STRUCK FIRST: Leah Stevo as a Whimsyshire Barbarian!

Photo by John Jiao Photography

Struck First gives you a first look at a cosplay just as it's been debuted/had its first photoshoot. Cosplayers have been kind enough to let me have a first crack at analyzing the cosplay by providing me with brand new pictures.

When I last shared mega sweetheart Leah Stevo, it was earlier this year with her AX debut of Star Guardian Urgot. She thus decided to top herself yet again with her BlizzCon cosplay. The colorful badass you see above is known as the Whimsyshire Barbarian, an overall base from the Diablo franchise. For those not in the know, Whimsyshire was/is an optional and funny portion of Diablo 3 that turns an already gothic horror game into a cute collection full of unicorns and other beasts for you to outright murder. Leah constructed this whole armor idea on her own, further displaying the immensely creative mind she has. Breaking it down first simply, the Barbarian here is made up of massive pauldrons with cupcakes on them, a very colorful breastplate with accompanying bracers  and full on leggings. A crown decorates her head, with galaxy hued wings extending out of her back. The weapon is also super colorful in its blade!

Photo by Martin Wong

Color-wise, there's a lot of that metallic gold which acts as trim for almost all of the edges to these pieces. The armor itself is colored beautifully in a blue shade that turns into turquoise, transforming it into a full gradient use. The ornate design on the trim and within the plating is something I most certainly can see as being in the game. Leah's pauldrons have giant horns sticking out in addition the the FREAKING CUPCAKES (which I've read/have been told, actually smell like cupcakes). Sprinkles and a cherry on top for each of them!

Leah's sword is like a pastel dream of ice cream with how the blade looks. Going quickly down to the legs, smiling cloud faces decorate them, further showing where this imaginary armor set is supposed to come from. Fur can be seen poking out of her bracers, there's fuzzy pink fabric draping down from her belt, oh and you can see slight rainbows being painted on the pauldrons. The bright orange wig just works perfectly as a contrast to the bright darks used in the armor. Leah was super kind in collaborating with me for this post so take a look at some thoughts from her brain down below!

Photo by David Ngo

This costume was 100% designed and fabricated by me. I gave myself a challenge, which was to combine the BRUTAL, intimidating visual language of a barbarian from Diablo 3 with the adorable, saccharine elements of Whimsyshire/Whimsydale. Weapons and wings already drop in Whimsyshire, so why not design a full set of armor to go with them?

I have been wanting to build this for YEARS, and slowly built up the design in my head until I could envision it clearly enough to build. 

Photo by Mineralblu

The first thing I imagined a Whimsyshire armor set would have is CUPCAKE PAULDRONS! Cupcakes drop instead of health potions in the Whimsy maps. How cool would it be to rock some of those cupcakes on the actual armor? I made the cupcakes by sculpting the swirly frosting shape out of expanding foam, and then vacuuforming that shape twice with PETG plastic sheeting to make 2 hollow, lightweight copies of the frosting shape. 

I "frosted" those shells with a large popsicle stick and bathroom caulk, because the caulk behaves almost identical to actual frosting! I airbrushed the "frosting" a nice sparkly pink to look like the in-game model and added handmade giant rainbow sprinkles. The next step was giant cherries to go on top of each cupcake. I sculpted those out of Model Magic, and painted them red. I then glazed each cherry with a SUPER GLOSSY finish to make them look more authentic. The final touch was to make sure the cupcakes smelled as delicious as they looked! I used costume scent spray from Duft Werks in a custom scent called Celestial Parfait. I sprayed it on my final armor and it smelled great all day!

The rest of the armor was made with EVA foam and reinforced with cast resin filigree. I couldn't decide which color the final armor set should be, so I used a color shifting custom automotive paint that.

Leah is seriously one hell of a creative individual in addition to being a super sweet gal. You guys NEED to add this cutie to your cosplay follow list. Definitely will not be disappointed <3
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