Heroes of the Storm news » World’s First Butterfly Cosplay – Part 3: Bringing Monarch Brightwing to Life

"Brightwing like loyal subjects!

You don’t want to be my enemy…"

- Monarch Brightwing

I’m Community Manager Kimberly “Vaeflare” LeCrone, and today I wanted to share with you the final steps of a unique project that began last year.

Previously I shared with you how this project began and the various stages required to sculpt the Monarch Brightwing sculpture that will serve as the base of what may very well be the world’s first butterfly cosplay!* In this second part of this blog series, I showed you the colorful and creative steps that followed, and in this blog, we’re putting it all together and bringing Monarch Brightwing to life with a live monarch butterfly!

The regal skin that inspired it all next to the finished sculpture!

Where We Left Off

When we last left off, Monarch Brightwing was all painted, sealed, and ready for her guests, and it was time for everything to come together to complete this unique take on cosplay! Here are the final results:

Did You Know?

Monarch butterfly populations have plummeted so much in recent years that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now believes there might be reason to protect them under the Endangered Species Act.

You can learn more about how you can help raise monarchs and milkweed plants at MonarchWatch.org.

All monarch butterflies used in this project were hand-raised and released into the wild after photographing.

Outtakes!

Things don’t always go as planned when you’re working with one (or more!) live subjects, so here are some of my favorite outtakes of Monarch Brightwing and her fluttery entourage.