Metal Gear Solid 3/Δ Snake Eater Major Ocelot Cosplay Guide

 Special Presentation: Major Ocelot Cosplay Guide

Greetings fellow cosplayers, its your boy Ace of Snakes, and this here is a special presentation for a Major Ocelot Cosplay guide, created and put together by my good friend scipper54 from the Metal Gear Solid cosplay community! Complete with what Ocelot's outfit consists of, his gear, and recommended supplies needed to become your very own Meowing Major!

The cosplay itself consists of:

• Jacket
• Breeches
• Belt for Breeches
• Beret
• Wig Cap
• Scarf
• 3 misc. Pins
• Boots and Spurs
• Arm band
• Bullet Necklace
• Revolver 
• Bandolier
• Holster

Supplies Needed:

Fabrics and Parts:

• Red stretchy fabric - scarf, hat, and gloves

• Leather/Faux leather fabric - Arm band, hat rim, bandolier, holster

• Black Thread, sewing kit, and machine

• Buckle - Bandolier

• Fake Bullets x30-40 - Bandolier

• Interfacing - for bandolier, epaulets, and ribbon rank

• Red Ribbon and Gold skinny ribbon for trim - his many awards, badges, and epaulets

• Small Gold stars - for epaulets and badge

• Quarter (coin) sized gold military buttons - buttons for his collars.

• Misc. Colored Ribbon Scraps - For long rank badge

• Safety pin - Rank badge and Purple Diamond badge

• Unused enamel pin or pin back - small gold star pin

• Craft Foam - Purple if you have it.

• Bullet keychain and chain - bullet necklace 

• Wig Cap - For hair 

Paints:

• Silver Spray Paint - For the revolver

• Brass Spray Paint - Bullets

• Copper Paint - Bullets

• Purple Paint - For diamond badge as needed.

• Red sparkle paint - for diamond badge as needed.

• Gold Paint - For the back of stars and for other badges as needed.

• Brown paint - for revolver handle

• Yellow and white fabric paints - for a wig cap to make a short hair illusion.

Glues:

• E6300 - Glue for assembling 3D revolver

• Fabric Glue - For gluing down bullets

• Black Fabric Dye or/and Dye remover as needed - Depending on what uniform you bought, you’ll need to strip the dye and then redye the jacket and pants.

• Hot Glue and Gun - badge assembly 

Tools:

• Sewing machine

• Sewing needle

• Hot Glue Gun

• Lighter

• Seam Ripper - To take off buttons and pockets from the jacket

• Exacto-Knife or Scissors

• Sand Paper - For sanding down a 3D printed revolver, Get multipul grits from 60 down to 200 or 1500 for a very smooth finish. 

Uniform

Jacket and Breeches:

Jacket: Link

Breeches: Link

Jacket:

The jacket itself is a military officer’s uniform from Austria, sometimes called a tunic. Now, Ocelot does not have any visible closures on his uniform, and the uniform I got, I chose for the cut and pocket placement rather than for the color. If you could find this in black I would highly

recommend it.

Ocelot’s jacket uniform has a high collar that is not like what modern jackets have; he has no visible closures and two side pockets by his hips. So what I did was I used a seam ripper to take off the top pockets, take off the buttons from the top pockets and down the front of his jacket, and take out all the hot lining material inside the jacket.

OVERHEATING WARNING!: The jacket I used is wool. It is very hot. If you plan to wear this in heat, find a cotton or linen substitute. Even after taking out the lining, I sweat a LOT in this outfit.

Breeches:

The pants are Jodhpurs or sometimes called breeches or trousers. They are riding pants often used for military officers or horseback riding back in the day. The modern jodhpurs are sleek and aren’t the style you’re looking for. You want military ones for officers’ uniforms. I bought mine from a separate site. It is ok if they come up a little short on your legs since your boots will cover them. The ones I used were similar to 1960’s East German Dress Breeches/Trousers.

Belt for breeches:

You can use a leather belt with a square buckle or a flat top steel buckle to make this. The jacket also will hide any belt you use to keep your breeches up. So you can wear what ever belt you want or have for that.

Modifying the Jacket and Breeches

    

This step is dependent on the uniform colors: Your jacket and breeches should be from the same brand, otherwise it's very likely the colors will differ. If the colors do not match, you will need to strip the dye out of them with dye remover (not bleach), and then buy the corresponding black dye for the fabric type. To use the dye, the directions should be on the bottle but most dyes are a mix of either vinegar or salt and very hot water.

Behold, the soup!

Then you will want to wash it before you sew to see if it came out the right color. Don’t be afraid to let it drain, dry, and then wash it later to let the dye set in. You can always dye it again darker if needed.

** DYE THE UNIFORM BEFORE ADDING MEDALS, EPAULETS, AND RANKS. **

Shoulder Epaulets and Collar Tips:

The shoulder pieces are made from fabric interfacing covered by large 2 inch wide red ribbon and gold skinny ribbon trim about 1/8th of an inch down the middle. I cut the interfacing to the shoulder size I wanted, then hot-glued the ribbon to the interfacing. A smoother glue, like fabric glue, may take longer to dry, but may yield a smoother, less bumpy result. Then I added the gold ribbon down the middle. After I glued down three small nickel-sized gold stars on each epaulet, I sewed the epaulet down the middle to attach it to the jacket. If you want them to be removable, you can use Velcro. If your stars are not the right color or shade you want, you can prime them with Mod Podge or paint primer and repaint them.

The collar tips are the same structure as the epaulets. It is a ribbon that I used over the interfacing again and the gold trim is around the edges. I also sewed them in place by sewing around the edges and then glued the gold buttons down on the middle tip. I kind of just smushed them till they were flat enough to use.

Small Square Badge:

The small square badge is just a folded-up red ribbon with another gold star glued onto it with that same gold trim ribbon we’ve been using. Just glue it down onto an unused enamel pin about 1” by 1”, and then because it has a pin back, you can already attach it to your jacket.

Diamond Purple Badge:

The purple diamond badge is trickiest since it has a unique shape. I cut mine out of craft foam with an exacto-knife, but you can use scissors. I then painted the diamond part purple with white swirl paint mixed in to give it depth but you don’t exactly have to. I also added sparkle paint to give it a glint. You could also use a gem if you found one in this shape. Then I used red sparkly paint to add the small red glint at the top. Finally, I glued a safety pin to the back of it vertically so I could attach it.

Rank Badge:

His rank badge is made from a strip of interfacing that I colored entirely black with Sharpie or black fabric paint. It doesn’t matter, then once dry. Glue down the various ribbon parts onto it. It's just several scraps that correspond to color. You can even color one with ink if it isn’t the right color. I got most of mine from a nearby scrap store called Scrap-lanta. Be sure to color them before you glue so the ink doesn’t bleed. You can use fabric glue but hot glue wouldn’t bleed ink if you want to be safe. Then hot glue the large safety pin to the back so you can pin the rank to your jacket.

Military Beret:

The hat is a beret typically seen in Army SEALs or special ops. I made mine from a real beret that I covered with the same red fabric you can use to sew your scarf, so they match better. I just basically wrapped it around the preexisting Berrett hat and sewed it down in place, and then used spare leather fabric to sew around the edge of the hat to give it a leather rim. The wool padding of the beret makes it easy to shape and pad.

Wig Cap:

His hair is super short and blonde, so instead of buzzcutting my hair short, I wear a wig cap, the same kind that's made out of stocking material, and I painted it with white and yellow fabric paints in a multi-layered way to give the illusion of hair. Using a dry large brush and dry brush technique, you should be able to make it look like many strands of hair. 

Scarf:

His scarf is a simple long strip of red fabric I folded over itself in a long rectangle and then sewed each end so it would nicely hide the seam. I left the ends a little frayed and sewed a safety stitch just behind it to make it look worn and scarf-like instead of just a scrap of fabric. I used the same fabric I used to wrap his hat, so that it would match.

Gloves:

For the gloves you can purchase red fabric or leather gloves.

Alternatively, you can use the same red fabric used for the scarf, and gloves. You can use any basic glove pattern from online. You just outline your hand with about an inch margin on two pieces of the fabric and then sew the shape together then turn it inside out.

Boots and Spurs:

Any kind of boot for this works, but I use winter boots I have had for forever but you don’t need real leather boots for the look. As long as they are dark brown or black.

The spurs I use are real, but check your local con/venue rules for its policy on metal parts. I bought mine off of eBay.

Armband:

The arm band is made of the same leather as the holster and bandolier (more on those later), and it is just a rectangle sewn with both ends together and sized to fit around my arm. If your arm size fluctuates, you can add snaps or velcro and just use that to attach it to itself.

Bullet Necklace:

The bullet necklace is a bullet keychain I purchased from an army store in FL, but you can get yours online. All you need is to put it on a simple chain like that used for a dog tag. 

Gear

Revolver:

The revolver I have is a 3D print I got on Etsy for an Arthur Morgan cosplay. As many Ocelot fans know, it is a Colt Single Action Army Revolver. The name of the one I used is “3D Printed 1873 Single-Action Cattleman Toy Revolver”. I sanded it down with various sandpapers, including a final wet sandpaper method. Then I spray-painted it silver and various shades of brown for the handle. The only part I did not sand is the handle. Then I used E6000 to glue it together, which has a 24-hour dry time.

Bandolier, and Holster:

I made my bandolier out of interfacing and faux leather fabric. The kind I used is most frequently used in couch upholstery. What I did was I cut a long strip of interfacing fabric about the size of a belt, wrapped it in the interfacing fabric, and sewed it into the interfacing fabric. I also ensured there was enough fabric at the end with no interfacing in it where I could attach the small belt buckle. I also poked holes in my belt so I could ensure the buckle could clasp.

Bullets: Link

The bullets are plastic ones I ordered online that I painted. I took out each soft plastic tip and tapped each bullet down to a large piece of cardboard, and spray-painted them in a brassy gold color. Then painted the bottoms as well. Once dry, I painted each tip in copper and then black-washed each bullet in black watery paint.

Assembling the Bandolier

Once the bullets are painted, you just need to lay each bullet down onto the belt you made and glue them in place. Once in place, you can glue down another strip of leather fabric you have along the top of them, tucking the fabric into place until its settled. Then they’re secure, and you won’t lose them at the convention.

Holster:

The holster is probably the item that will require the most sewing skill. If you want, you can simply buy a holster for your revolver, but I wanted to sew mine to match my bandolier. I laid out my gun on the leather fabric and traced out its shape twice, mirrored to itself. I then also cut a slightly smaller interfacing piece to go with it. Then I cut one more leather piece to sandwich the interfacing between the two pieces. I only sewed the edges and then the end parts together. I also added a small leather scrap to each side and sewed it in place so I could hook it onto my belt or bandolier if I wanted to.

I used this basic shape for the holster pattern. Sew the outer left and right edges together, leaving the top and bottom open for the gun. 

Reference Pics