So I have been working on this costume for a bit and I did a massive amount of research, so I thought I would share it with you all.
This intro post will primarily be about the research, and then as I get photos I'll be uploading them here.
First and Foremost, understand something very important.
Virtually nothing in MGSV is the official product of anything. There's apparently been some copyright issues, and so almost EVERYTHING he wears is a modified version of existing military pieces at the time. So I will mention specifically what pieces serve as the base of the uniform, and what pieces need modification.
Next, it is also important to understand that every main metal gear game picks tonal color which affects how certain colors show up. MGS1 and 2 were blue, MGS3 was a teal green, 4 was a pale green, and 5 is a tan. What this means is that "olive drab" looks different in every game, so some times it will be hard to tell what is olive, and what is actually brown. I'll do my best to address that.
First and foremost, Venom's fatigues are not actually a set of US BDUs. It certainly draws inspiration from them, but there are a few key differences. The BDUs (used from 1981-2000, give or take) has four frontal pockets, and Venom's only has the top two. In addition to this, the actual camo that he wears doesn't quite exist. The default Tiger Stripe is not, in fact, tiger stripe. It is a rock-variant type that uses black and olive drab (like the original tiger stripe) but also a khaki tan color in place of it's green. You will not find this pattern, so I suggest either take regular tiger stripe and let it fade, use a light dye (tea-dying perhaps) to soften the colors, or to use a fabric printing service like spoonflower to print a design you make yourself.
Next up is the air-lift rig he wears. Special Patrol Insert/Extraction, or SPIE, has been addressed in other threads as it's been in other games before. While this is a standard piece of equipment, you can't really get the 80s version as easily as the modern version, which has a good bit of shoulder padding. If you can find the fasteners, I suggest strapworks.com to just buy the strapping.
On that note, a bit about straps.
The SPIE uses 2 inch nylon strapping. If you can find nylon/cotton hybrid, that's still period appropriate. For some of my strapping, I am having to use cotton webbing (webbinng is the woven-like form of strapping) which was military standard up until the 70s. It works, and visually won't have much of a difference, the Nylon is just more durable and stronger. His chest rig (which I'll get to next) uses some 1 inch strapping. These are actually found in the mil-spec data, if you can find them. The 2 inch webbing straps are a drab olive for his tiger stripe uniform, with the other straps being more of a ranger green. However, every uniform he has in the game uses a different color combination (and as you can see, the concept art even had it black with his tiger stripes) so pay attention to your choice. Ranger Green is pretty hard to find, so the important thing is just making sure the two straps are different colors, and that the 1 inch straps match the color of your chest rig.
On to the chest rig, it is a modified (like nearly everything else) LBV-88 generation II vest. Why is it important to get the right vest? Well there's a few factors. One, the padded strap that goes across the back of the shoulders is not placed there in many vests, and the shape of the shoulder straps in general are different. Also, most of the load bearing vests (lbvs) of that era had a green mesh, not fabric. as it's base. But outside of these minor changes, the rig is basically identical. Of course, the flat green version in the game doesn't exist in real life, so you'll have to make some judgement calls. I'm making it from scratch, so I'll have a better color.
Next we have the pistol belt, which thank goodness is an actual pistol belt. You might even be able to find the old plastic buckle kind if you're lucky, but you might just want to modify a quick release buckle.
His glove is pretty straight forward, it's leather with an adjustment strap at the wrist, and the fingertips removed for his thumb, index, middle finger.
His boots are another item that are actually real. They're basic green and black jungle boots, which are pretty easily obtained on ebay, etsy, and Rothco and Sansport sell some updated versions.
Lastly we have the scarf. This has got to be the most aggravating part for me, as it shows the designers didn't understand what they were doing. What he has is not a shemagh, it's just an oversized scarf being worn like a shemagh. however, that will make it a bit difficult to cultivate the correct look with the tails hanging out over the far shoulder, and no triangle point across the arm. My suggestion is to pattern our a long (at least 5 ft) scarf that's extra wide (2 ft) and fold it over itself long ways, and practice wrapping it around you to make it the most like venom, and then trimming the bottom edge to make it a smooth edge. You might end up with something closer to an extremely wide octagon. I'll post mine when I get it done over the next couple weeks.
As expected too, the eyepatch is it's own thing. You can design it like a uniquely shaped, but regular eyepatch, but then you have to stitch some leather across the top to get the look right.
The arm bands are called Brassards and have no standard, they are just a trapezoid on top of a long strip (it looks like leather) that velcros to itself, with patches sewn on (diamond dogs on the left arm, and your organization on the right)
Oh, and the knee brace can just be a regular knee pad covered in a wide strip of leather.
I hope that helps anyone else that's been looking into Venom Snake Cosplay. I'll be posting progress pretty soon.
This intro post will primarily be about the research, and then as I get photos I'll be uploading them here.
First and Foremost, understand something very important.
Virtually nothing in MGSV is the official product of anything. There's apparently been some copyright issues, and so almost EVERYTHING he wears is a modified version of existing military pieces at the time. So I will mention specifically what pieces serve as the base of the uniform, and what pieces need modification.
Next, it is also important to understand that every main metal gear game picks tonal color which affects how certain colors show up. MGS1 and 2 were blue, MGS3 was a teal green, 4 was a pale green, and 5 is a tan. What this means is that "olive drab" looks different in every game, so some times it will be hard to tell what is olive, and what is actually brown. I'll do my best to address that.
First and foremost, Venom's fatigues are not actually a set of US BDUs. It certainly draws inspiration from them, but there are a few key differences. The BDUs (used from 1981-2000, give or take) has four frontal pockets, and Venom's only has the top two. In addition to this, the actual camo that he wears doesn't quite exist. The default Tiger Stripe is not, in fact, tiger stripe. It is a rock-variant type that uses black and olive drab (like the original tiger stripe) but also a khaki tan color in place of it's green. You will not find this pattern, so I suggest either take regular tiger stripe and let it fade, use a light dye (tea-dying perhaps) to soften the colors, or to use a fabric printing service like spoonflower to print a design you make yourself.
Next up is the air-lift rig he wears. Special Patrol Insert/Extraction, or SPIE, has been addressed in other threads as it's been in other games before. While this is a standard piece of equipment, you can't really get the 80s version as easily as the modern version, which has a good bit of shoulder padding. If you can find the fasteners, I suggest strapworks.com to just buy the strapping.
On that note, a bit about straps.
The SPIE uses 2 inch nylon strapping. If you can find nylon/cotton hybrid, that's still period appropriate. For some of my strapping, I am having to use cotton webbing (webbinng is the woven-like form of strapping) which was military standard up until the 70s. It works, and visually won't have much of a difference, the Nylon is just more durable and stronger. His chest rig (which I'll get to next) uses some 1 inch strapping. These are actually found in the mil-spec data, if you can find them. The 2 inch webbing straps are a drab olive for his tiger stripe uniform, with the other straps being more of a ranger green. However, every uniform he has in the game uses a different color combination (and as you can see, the concept art even had it black with his tiger stripes) so pay attention to your choice. Ranger Green is pretty hard to find, so the important thing is just making sure the two straps are different colors, and that the 1 inch straps match the color of your chest rig.
On to the chest rig, it is a modified (like nearly everything else) LBV-88 generation II vest. Why is it important to get the right vest? Well there's a few factors. One, the padded strap that goes across the back of the shoulders is not placed there in many vests, and the shape of the shoulder straps in general are different. Also, most of the load bearing vests (lbvs) of that era had a green mesh, not fabric. as it's base. But outside of these minor changes, the rig is basically identical. Of course, the flat green version in the game doesn't exist in real life, so you'll have to make some judgement calls. I'm making it from scratch, so I'll have a better color.
Next we have the pistol belt, which thank goodness is an actual pistol belt. You might even be able to find the old plastic buckle kind if you're lucky, but you might just want to modify a quick release buckle.
His glove is pretty straight forward, it's leather with an adjustment strap at the wrist, and the fingertips removed for his thumb, index, middle finger.
His boots are another item that are actually real. They're basic green and black jungle boots, which are pretty easily obtained on ebay, etsy, and Rothco and Sansport sell some updated versions.
Lastly we have the scarf. This has got to be the most aggravating part for me, as it shows the designers didn't understand what they were doing. What he has is not a shemagh, it's just an oversized scarf being worn like a shemagh. however, that will make it a bit difficult to cultivate the correct look with the tails hanging out over the far shoulder, and no triangle point across the arm. My suggestion is to pattern our a long (at least 5 ft) scarf that's extra wide (2 ft) and fold it over itself long ways, and practice wrapping it around you to make it the most like venom, and then trimming the bottom edge to make it a smooth edge. You might end up with something closer to an extremely wide octagon. I'll post mine when I get it done over the next couple weeks.
As expected too, the eyepatch is it's own thing. You can design it like a uniquely shaped, but regular eyepatch, but then you have to stitch some leather across the top to get the look right.
The arm bands are called Brassards and have no standard, they are just a trapezoid on top of a long strip (it looks like leather) that velcros to itself, with patches sewn on (diamond dogs on the left arm, and your organization on the right)
Oh, and the knee brace can just be a regular knee pad covered in a wide strip of leather.
I hope that helps anyone else that's been looking into Venom Snake Cosplay. I'll be posting progress pretty soon.
