Revolver Ocelot
Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

Reference photo by Silas Zee!

Inspiration: I have been a big fan of the Metal Gear series since Metal Gear Solid came out in 1998. I have always wanted to cosplay from the series, and while I always planned on being Meryl, after a recent marathon of the games, I decided that I loved Ocelot and all the crazy things he says and does too much to not make him my first Metal Gear cosplay. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I finally finished this costume and got to wear it for the first time.

Materials/Construction Details: I went into this costume thinking it would be easy, but I got obsessed with the details and it ended up being more of a project than I was expecting. Where to begin…

The belts, bandoliers, and holsters were all made from the same vinyl. The decorative stitching that goes all around these pieces was done completely by hand with embroidery floss. I used sandpaper and a little bit of white paint to weather the two holsters. Finding large enough buckles in the right shape was a challenge, so the ones I ended up using had to be primed, painted, and sealed before I could use them. I used brown elastic and careful measuring to make the loops for the shotgun shells and revolver rounds that are stored on the belts. The revolver bullets are just prop bullets. The shotgun shells are spent shells, which I had to modify quite a bit to get them to look unused again. First I used a rotary tool to chop off the ends that were pushed out from being shot, then I filled the cavity with expanding foam, filled any holes with caulk, sanded down the ends, and then painted them red.

The pants, shirt, and boots were store bought, but all needed modifications. I bought a white shirt and did several dye tests to get that perfect faded orange/khaki color. I also replaced all the buttons with black buttons and made other small modifications to make it look as close to the shirt he wears in the game as possible. For the boots I had to install spurs, which make a wonderful sound when I walk.

The Diamond Dog armband is made out of black vinyl. I used a hole puncher to add texture detail to it. The decal is from AryeaCrafts on Etsy. To make the scarf I bought a red material with a nice texture and drape, then sprayed it down with a bleach solution and left it out in the sun for an hour. The goal was to get a nice sun bleached look to it, which I feel was achieved. I also purchased the gloves, but added three top seams to the back of the hand.

Wig: I searched for a long time to find a lace-front wig that was the perfect blend of blonde and grey and finally found it, but it was long and curly. Before I could do anything with it, I had to straighten it out and cut it shorter. I then added some layers, feathered in some shorter pieces at the sideburns, and then slicked the hair back.

Prop: The most important part of this costume was probably the prop guns, considering they are the character’s namesake. I searched and was able to find a resin kit of a similar enough revolver to match the ones Ocelot uses in MGSV, but they required a lot of work. Each gun arrived in three pieces and required a lot of sanding to get all the edges clean. After that I had to drill holes into the individual pieces, and using small pieces of wire and super glue stuck into the holes, I pinned the pieces together. Once I was confident the pieces were securely together, I used epoxy putty along the seams where the pieces went together and sanded it down until it all looked like one smooth piece. After that I spent a long time on the process of priming, painting, weathering, and sealing the guns, but when I was done, I thought they were, well…’pretty good’.

I also purchased a plush wolf pup to be my DD. One of the best parts of making this costume was making a tiny eye patch for him. I turned on the game to try to figure out how the dog kept the eye patch on, but the straps just disappeared into his fur in the game, so that’s what I did as well. I simply sewed the ends of the straps into the plush where they looked like they ended on the game model and covered the ends up with fur.