Sylvanas Windrunner

The Banshee Queen from World Of Warcraft.

We are the chill in a coward’s spine…
We are the instruments of an unyielding ire…
WE ARE THE FORSAKEN!!

photographers: Hagakure Photography | Greencat


Overall data

Source: World Of Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King)
Work time: over 350 hours
Materials used: pleather, cotton, Apoxie Sculpt, Worbla’s Findest Art, Worbla Transpa Art, EVA foam, craftfoam
Awards: third prize – GameStage Expo 2015, participation armor category – Vienna Comic Con 2016

Work time: over 350 hours
Materials used: pleather, cotton, Apoxie Sculpt, Worbla’s Findest Art, Worbla Transpa Art, EVA foam, craftfoam
Awards: third prize – GameStage Expo 2015, participation armor category – Vienna Comic Con 2016

Making of

I started this cosplay fall 2014, I don’t know when exactly. The creative process of this costume is all over the place, I worked too long on it, constantly improving it and adding stuff. I wore it the first time for Connichi 2015 after I worked for 90 hours the last 6 days before the convention and I even was still painting some stuff at the hotel room when the convention has already started – achievment unlocked! Back then I wore this cosplay for the first time without sealing the paint and the metal rings were too weak and bent themselves up.
So for my next time wearing it in October 2015 I repaired everything and added the giraffe-like structure on the armor and sealed it. I made a bootcover for my ankle boots and attached velco tapes to it and the inside of the boot armor. I also added velcro the pants and the upper leg armor to stop it from sliding down.
I only continued with this costume in April 2016, when I made the Hateful Gladiator’s Longbow, a quiver and arrows for the Warcraft movie premiere in May 2016. For Game City 2016 at the end of september I secured the armor parts on my gloves and cut open my bracers so I could put them on and take them off easier. Last but not least I wore this costume one last time at VIECC. I treated the cloak with fray check and made new and longer elf ears out of craftfoam (I used bought latex ears until before then). Also worth mentioning everytime after I wore the costume I corrected the paint where it was scrubbed off.

I used cotton for the gloves, pants and the cloak. The leg cover it made out of pleather with a zipper on the outside and Worbla’s Finest Art details on top. The rest of the armor also consists of Worbla’s Finest Art with silver Apoxie Sculpt details. The skulls on the pauldrons are formed out of wadded news paper and is covered with Plaast. Everything is attached with pleather straps and D-rings or side release buckles or – abovementioned – with velcro tape. For the gem stones on the bracers, pauldrons and the bow I used Worbla’s Transpa Art formed on a modelling clay prototype out of Fimo and painted them with vitreous color. I decided against real feathers for the pauldrons and arrows because I wanted them to be durable so I made them out of craft foam. For the Hateful Gladiator’s Longbow glued together 4 layers of 2 cm EVA Foam und carved and sanded them into shape. I connected the limbs with PVC pipes for easy transporting. For the typical long elven eyebrows I cut two flicks of hair out of the back of the wig, laid them down straight and spread wood glue als over it. When they were dry I trimmed them into shape with a pair of scissors. I covered the other side also in wood glue and when they were finished I glued them over my own eyebrows with spirit gum
The main reason for me taking to long to get into this costume is the body paint. It took me to a few times to figure out the best hue and I ended up with Kiomi AquaCream Make Up in blue – C91 from mycostumes, which I applied with a kabuki brush and sealed it with transparent powder and a fixing spray from Kryolan. For the dark lines underneath the eyes I used Cream Make-Up “Lich” from Maskworld. All in all it took me 2 to 4 hours to get into costume, sometimes I was really fast.

If you are interested in the creative process feel free to take a look at my progress photo album on my Facebook page.