MaceRider
New Member
I've wanted to make a Sniper costume for a while now because that's the class I used to play the most as in TF2. Nowadays I play as Scout and Engi more often.
I started by cutting a piece of 8mm thick PVC sheet into the form of my favorite Sniper melee weapon (Tribalman's Shiv) and I also made up an actual-size paper diagram of his Rifle
Then, cut the halves of the stock out of polystyrene foam sheets, with a core made from 2mm thick PVC sheets and aluminum angle stock (for reinforcement).
Glued the stock together, some sanding and a piece of 30mm PP pipe later and I have something that kind of looks like an actual rifle.
Paper diagram on top of actual prop so far, mocking up the rest of the parts. I had originally planned the scope to be made of PVC tubes or something, but I couldn't find any properly sized pipes (and I didn't want to go way off the sizing and make it look all ghetto) so I decided to go the hard way and make my own tubes out of cardstock, with handmade spacers between the tubes to make everything a tight and solid fit. I really wanted this rifle to look as accurate as possible, because most of the TF2 props, specifically Sniper Rifles, I've seen so far have been either ridiculously disproportionate or just plain ugly (usually both), and that is why I ended up spending a LOT of time on it.
Here the basic form of the scope is pretty much done.
Today I started to do some filling and sanding on the stock. It looks nicer in person than on my ****ty cell phone camera shots, but it's actually shaping up (lol) to be pretty nice! Just some filling and more sanding to go and it should be pretty much ready for priming and paint.
I also decided to make handle scales for the Tribalman's Shiv. They're nearly done here, just some final filing and sanding to make them perfectly flush with the blade "tang" and they're ready to paint.
Here's how the sniper rifle looks right now (or at least how it looked a few hours ago when I took the photo). Everything is pretty much done aside from the lens cap and wire and the laser sight above the barrel. Right now I'm going to mix some epoxy resin up and coat the stock and scope as well as the little scope-rail pieces. In the meantime I'm working on the bolt action mechanism, trying to get it looking good enough to pass. My convention is on Saturday (today is Thursday morning here in Russia) so hopefully I'll actually have everything done by then.
I leave you guys with a single preview shot. Please note - this was made BEFORE I started wrapping my straw hat with the appropriate color of fake leather and everything is really half-assed in the pic. That would be because it's actually about a week old and was taken before I even finished the scope.
Total build time so far: Probably close to 50 hours, maybe 60 or so. Total money spent... way too much. Though now I have many tools I did not previously have, so I guess that's nice.
I started by cutting a piece of 8mm thick PVC sheet into the form of my favorite Sniper melee weapon (Tribalman's Shiv) and I also made up an actual-size paper diagram of his Rifle
Then, cut the halves of the stock out of polystyrene foam sheets, with a core made from 2mm thick PVC sheets and aluminum angle stock (for reinforcement).
Glued the stock together, some sanding and a piece of 30mm PP pipe later and I have something that kind of looks like an actual rifle.
Paper diagram on top of actual prop so far, mocking up the rest of the parts. I had originally planned the scope to be made of PVC tubes or something, but I couldn't find any properly sized pipes (and I didn't want to go way off the sizing and make it look all ghetto) so I decided to go the hard way and make my own tubes out of cardstock, with handmade spacers between the tubes to make everything a tight and solid fit. I really wanted this rifle to look as accurate as possible, because most of the TF2 props, specifically Sniper Rifles, I've seen so far have been either ridiculously disproportionate or just plain ugly (usually both), and that is why I ended up spending a LOT of time on it.
Here the basic form of the scope is pretty much done.
Today I started to do some filling and sanding on the stock. It looks nicer in person than on my ****ty cell phone camera shots, but it's actually shaping up (lol) to be pretty nice! Just some filling and more sanding to go and it should be pretty much ready for priming and paint.
I also decided to make handle scales for the Tribalman's Shiv. They're nearly done here, just some final filing and sanding to make them perfectly flush with the blade "tang" and they're ready to paint.
Here's how the sniper rifle looks right now (or at least how it looked a few hours ago when I took the photo). Everything is pretty much done aside from the lens cap and wire and the laser sight above the barrel. Right now I'm going to mix some epoxy resin up and coat the stock and scope as well as the little scope-rail pieces. In the meantime I'm working on the bolt action mechanism, trying to get it looking good enough to pass. My convention is on Saturday (today is Thursday morning here in Russia) so hopefully I'll actually have everything done by then.
I leave you guys with a single preview shot. Please note - this was made BEFORE I started wrapping my straw hat with the appropriate color of fake leather and everything is really half-assed in the pic. That would be because it's actually about a week old and was taken before I even finished the scope.
Total build time so far: Probably close to 50 hours, maybe 60 or so. Total money spent... way too much. Though now I have many tools I did not previously have, so I guess that's nice.
