Fierce Worgen / Werewolf Hunter (Ranger) Costume

This submission will describe how I made my 12-year old son a worgen hunter / ranger costume for Halloween. He loves World of Warcraft and his main character is a worgen hunter. (Worgens are a werewolf-like species.)

This project consists of the following main parts (see figure A):

Part 1: Torso

Part 2: Legs

Part 3: Feet

Part 4: Arms

Part 5: Paws (Hands)

Part 6: Head

Part 7: Tabard

Supplies needed:

Long-sleeve underarmour shirt
Upholstery foam (“soft”)
2-Tone Light Brown Long Pile Craft Fur
velcro (a roll or piece that is about 1.5 inches wide)
Glue sticks for the hot glue gun
Contact cement
armature wire
needle and thread
10 craft bear claws (a pack of six at Hobby Lobby is about $3)

Tools needed:

Hot glue gun
Drill
x
x
x

For my overall plan for the body, I was very much positively influenced by missmonster's Werewolf costume instructable here (https://www.instructables.com/id/realistic-werewolf-costume/). However, I did deviate from missmonster’s instructable in two main ways: (1) I made the paws and arms as separate pieces versus one long piece and (2) I made the legs separate from the torso instead of one big piece. See figure B.

The fur I chose was 2-Tone Light Brown Long Pile Craft Fur (see figure L) purchased at Hobby Lobby.For a great weapon for this worgen, see my Warcraft Combat Hunting Rifle with Revolver-Style Ammo Drum instructable at https://www.instructables.com/id/Steampunk-Warcraf...

Influences on the design of the worgen body include:

My son’s World of Warcraft character, Warko, a worgen hunter (figure C).
An illustration of a worgen holding a rifle by Garekh (retrieved from his post at www.mmo-champion.com in October 2011; see figures D and E).
The “right” color for wolf-like fur – see figure G.
References on the look of “raised hackles” for giving the costume an aggressive look – see figures H, I and J.

Additionally, I think a good alternative to making your own worgen body would be to buy a werewolf costume – see the Alternative Methods section at the end of this instructable.

Step 1: Torso

A.First, make a duct tape dummy of the future costume-wearer’s torso to help out with sizing. See Rain Blanken’s excellent tutorial at http://diyfashion.about.com/od/diyfashiontoolkit/ss/Duct_Tape_Dummy.htm. See figure 1.2. Obviously, use the body of the person who will be wearing the costume.

B.Cut the arms off a long-sleeve Underarmour shirt that fits over the dummy. Make the cuts just above the elbow (as in figure 1.1). Put the sleeves to the side. They will be used in Part 4 when we make the arms.

C.Put the shirt over the duct tape dummy.

D.Now we’ll Add some Velcro that will help the torso stay connected to both the arms and legs when the costume-wearer moves about. First, sew and glue the loop (fuzzy) sides of the velcro to the inside of the shirt where the (now short) sleeves end. Second, sew and glue some loop (fuzzy) sides of velcro to the inside of the shirt at the bottom (where it will connect to the legs). See figure 1.3 for an illustration of what parts of Velcro are the “loop” and what parts are the “hook” side. See figure 1.4 for an illustration of where these attachment locations should be. Save the “hook” sides of the velcro for the steps in which we’ll make the arms and legs.

E.Next, we need to cut some foam to give the worgen torso some powerful-looking muscles, a V-shaped torso, and a “raised hackles” look. Figures 1.5 through 1.8 should give you a sense of how to build up the foam “muscles.”

F.Use a hot glue gun to attach the foam muscles to the underarmour shirt. NOTE: Some people recommend CONTACT CEMENT instead of hot glue.

G.Cut shapes of fur with your exacto knife (cut the back as to not mess up the fur).

H.Glue the fur onto the foam “muscles” and underarmour shirt. Place the pieces close together and fill gaps with smaller pieces.

I.After you are satisfied, sew all of the glued on pieces together so when you flex and bend, the fur does not show seams and gaps.

J.Figures 1.9 and 1.10 show the finished torso.

Step 2: Legs

A.For the base layer pants, start with a pair of underarmour-type activewear pants that fit the wearer. Something like the boy’s Champion PowerCore Compression pants at Target will work (see figure 2.1).

B.Add velcro to the pants per figure 2.2. Remember from the previous step that the legs use velcro to stay connected to the torso as the wearer moves about. Sew and then glue the corresponding sides of the velcro to the outside waistline of the pants (per figure 2.2). Remember, the loop (fuzzy) sides were sewn onto the torso so use the corresponding hook sides on the legs. (Again, see figure 1.3 for an illustration of what parts of Velcro are the “loop” and what parts are the “hook” side.

C.Now, you will add foam to the base layer pants to create a digitigrade leg (dog leg) appearance as in figure 2.3. You want to add foam to the front of the top leg and the back of the calf per figure 2.4. My templates for the side view of these foam parts are in figure 2.5. See figure 2.6 for photos of this step.

Try the suit on every so often with the head on to make sure the proportions are okay.
Trim accordingly....get the foam right because you don't want to have to go back a step to fix things.
Another good tutorial for this step is here by mp2526 (figure 2.7).
Remember you will be adding fur on top of the foam. This will add more bulk, so slight shapes are best.

D.Add the fur

Cut shapes of fur with your craft knife (cut the back as to not mess up the fur) and hot glue it all on. Place the pieces close together, fill gaps with smaller pieces.
After you are satisfied, sew all of the glued on pieces together so when you flex and bend , the fur does not show seams and gaps.

E.Figure 2.8 shows the finished legs.

Step 3: Feet

Step 4: Arms

Step 5: Paws (Hands)

As you will see, I basically followed missmonster's instructable for the paws.

Step 1: Add wires to the tips of each finger on the baseball glove. Use epoxy for best strength. Note: the wire should only be glued to the first ½ inch of so of each finger and thumb, otherwise it will restrict the bending of the end of the fingers.

Step 2: After the glue has dried, wrap duct tape around each finger tip to help keep the wire in place. Don’t wrap the duct tape too tight or you won't be able to fit your fingers into the end of the gloves. To help prevent this problem, wrap the duct tape around with your hands in the gloves.

Step 3: Use hot glue to attach foam to the palm of the base batters gloves. See the photos for the shape and pattern of the foam shapes. Use upholstery foam that you can find at Hobby Lobby, Joann's Fabrics, or Michaels. Try to find "soft" upholstery foam.

Step 6: Head

For the head, I decided to just use a mask.

When my son and I saw Blizzard's official worgen mask, we were so excited because the photos of it (see photo) made it look great! It became our first choice and I ordered it online.

But when it arrived at our house, we were very disappointed. My main comlaint about the worgen mask is that it is just too big (see my photos, especially those in which you can compare its size to the other mask). And not just for a 12 year old boy but for an adult too. When my son put it on with the costume it looked silly and ruined the whole "look." I returned the mask to the online retailer.

Of the remaining mask choices, I decided to use a mask marketed as "Werewolf Mask" by Forum Novelties (see photos). I thought it was a good balance between looking cool and not being too scary for our 3-year old daughter. Plus, it was under $20.

I thought of dying the hair black to better match the worgen colors, but we didn't have enough time before Halloween. But the brown hair actually went well with the greyish fur we used.