Many of the 'base' elements of this costume (button-down shirt, tie, vest, pants, shoes) were purchased.

I wanted to include a reference to Scar's allies, the hyenas, somewhere in this costume. The typical steampunk accessory of a cane seemed like a great place to include that.

I was able to find a Burger King toy of Ed the Hyena that was the right size and in a good pose to use as the head of a cane/walking stick. I then used epoxy putty to fix the legs in place and drilled a hole through the bottom to accomodate a PVC fitting. Then this was primed back. Meanwhile I cut down a poplar dowel, stained it in a dark walnut and sealed it with polycrylic urethane. The head was then screwed onto the shaft. Finally, I built up several layers of metallic shading and highlighting to create the final look and sealed it. I also added a plastic cap to the bottom of the shaft and painted in the same metallic colours to finish the look.

Materials: Plastic hyena toy, PVC, wood, Apoxie, paints and stain.

What's more steampunk than a big metal mask? For this costume, I wanted to accomplish the look of this classic villain with a characteristic prop or costume piece, and the final result is pretty much what I envisioned from the start. I knew that I wanted to mane to be made of of wires and cables to capture the industrial look and and I also knew that I wanted the eyes to light up to evoke the feeling of the "Be Prepared" scene.

I started by modifying Evil Ted Smith's "Paladin Helmet" pattern to remove the ridge around the side and to extend the cheek plates so that they met in the front, enclosing the helmet. These pieces were cut from 10mm HD foam and assembled with Barge cement. It was at this stage that I installed the LEDs that would later be used to light up the eyes and fiber optics that connect to the LEDs that would eventually become the whiskers. I then built up the layers and features of the faceplate with 2mm and 4mm HD foam (again, affixed with Barge). With that complete I was then able to heat seal, Plastidip, paint and seal the helmet. But I was far from done!

With the base helmet complete I was able to go to work building the mane. All told, there are more than 2 pounds worth of assorted wires and cables of that were each positioned, cut, and hot glued into holes that I punched into the helmet. Thought went into each individual "hair" to consider how it would lay, what it would cover, how much volume it would create, and how it would interact with the other wires around it. This was a time-consuming process, but I feel that the results were worthwhile. Finally, holes were punched to pull the fiber optic "whiskers" though and a few more (made of fishing wire) were added.

Materials: SKSProps Pro-Grade HD EVA foam, LEDs, plastic lighting gels, fiber optic wire, fishing line, co-axial cable and other assorted wires, contact cement, hot glue, Plastidip, acrylic paints.
Notable tools: Heat gun, Hot glue gun, soldering iron.