Grand Admiral Thrawn Cosplay

My Grand Admiral Thrawn cosplay took forever. Possibly longer than any other cosplay I’ve worked on, although by no means did I work on it continuously.

There were some issues choosing the right contacts and make-up. Below you can see three versions of the make-up.

But the biggest pain was the tunic. Everything you see here was made from scratch except for the boots and gloves. Most of that was not very hard. But the tunic…oh, the tunic.

Part of the issue is that it’s asymmetrical (the one side wraps over the other), but when it wraps around, it has to do so symmetrically, meaning that the one side has to line up with certain spots on the other side so they look symmetrical. Part of the issue is that it’s white, which means there’s no wiggle room for error, and part of the issue is that it’s a military-style uniform, which means that it has to be really precise and finished-looking.

I made 2 muslin versions of the tunic so that when I did the actual one, everything would be perfectly pre-measured and would work out just right. These test tunics were based on an existing professional pattern, which I altered based on instructions from this online demo, which I then altered further to fit my body. So a lot of Frankensteining.

Long story short: all my test versions did not help and my first “final” version had fatal flaws.

So I made a fourth version. That version actually worked.

There are 3 versions of the make-up below. The first is an alcohol-based make-up, the second a water-based make-up, and the third is another alcohol-based version. I tried 3 types partly to test the water/alcohol longevity and how much it rubbed off, and also to try colors.

I am sticking with option 3, for the color and because it does not rub off. You can see the current version of the costume at SDCC at the bottom of the page.

Photos of the final costume, San Diego Comic Con and the Strong Museum. First photo taken by Ed Catto, others by Andrea Buckvold. The last photo is me with writer Timothy Zahn, who created the character Thrawn.