It was quite a while since I started this project, which was back in 2017. It was a project that dragged out, because I lost motivation half-way through. To this day, almost 2 years later, I still haven’t made all of the weapons. But I thought I’d do a write-up anyways.
The first part I made on this cosplay was the leggings. For those, I used a stretchy imitation suade and a regular leggings pattern. I cut a stripe down the middle of the pattern and did the stripe from a similar fabric, but darker colour. I stitched strips of ribbon on the darker stripe before stitching it together with the lighter brown and sewing the leggings as normal, one leg at a time!
For the breast plate, I first made a pattern by wrapping myself in kitchen wrap and tape and drawing the lines I wanted. Then I cut it out and transferred it to a thin, soft yoga mat. I’ve got a very good sewing machine (it’s ancient, but the motor is strong), so I was able to stitch the foam together on it.
I measured out where the dark stripes around the arms should be and then I cut out the same pattern from leather and the same dark brown fabric I used for the pants.
Next I did the boob cups. They are cartoonishly round on the model, so I made mine like that too, using a plastic ball to shape cosplay flex around. I used two layers, so it wouldn’t break from being stretched too thin. I used wood glue as a primer.
I spray painted the boob cups with silver spray paint. I added rivets to them for the effect.
I made a leather base that I dyed dark brown and glued the boobs to it and lastly it to the rest of the chest plate. I used contact glue for all of the glueing. The embroidery piece was added later. I just bought a celtic knot applique from eBay.
I found the perfect brown suade ankle length boots in Deichmann. All they needed was the dark brown detail with the gems. So I wrapped ceran wrap and duct tape on them to make the pattern.
I cut out my pattern in dark brown pleather and glued it on top. The gems are just glass cobachons with nail polish painted on the under side.
The arm and shin armor sit on top of the arm and leg wraps with straps. The shape is fairly simple. I just cut it out in foam, which I heat shaped round.
The edges are made from thinner EVA foam.
I spray painted everything seperately and glued it together after painting.
Sadly, I forgot to take progress photos of the gloves, but here’s how they were made:
I first cut a piece of fabric that is wider at the top than the bottom – trapeze shape, but with a triangular top where it’s taller in the middle.
Then I made each of the strips and stitched those on top and then hid the ends with the foam border.I used some watered down dark paint to weather the leather a bit.
This is how it looks together.
The leg wrap is very simple just a round pleather sleeve with fur at the top and splits at the bottom. The wrist armor is attached with foam, the leg armor with leather strips that go around the leg and attach with velcro
The skirt is quite simple as well. It is a bit longer on one side and has a zipper at the side seam and a fur trim at the bottom
My helmet caused me a lot of headaches. No pun intended. I made the pattern with the good old seran wrap + duct tape method, but had a lot of trouble, since I had to make it to fit with my wig. And my head is about twice the size with wig as without.
Eventually, though, I managed. It’s 3 mm foam with cosplayflex around. I first added the flex on the foam, then added the pieces together.
Once the main shape was done, I spent a lot of time sanding and working on the seams to make them smooth.
The feathers and other details that sit at the ears are as separate pieces that can be removed to make it easier to transport.
I first made all of them from EVA foam that I cut and sanded into shape.
I covered it all in Pearly Worbla. I had some and it’s a bit smoother and easier to finish than cosplay flex.
I used glass cobachons painted with nail polish on the underside again, but I glued a very thin magnet underneath. The pieces have screws on them that attach through holes in the helmet and are held by nuts on the underside. The magnet-stones stay in place, because the screws are magnetic.
This probably wouldn’t work as well if I wasn’t wearing a wig, but it’s enough padding that I don’t feel the screws.
I spray painted everything silver and hand-painted highlights/lowlights and gold details afterwards.
The shoulders are honestly not a point of pride, but I will share them anyways. Here they are unpainted. I used cosplay flex to make two rounded “plates” for each side, glued “grout backing” (a round foam that comes in rolls from building supply shops) at the edges.
I painted them later with acrylic paints.
The beginning of the wings look quite ridiculous. I used PVC pipe for electric wiring inside walls. These will be where the wings attach, so they can be removed easily. This was attached to a board to keep it steady on my back.
Valkyrie Mercy’s wings sort of spring out from a shield.
I added foam on top of the wood board to make the base shield shape. I used XPS foam to make the base stem on the wings and cut out a channel in them where I added more pipe, which fits inside the pipe on the back.
I used the blueprint kindly shared by C’est la Sara for the wings – check it out here.
I cut the pieces from XPS foam and sanded them to shape by hand.
The front panels were made with EVA foam – they had more details that were easier to replicate in. I also once again covered everything in cosplayflex, primed with wood glue and painted first with spray paint base coat, then air brush.
I added 2mm EVA foam rings on the shield and used spray filler as a primer. I also got started on the sword that sits on the shield. The handle is a PVC pipe and everything else is XPS foam.
I used the same pleather as for the outfit for the sword handle and airbrushed everthing.
I used a wig from Coscraft in pale yellow blonde.
I also added a fur trim, which attaches with magnets at the sides in front and back. Here you also see the painted shoulders.
And this concludes my Valkyrie Mercy so far. For the big sword at her hips, I reused my Lagertha cosplay sword. None of the other weapons were ever completed.
