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| Photo by Alive Alf Photography |
I'm going on record saying that this is one of my all time favorite cosplays I've seen this year. Oshley Cosplay had already won my heart with her incredible Mercy cosplay from Overwatch (which I featured earlier this year
here!) but this takes the cake. For BlizzCon this year, Ashley went all out and created a gender bend of the famed king of Stormwind Varian Wrynn. This is a picture perfect recreation of the character, and it even placed second at the convention's annual cosplay contest. For starters, the cosplay consists of the ridiculous armor that Varian is adorned with. All of this was made by Ashley and yes, even those eagle headed shoulder pieces. Sculpting and worbla covering was used in the majority of the armor construction. Not to mention the metallic coloring for all the pieces. One of my many favorite parts has to be the gold trimming/edges. It's detailed in such a way that it looks incredibly authentic. Something you'd definitely see in real medieval times for sure.
Obviously the one thing you'll all notice are the pauldrons. They're both completely different in terms of the face. One is of an eagle, and the other a lion (who's the proclaimed mascot/emblem of Stormwind). I believe Ashley crafted the initial base out of foam and then meticulously covered them in harder material for durability. This was possibly worn for a long period of time so arguably bumping into people was a thing to consider. The pauldrons were also latched on with either velcro or some kind of strapping mechanism. The deep red cape can be seen in some of the pictures in a flowing action shot. I also figure that there's some kind of bodysuit underneath all of the armor pieces. The center piece covering her chest is one of the more larger parts next to the shoulders.
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| Photo by David Ngo |
A white/gray shade of fur can be seen outlining the edges to some of the parts like the arm bracers and the legs. Blue cloth was also used and the pattern is just absolutely beautiful here. The bottom parts have that tabard like style parting down the sides and a small middle portion. That middle area is also layered. Going up a little bit for the belt shows a leather strap with its clasp being the front head of a lion. Again showing a recurring theme with the Stormwind emblem. The lion face can also be seen as two little circles near the upper edge of her breastplate.
There's also the fact that Varian's sword was also constructed. I'm not entirely sure on the name of the blade but it does show similarities to Ashbringer which is a famed Paladin weapon. Mainly with the ball suspended in the circular portion of the blade. What's even MORE impressive is that the weapon can be taken apart for two weapons or fused into one. You'll see these in the giant collection of pictures I picked for this showcase. The editing allows for the circle to be lit up plus the gem stones embedded in the blade have a shine aspect too.
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| Photo by Coslife |
The leg armor covers up a solid portion. It ends just about above the kneecap. They are divided up into 2 pieces layered on top of each other. Lion head shown at the top of them as well. The armor is also shown to be of a much lighter shade of gray in some of the pictures. These of course use the natural lighting in the area. The bodysuit looks to be of a burgundy red shade as well which works well with the other parts of the cosplay. Ashley also has a wonderful brown wig which parts on both ends. She also replicated the scars that Varian has on his face. I pretty much selected majority of the pro shots taken of Oshley's Queen Varian so I hope you get to see the amount of detail that I fangirled over. Many congrats to her on the win at the BlizzCon cosplay contest, it's well-deserved for sure <3.
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| Photo by Alive Alf Photography |
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| Photo by David Ngo |
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| Photo by MineralBlu Photography |
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| Photo by The Kaigan |
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| Photo by Alive Alf Photography |
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| Photo by Alive Alf Photography |
I'm hoping this convinces you guys to check out Oshely Cosplay's work if you haven't yet. This is the kind of caliber/craftsmanship that you all can expect and it inspires me so so much :D
