Hello!
Here's the Build Log for my old Tyrande that I made back in 2014. I made her for the first Master tier cosplay competition at NärCon Summer 2014. That's the year they introduced three separate tiers of competing, instead of just having one massive competition.
Around this time (I don't remember exactly) Tyrande recieved a new model in WoW. Going from the old vanilla model to the armoured dress and Peg Bundy hairstyle that we've known for a long time until her recent Ascend to the Night Warrior in BfA. In any case I decided to tackle this new version of Tyrande. I was still a bit new to working with Worbla, wigs, and all that jazz so it was quite a lot to attempt. I don't have an abundance of photos, so this is a shorter log.
To start with I got a super long light green/turqoise wig. I chose a long wig in order to save some cash when cutting half the length off and using to cover the hairstyle and make the braid that goes around the puff in the middle. I picked the base wig to be of the lightest shade that I saw on the reference I had, since you can only make wigs darker - never lighter. This was my first attempt at dyeing or colouring a wig, so first I tried to use dark green haircolour. It didn't work at all (kind of as I suspected) since haircolour for genuine hair doesn't stick on synthetic fibres.
Testing the wig on before cutting and dyeing, and then when I attempted to use acutal green hairdye for the darker parts.
Doing the dyeing with alcohol based marker pens, and then adding a soft foam puff to style the hair around
Dressing the puff with the leftover hair that I cut away from the length, I used hotglue to attach all the hair on the puff
Making the dress, I used a cheap cotton fabric to make a mock-up of the pattern and fit. After I was happy with how it looked, I transferred it onto my chiffon and base layer fabric. I used about 4 layers of chiffon, and one base layer. The chiffon had all the symbols painted in with acrylic paint, and no work on the edges to give a rough worn look.
Making the base mockup, and then testing out all the layered pieces pinned together
Painting all the symbols and edges, and testing the dress pinned together to see how visible the patterns would be
I originally wanted to incorporate LED's to make the patterns glow, but I didn't figure out a way to make it look good so that's why I painted them instead.
Next up I made all the filigree armour parts. I made them out of Worbla and made my pattern from printing a picture of my reference and tracing it on baking paper. Baking paper is very heat resistant for obvious reasons, so heating and shaping worbla on it while having the pattern in back was the best solution I could come up with.
Sculpting the stomach piece
Almost all pieces sculpted, before adding crystals and paint
Sadly I don't have any WIP of the crystals, but for these I used another type of silicone to make my molds as opposed to the water+powder based mixture. I instead chose a more expensive 2 part silicone to make my molds with. They didn't come out great, but I didn't have time to remake them. At least this time the crystals themselves didn't turn out as bubbly as they did with Ysera. I used the same Clas Ohlson LED's as I did for Ysera, unaltered since I didn't have any clue still on how to solder. HOWEVER someone stole one of the LED crystals when I was waiting for them to harden as I cast them at the convention like the day before the competition. So for the bottom stomach crystal I just used hotglue to cover up the hole and painted it with the same paints as all the other actual crystals.
As for painting, I just painted everything with a silver spraypaint. No priming.
Mid-painting, middle of the night the day before the competition...
As for the bow, I started out with making my pattern out of newspaper, and then transferred it onto styrofoam. I then carved all the styrofoam, sanded it and covered in Plasticréte. Painted with acrylic paints.
Paper pattern and base styrofoam carving
Base carving done
This costume, as so many others, was very rush finished the days leading up to the competition so I don't have an more photos than these. So the rest will be in text.
The sleeve is a separate piece from the dress, made in the same fabric and with the same type of painted patterns. It has a drawstring closure in the sides to make it sit tight on the top part of my arm. I hotglued the Worbla filigree straight on the sleeve. All the other filigree parts were also hotglued on, except the parts going on my shins. I had leather straps glued on to those parts to tie them tightly. For shoes I recycled an old pair of sandals I had at home and hotglued the worbla filigree on.
As for bodypaint I used grease makeup, the only shade of purple that I could find in a large container. It was very very dark however so it's not a shade of purple I've ever used again for the actual bodypaint. It works for the face tattoos/markings, but that's about it.
I don't think I have much else to say about this costume, I've since remade it and I'll post a log about that version of Tyrande, as well as my Master Tyrande in upcoming logs!
Photos of the old Tyrande can be found in the "Other Cosplays" category.
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