The pattern I used for my helm was based on Kamui Cosplay’s from her Pattern Collection. However my head is larger and I wanted to account for a wig, so I enlarged the pattern and fiddled with the shape to resemble the set helm the Cowl of Gul’dan.

I made my original patterns with foam, and once I got the shape right, I covered that with worbla and stuck the pieces together. This got a pile of beveled trim that I made with a bead roller and worbla. At the same time I used Free Form Air to smooth the cracks between pieces and to create the ridges along the head.

I had a lot of trouble with the horns that wrap around each side of the head. I tried using the worbla-wrapped foam method, only I used floral foam instead of insulation foam and it crumbled everywhere and generally didn’t work out. The two halves didn’t end up symmetrical, which was pretty disappointing.

At this stage I also cast a gem for the brow and shaped it to fit against the middle ridge. This would later have a hole poked to allow for an LED.

I punched several hundred circles of double thick worbla out with a punch, then cut them in half, heated them up and laid them on as scaling, since I didn’t just want to paint the texture on, but actually have it there.

I used this technique for the whole costume. and punched about 1,500 circles, which were heated up and applied by hand (this used about 2/3 of a jumbo sheet of worbla).

First I sketched the shape of the pauldron onto heavy cardstock from looking at the 3D model on Wowhead’s Model Viewer.

This got transferred to EVA foam floor mats and put back together to test the fit and size of the shoulders.

I used the boobplate method to create half -spheres that would be recessed into the shoulder where the floating fire orb would sit.

I heated it up and stuck it on the inside of the pauldron.

More scales were attached in the areas that were visible since I planned on sculpting the bevels which would hide the rest.

Bevels got added with Free Form Air and cleanup of seams and overlaps was done.

More spikes were made with floral foam (I don’t recommend it) and attached with epoxy.

The floating fireballs were acrylic ornaments that were sanded and painted purple to diffuse the light on thin clear tubes to make them seem to float.

Each ball had three 12 Neopixel LED rings that were controlled by a central arduino that lives in one of my shoulders.

Here I was practicing some light effects and colors to find the right shade of purple.

The balls were then wrapped in Worbla’s Transpart to simulate flames.

After much unhappiness and tweaking, they came out pretty alright.

I started with a tape and plastic wrap pattern detailed in the above video.

This was transferred to worbla and details were drawn in.

More sculpting was done and the gem was added in. I ended up removing most of the underbust area because it was making my torso seem shorter.

Scales were added and a test cast of the gem inserted.  This single bevel is what I ended up going with, which looked pretty good.

Even the back has to look good, though its hidden behind my cloak.

Here I’m trying on several pieces of the set.

Vambrace made with worbla and some artistic freedom.

More sculpted Free Form Air was added (are you sensing a pattern yet?) and a gem was added.

The outer shell attached to an inner vambrace via magnetic snaps.

Foam patterns for faux straps and buckles were made.

A pattern was made for the belt, tassets, and tabard using the tape method.

This was transferred to worbla, where it got a pile of bevels.

I hand gradient dyed some microsuede cloth. This was used to make a tabard and then painted.

More painted symbols, with black outlines to make them pop.

Here I’m using Vaseline to lubricate the bead roller that I used for making the bevels.

The tassets were connected with lobster clasps and elastic.

After several attempts at the boots, I decided on going with something more accurate to in game. Because of this I bought a new pair of boots and adjusted the foot armor to fit them.

There were a lot of individual pieces, but they all held together and are attached with a zipper.

One of the armor pieces on the toe is held on with a little loop of worbla to straps on the boots. The toe piece is friction fit.

I used elastics to hold the pieces on, which worked pretty well but I lost one toe piece at Blizzcon that I then had to replace for a photoshoot.

More sculpting and scales.

Here’s what it looked like on the boots.