Conviction Sam Fisher Definitive Resource

[DangerIMMN]

I know theres a new Splinter Cell game coming out later this year and it looks kick ass but I really enjoyed Sam's look in Conviction: at first glance he just looks like any guy on the street, until you start to notice the details. I decided to cosplay as Sam at some cons this year, but I always like to do tons of research so I thought I would post what I find here in case anyone else ever wants to know. Plus I know there's folks on the RPF that enjoy this kind of stuff even if they're not dressing up.

First, a few pics:

Sam's looking good on the street. "Rugged messenger guy" vibe.

Weapon out, open for business (the pistol is an FN Five Seven).

"You can't handle the truth!"

Notice the BIG color difference between the 1st & 2nd pics (pre-release) and the 3rd pic (in-game). Pre-release, the sweater looks dark gray with a tinge of green, pants are between olive-drab and brown. In-game shots, the sweater is pine green and the pants are dark brown. I liked the in-game color scheme best (and thats the color scheme on the Conviction Sam Fisher figurine too). This was probably a last-minute decision prior to release (and I'm glad because those pants were a terrible color).

So we need: a sweater, cargo pants, sling pack, hiking shoes, velcro pant cuffs, watch, and a bluetooth earpiece. Lets break it down!

SWEATER: It must be dark green, ribbed (this refers to the vertical lines of the sweater), quarter-zip or less (meaning the zipper in front comes a quarter of the way down the sweater) and rolled up to your elbows. Some folks say it is close to a "wooly pully" which is a British sort of military sweater, but a wooly pully doesn't have a zipper and has leather at the shoulders AND elbows, which is not the case for Sam. A very good match for the sweater is the Rothco 1/4 Zip Acrylic Commando Sweater in Olive Drab. I would have preferred to go for more of a pine green colored sweater, and the Rothco sweater is ACRYLIC, a completely synthetic material, and will NOT dye to a darker green without using industrial dyes! I'm getting a ribbed 1/4 zip sweater I found on Ebay to dye and alter.

However, we're not done yet because there are two extra items on the sweater! The first layer is dark-dark-green (or just black) suede leather that will be added mainly to the shoulders, collar, and underarms. I'll be adding a pattern for this soon. There is a second layer of patterned foam rubber (you can see this a little in the third picture above), which covers the upper and middle back. I'm pretty sure that this is to grip his pack a bit and keep it from sliding around as he sneaks. However, the leather and rubber can be difficult to work with and will get hot while you're wearing it. If you don't care about authenticity, you can always substitute some other materials. I'll be going to a local foam company to get the foam rubber and getting some leather and dying it.
This pic very clearly shows the different materials on the sweater.

BLUETOOTH EARPIECE: Sam's bluetooth earpiece/headset isn't based on any real item you can buy. However the Plantronics Explorer 210 comes pretty close (I'm going to paint it and make the LED green somehow), however it sits further back in the ear than Sam's earpiece does. If you want authenticity, you might consider the Plantronics M155 or M165, although you would probably have to gut it and cut a hole for the LED to shine out. There are four main elements to Sam's Bluetooth - it is mainly silver, rectangular, has a circle at the back end and a green LED in the middle.


WATCH: Again, not a real-world watch you can buy; you have to find the closest match you can. I'm getting a knock-off Suunto-styled watch, painting it, and I'm taking out the insides to rig up some LEDs so I can have that glowing green watch thing going on.



CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[DangerIMMN]

Re: Danger's Conviction Sam Fisher costume

SLING PACK: I spent at least half of my time researching this item. I scoured the net looking for a similar bag. Everyone says (even the Splinter Cell wiki) that it is a modified 5.11 Select Carry Sling Pack. But they also say that Sam is 5' 11" and the pack seems too big to match up. See the attached pics for reference.

The in-game reason why the 5.11 pack could still be the basis and look too small (but really isn't) is that the game designers need Sam to be able bend and not have to worry about animating how the pack compresses against his butt, or hangs lower when he is hanging onto a rail, etc. So they just shrunk it to not have to worry about that.

Another concern is that the 5.11 pack is over $100...

However, Kolin86 created a great Sam Fisher costume and used the 20" CUSCUS Sling Pack, which is the same height as the 5.11 pack and with some minor modification it can look pretty close! I looked up smaller sling packs and the only one that really came close was the MEC Flux Sling Pack, which I like much better as far as using it as a real pack later on, and I think adding a few parts could make it look really close to Sam's pack, but the shape is way off.

I considered building my own pack - Ubisoft was actually selling Conviction sling bags which you can't find online anywhere anymore, and they don't look too complicated, but I'm not a fast builder.

I actually bit the bullet and bought the 5.11 pack, then realized that it was NOT NOT NOT right for this cosplay. In order for the proportions to be right you would either have to severely alter the bag (not easy as it is built TOUGH) or be a GIANT of a man.

So I returned the 5.11 pack and got the CUSCUS Sling Pack and found that it was cheap and a much, MUCH better match.

 

[DangerIMMN]

Re: Danger's Conviction Sam Fisher costume

CARGO PANTS: These pants are cotton, dark brown/chocolate in color, have zippered pockets at the top, the thigh pockets are bellowed, and the thigh and butt pockets have flaps that close with one snap each.

I could not find ANY pants like this. I would find similar pants, but they weren't chocolate brown. I finally settled on a pair of Levi's Ace Twill cargo pants, partially because I knew I would have to dye them and that the cotton would take the dye well.

If you really wanted to go for exact replica, you could add zippers to the front, just sewing them on top of the existing pockets to make them look like there are zipper pockets underneath...


SHOES: Sam has green/olive drab-ish hiking shoes. Again, these shoes do not really exist, but look at Merrell, Salomon, and Keen brand hiking shoes. I found a pair for a great price on Ebay that I spent a little more than I planned on, but I'll be using them for years to come. If you already have some good hiking shoes/don't have a large budget, you can always get cheaper ones or use the ones you have, and just add something on top to make them look more like Sam's shoes.


PANT CUFFS: (Also in picture above with shoes) I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of these cuffs are, other than to make sure nothing crawls up Fisher's pant legs, but he's not out in the wilderness so that doesn't seem to be a valid concern. Sam seems to be trying to look a bit like a bike messenger, and a bike messenger might wear something like this to keep pant legs out of the bike chain.

The cuffs are approximately 3 inches wide, olive drab with black velcro, and the velcro attaches to the inside of each leg and the tabs sweep back. This is the only item I decided to do completely from scratch, because I could not find anything even close and it was small enough that this seemed do-able in the time I had left.

 

[W4RH0US3]

What are you doing for his 5-7?

 

[DangerIMMN]

W4RH0US3, I'm using some airsoft pistol I had laying around that has a laser sight slung under the barrel (pics coming soon). Although it would have been best to go for a FN 5-7 pistol, since I knew I would barely be using it, I didn't want to spend much money on this, and I went with a passable stand in.

 

[Cazador]

hey dude

i know this was posted ages ago but its sick!! im a splinter cell fan myself. last halloween i tried to do an out fit using same jumper and cargos different pack i used a mates F-N 57 (airsoft) but I also got a hold of the MW2 pre-order NVG's not exactly the three green circle look but it look allright