Character: Sniper
Series: Team Fortress 2
Total Construction Time: 3 days
Debut: Anime Expo 2011
Status: Retired
Personal Thoughts: For a while, I was obsessed with TF2. I’m not much into shooter games but damn Valve, you make a good game. The Norman Rockwell style, the crazy characters, the hats, THE HATS. I loved TF2. Early on, I loved playing as Spy and Sniper. One day, a friend and I found a server that had you fight against Saxton Hale. Awesome. Then the server switched and we were fighting against a Sniper called Christian Brutal Sniper. I had no idea who he was until I looked him up and I ended up loving the lore behind him. I wanted to do a version of him but things unfortunately didn’t go to plan.

Details
I had problems in the beginning with this. Anime Expo was close and the fabrics I bought ages ago (local fabric shop in Phoenix) looked like it wouldn’t hold well to paint. I went ahead with it anyway. I made the jacket, lining it and used real bullet shells to measure the pockets. I wanted to cast the shells and make fakes to carry around in the jacket because of AX’s prop policy but every time I made the castings they would break. When I tried to use paint against the jacket to make blood, it just meshed together since they were similar in color.  In the end, this wasn’t my best costume (even the jacket ended up being a bit too big for me. The entire thing is actually embarrassing to show off). The only thing I can say was good was the Shiv. Since I was on a crunch time, I asked my father to help me. He cut out the panels and I did the rest. Thanks so much, dad!