Ildiko Jobbagy, a.k.a. Okkido Cosplay, made her first costume over 10 years ago. She saw a cosplay competition at a convention, and that was it. It was the early days before the cosplay boom, so she and her friends used whatever materials they could for unconventional purposes. “All in all, I think, the excitement of creating something out of nothing got me into cosplay,” she told Nerdist.
One of her recent builds stopped me in my tracks. She made a Warhammer 40k Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor costume that is incredibly and beautifully detailed. Okkido told us she’s obsessed with the details. It’s apparent in this photo:
Photo by Csaba Szecsei
The finished Worbla looks like metal, but as you can see below, it didn’t start that way. Okkido spent a couple of days on the painting process. After she constructed the armor pieces from Worbla, she had to transform it. She explained, “I had to prime it with seven layers of wood glue. After a layer dried I sanded it then added another layer, sanded it too, and so on, until I got the smooth surface I desired. I always use a darker base coat of acrylic paint, then add the lighter tones with sponges. I achieve the metallic finish with special waxes.”
Though the armor looks impossibly complicated, it wasn’t the most challenging aspect of the Inquisitor costume. Okkido said that award goes to the Inquisitor’s books. “One of them is hand-written (more than 300 pages) and the other one is printed. It took months to finish these hand-bound books,” she said, “The weapons were also an interesting challenge to make, as they really ‘work.’ The plasma gun gives shooting sound and light as I pull the trigger, the power mace has breathing lights. I love building electric circuits and these were the most complicated systems I have built so far.”
Make the trip to the gallery below to see more photos of the completed costume, as well as some work in progress shots. Okkido has a whole album of photos showing off the build here. You can keep up with all her future projects by following her on Facebook.
Do you cosplay or take photographs of cosplayers? Then I want to see your work so we can talk about highlighting your creations in a future Cosplay Friday gallery. If you’re a photographer, maybe we could focus on your images from a single convention. If you’re interested, please get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com and send photos you’d like me to feature–the more high-res the photos, the better. Be sure to provide credits for the cosplayers or photographers for each image because giving credit is good manners–bonus points if you include links to relevant Facebook pages or websites. Though I wish I knew all the nerdy franchises, I don’t, so please let me know who or what is being cosplayed.
Featured Image: Greencat, courtesy of Okkido Cosplay
