. If you need a cheerleader, just listen to a few quotes from Lux: “Stay positive!” “We can do this!” “*insert maniacal pixie laughter here*”

If you have any questions, or if you would like to see more of my work, check out my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stardropcosplay.