Blizcon 2019 WINNER Large Fabrication Category! World of Warcraft 8ft Fel Reaver

[indiefilmgeek]

I began serious costume building in part because my oldest kiddo is a 'witching-hour baby'. He was born 4 minutes after midnight on Halloween. That means that Halloween and Birthday Parties overlapped and costumes are always involved in celebrating Tino.

My son turns 18 on Nov 1st 2019. And since he's a MASSIVE fan of World of Warcraft, I've agreed to take him to his first Blizzcon (Nov 2-3). For this trip, I'd very much like to build a nice showpiece that he can wear. And as a fan of big robots, I was drawn to the Fel Reaver. This mountainous NPC has terrified a generation of WoW player as it stomps around the Hellfire Peninsula sneaking up and crushing many a hero without warning!

I've downloaded the 3D model for this bad-boy and am currently working in Blender to break it into parts that I can use for Pepakura (to get the scale right). I'll post progress as I go, but I'm excited enough about this build that I had to share!

Wish me luck!

 

[Snikt]

Dude this is so great. Love that your son is a fan, especially since I played since launch way back in 2004. Its a bummer that the latest expansion sucks, but MAN. I am so stoked for this build. Cant wait to see what you have come up with. Been stomped by this guy too much!

 

[ChaoticCreation]

Watching this thread cause i think this will be epic. Are you planning to use just the original model or maybe adding some of the newer models added in Legion?

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Dude this is so great. Love that your son is a fan, especially since I played since launch way back in 2004. Its a bummer that the latest expansion sucks, but MAN. I am so stoked for this build. Cant wait to see what you have come up with. Been stomped by this guy too much!

Yeah, my kiddo likes the new races, but definitely was bummed by how difficult they made leveling. I was playing with him recently (we're a 2 account family), and the grinding was nearly endless after the update. He told me recently that it had gotten better, but I definitely don't play like he does. Tino is in the Alpha test group, an is serious expert on all things WoW lore. Can't wait to share Blizzcon with him this Fall!

Watching this thread cause i think this will be epic. Are you planning to use just the original model or maybe adding some of the newer models added in Legion?

We're going original for this build. We want to trigger as much Hellfire PTSD as possible! lol

 

[indiefilmgeek]

So, I've begun work on this monstrous build.

TRANSPORT
The first thing I'm going to have to do is figure out how I'm going to transport this beast to Blizzcon. All the best over-size costume builders say that you need to figure that out prior to building the costume - that way you can make the pieces fit the shipping containers.

I've already booked our hotel for the con. It's fairly close to the convention center, but it will still take some effort to get all of this costume over to the event (so day-of packing consideration is important). We'll also need to get the costume SHIPPED to the event. We live in TN, so CA isn't within driving distance. That means we either need to get this to fit into luggage containers to go with us on the plane OR we need to arrange ground shipping of the whole thing to the Hotel in advance of our arrival. I'm looking into both options.

PLANNING
In order get the right height, I'm going to use drywall stilts. I got this pair from Amazon for $85. They are about as short as you can get (lowest setting is ~15"). These will also need to be shipped to CA.

MODELING
So, in order to ensure we're under the height limit for the Blizzcon Costume Contest (8ft), I'm going to use Blender to modify the World of Warcraft Fel Reaver model. Luckily, there is a very good WoW model viewer (which allows you to pull .obj files of ANY item, character or set piece from the game). I've downloaded the .obj and then have cut it apart into smaller sections so I can modify those separately.

Here I've used standard human model (scaled to my son's height), and then I've started to bring over pieces of the Fel Reaver model for placement and scaling. I have Tino up off the 'ground' to compensate for the height of the stilts.

And after loading most of the pieces (Left site only), here is what it looks like...

LEGS
I'm starting with the legs, as practicing walking in these will be important... so the earlier I can get these done, the more walking around we can do in them!

Here is a good shot of the basic shape of the legs in profile (note the piping isn't in my scale model to keep things simple).

I then brought the simplified leg model into Pepakura and unfolded it.... 45 pages of 11x17 card stock!!!

After printing, taping, gluing and modifying is is the first pep - Just over 3.5ft tall.

From a front angle it looks like this...

My plan is to break this leg unit into a few parts (mostly for shipping, but also for assembly). Here are the sections:

• Knee section - lighted glowing piece at the top of the lower leg.
• Toe - the protruding front toe (that will need to be hinged so it won't get in the way of walking)
• Left/Right Side - I'm going to split the lower leg into two halves, which will make shipping and assembly easier.

CONSTRUCTION
With all this in mind, last night I started to build some of the parts... I began with the toe piece.

 

[ChaoticCreation]

Oh man this is looking phenomenal! I'm trying to dip my toes into blender and pepakura but it honestly looks really hard. Do you have any suggestions for resources on these programs for beginners?

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Oh man this is looking phenomenal! I'm trying to dip my toes into blender and pepakura but it honestly looks really hard. Do you have any suggestions for resources on these programs for beginners?

I have a little experience with 3D modeling in general (mostly 3DS Max). For this project I decided to try out a freeware program, and landed on Blender. I have no Blender experience outside of this one project (so I'm definitely still learning it). But I found the Blender Guru's youtube tutorials VERY helpful. First one is HERE.

 

[halrhyrr]

Looks awesome! I'm a sucker for massive builds like this, can't wait to see more progress.

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Did a bit more refining on the Fel Reaver costume 3D model. I feel like it's getting very close to where I want it.

I've also gotten the base shape of the lower leg done.

And, I'm working up the paper pepakura templates for the smoke stacks on these lower legs.

...which has resulted in a giant pile of paper tubes on my work bench!

...and, lastly, I took a quick break from building to cut this fast little foam gluing tip video. Enjoy!

 

[George]

Thanks for sharing this project,Indie! Looking forward to seeing this develop

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Still working on this when I can. I have the lower legs roughed out in foam, and now I'm playing with how the toe of the foot will work. Here's a video of my walking through my current plan for this.

 

[LeClubNerd]

Looking good

 

[indiefilmgeek]

I've had no time to work on this lately. But with the first round if Blizzcon tix going on sale this Saturday, I finally just 'made' time last night. Not a lot of progress, but I did catch-up the second Fel Reaver boot. Now both lower legs are at the same point.

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Duplicate Post Removed.

 

[indiefilmgeek]

I also got the main pieces of the collapsable toe units created for both legs.

Hopefully this will kick-off a lot more building on this!

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Duplicate Post Removed.

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Worked some more on the legs today. I ordered some test HDfoam Steve at SKS Props. Was a bit concerned initially that the sheets were rolled and taped, but they flatten out easily and the tape hasn't done any major damage to the foam that I can see.

I used a bit of this for the side panels of the foot. I'm just cutting templates to match the space/size I want then transferring them to the HDfoam with a ballpoiny pen.

Since I'll be battle damaging these pieces, I just cut them with sharp scissors, then used the band-saw to cut the angle at the top of the pieces.

I then used scissors and a woodburning tool to damage the edges to roughly match the 3D model texture.

I also started to attach the knee pieces to the lower leg.

The two legs together now look like angry birds!

Ended the day with the leg still on my workshop bench, with both the toe and the first side panel unit ready for attachment.

 

[atticusser]

I mean, I don't even play WoW but I can tell this is going to be incredible! It's looking great already! I'll be watching with keen interest.

 

[indiefilmgeek]

Started on the attachment points for the legs to the stilts. I want to be able to attach them so they will be removable from the stilts. So, I started the process by building a couple sections of sandwiched EVA and foamed PVC plastic. This gives this connection point rigidity but will still be easy to glue it into the inside of the leg unit.

Here is are the lower and higher connection points once glued into the first leg unit.

Those should hold the stilt in the correct position once the stilt is snapped into these supports.

And here is my first walk-test with the first attachment pieces in place.

 

[George]

Awesome !