Earlier this year I bought the Metal Gear Legacy Collection for PS3 and went on a bender of playing nearly every canon Metal Gear. When Halloween was a month away, I started putting in a serious effort to cosplay as Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This was, of course, after I realized making a Star Lord costume would be too much work.

The aim of this guide is to show you how to make a Snake costume that looks authentic, with as many authentic Vietnam pieces as possible. Putting this costume together I had to make some parts, but also track down a lot of vintage Vietnam era gear. All of the authentic Vietnam stuff was purchased on eBay. I’m giving you the names to be able to track down this stuff. Altogether, about a third of this came from eBay, a third came from Amazon, 1/6 homemade, and 1/6 bought from an Army surplus store.

I decided to go with the Tiger Stripe version of the outfit. Having the model viewer in MGS 3 HD was supremely helpful to seeing the stuff in detail. But it was Crumahara’s and ne0ven0m’s cosplay guides that helped me the most. Many thanks to them!

I’ll start with the Fatigues, then I’ll work my way from the top of the costume to the bottom.

Fatigues

I decided to go with Tru-Spec Tiger Stripe, in Original Vietnam pattern. I don’t think an authentic replica of what Snake wears is able to be found (for Tiger Stripe at least). Many Vietnam era fatigues have slanted pockets, and Snake’s does not. Snake only has two pockets on his shirt (and a pocket on the sleeve), but many fatigues have four. I also asked about Vietnam Tiger Stripe from my local surplus store, and the clerk responded “Only CIA and real spook types wore that, so it would be rare.”

There are a bunch of other tiger stripes out there. Pick whatever suits you. This video showcases a bunch. The others had too thin of stripes, and Snake’s camo has really thick stripes. The stock pictures of the Tru-Spec tiger stripe make it look like a Picasso painting, but in normal lighting it’s much more subdued. Most fatigues have the buttons covered, but there are a few that don’t. Having the buttons showing looks a little silly to me.

I’m a thin 5'7" with a 30" waist, so I got both in small. The shirt fit well, if a little loose. The pants’ waist was good, but they were too long. I had to hem them up a bunch.

Bandanna

I definitely recommend going to a local Fabric store, as opposed to just tearing up a shirt. I found one called Yardage Town, but a chain to check out is Joanne Fabrics. Fabric is usually pretty cheap, and there's a great selection of materials and colors. I went with this blueish green color and it was pretty soft. Most fabric comes in a width of 60 inches, and you tell them the length you want. 60 inches was perfect to have tied around your head with plenty of extra to trail behind you. I doubled up the thickness around my head, sewed it, and made sure the tail wasn’t doubled up.

Eyepatch

Real eye patches, like from a pharmaceutical store, tend be terribly large. They might be more comfortable, so that’s an option to weigh. I ended up making my own from black fabric, thin foam, and thin leather straps. The leather was a mistake, but I couldn’t find a good string for fastening it. I made this piece the day before Halloween, so I just rolled with it. Here’s a nice looking patch modeled after the one in Ground Zeroes. Snake only had two straps on his patch in MGS3, and the stitching wasn’t so bright, but I might be the only one to ever notice that. If anyone ever complains, just picture them as Comic Book Guy.

Earpiece

Any mono earpiece should be fine. I used the one that came with my PS4 since I already had a headset. All I did for this was take a sharpie to paint it black.

Throat mic

I found some stretchy black fabric for this. I measured my neck, doubled up the fabric, hemmed it, turned it inside out, and stitched velcro into the ends. I bought sticky backed velcro and I should have opted for the plain variety. The sticky ones never last through a costuming day, and if you do sew them, you’ll need to wash the needle afterwards because the glue will gum it up.

I used clay to make the throat mic circle bits. I baked and painted them with acrylic paint, but I didn’t seal them (I should have, but ran out of time). The paint started flaking, and I used a sharpie to cover up the biggest areas. I used superglue to get these to stay on the fabric.

I bought a 10 ft long 3.5mm Aux cable, cut it to 33 inches, and used super glue and electric tape to get it to stick to the throat mic part. Now I have a cable to plug into the radio box.

Harness

Snake wears a Vietnam era STABO harness. Real or replica, they don’t come cheap, usually over $100 when they pop up on eBay. Some guy on eBay showed up this Halloween offering to produce replicas for $160, if you’re willing go that route. I didn’t because the costume started getting pricey, and I had suspenders fall into my lap and those were just fine.

Radio Box

If you follow the printing instructions here, you can use it as a pattern to make it from craft foam. From Michael’s craft store, I bought lots of thick black foam and glued three pieces together for my final radio. Super glue works really well on this stuff. I also bought some 3.5mm audio connector jacks from Radio Shack. I cut holes for them in the radio, glued them in, and it made the radio more versatile, allowing me to unhook the cables without ripping them out or getting tangled in them. The dial is also made from clay just like the circle bits on the throat mic.

CQC Knife + Sheath

I used the smaller knife from this set. Since I wasn’t going anywhere but work and the party at my place, I used a real knife. Most conventions wouldn’t allow this, so for Comic Con, I’m gonna have to replace it with something else.

For the sheath, I used three layers of foam to make a functional sheath, superglued together. The middle layer was hollow to make room for the knife. The black cording was from Michael’s. All in all, the sheath looked cheap up close, but it passed from a distance. I’ll be remaking this.

Undershirt

I used a black compression short sleeve shirt. I went one size up from what I normally wear (Medium instead of small). If you get one made for hot weather, it’ll do a great job of keeping you cool by wicking away the sweat. This is a godsend with the thick fatigues, heavy gear, and warm San Diego weather. Make sure to find one that doesn’t have an obnoxious logo near the neckline. I would be recommending Under Armour if they didn’t do this.

The sleeves were custom made so they could be the right amount of shiny. If you don’t want to make them yourself, get a longsleeve compression shirt. For mine, I found some pleather at the fabric store. The sleeves are two pieces, since there’s a hem for what looks like reinforced elbows on Snake. Sewing these were a pain, so make sure you sew the two parts together before sewing the seam into a sleeve.

Also at the store, I found eyelets with an eyelet tool ($3). I cut tiny, TINY holes in the pleather. The tinier, the better, since you can stretch the pleather around the eyelet. Practice on some scrap first so you can be sure to not cut too big a hole. You’ll need a hammer and workbench to make the eyelet stick. Between this and the cosmetic audio ports on the radio box, these are two tiny touches that I think added a great amount of polish to the costume.

M-1956 Load Carrying Equipment

You can read more about this equipment and it’s history on this site. The belt, pouches, canteen, and buttpack are all from this series of US issued equipment. In my costume, I also used the suspenders in place of the harness. It worked pretty well for my setup since a) the harnesses are expensive and b) one came with the buttpack eBay auction so I had it lying around.

When looking for this authentic gear, make sure it looks free of corrosion, soiling, fading, and has the clips intact. My surplus store had a bunch of spare clips, so those not being present isn’t a big deal.

From left to right.

M-1956 Belt: Make sure it has 3 eyelets in it going around, plus the right buckle type. They only made these in size Medium and Large. I think 36" and under is Medium, and 36" and over is Large. At 30" waist, I had to tie it in a few loops to make the fit nice and snug.

M-1956 Ammo pouches. I found these on eBay. These were unissued and in amazing condition for something made in 1962. I saw some at a surplus store that looked like they sat in a wet storage room for two decades, so eBay was the way for me. I paid $25 each for these two, but they look lovely. The surplus store also had many old M-14 pouches with plastic clips. They aren’t what Snake used, but they are cheaper and plentiful.

M-1956 Canteen with cover (1 Quart). Mine is not authentic, since I couldn’t find one for under $50. I spent $4 on this cover, which was close enough, and $2 on the canteen, which is from 2001. The surplus store had tons of these. Here’s a cheap set bundled with a belt. The bonus of carrying a canteen is getting to fill it with water. The downside is 1 quart of water is 2 pounds, and this stuff is getting heavy.

M-1956 Buttpack: Again, I found this on eBay. This looks to be a convincing replica. I stuffed mine with crumpled newspaper so it looked full. This can hold a decent amount of stuff if you need it too. Just makes it harder to sit down.

Radio (not pictured): According to this site, Snake uses a PRC-90 radio. I couldn’t find any other sources to back it up and I did not get any time to find one. These are also not cheap. Vietnam era radio pouches are easily twice the size of what Snake wears, so this one is up to you. You could craft something out of foam. We’ll see what I do when Comic Con rolls around.

I bought this replica holster. Way cheaper than a Vietnam one and cheaper than the surplus store. Might need some weaseling to get it to fit in the belt, since it’s made to hang from the bottom holes, not the top. Snake wears his holster high, so try to make it work.

This is the M1911 Airsoft I bought. It’s plastic, but the weight feels good. The safety works and locks the slide, which having the slide lock is important to getting it to holster correctly. Be sure to check your con rules before bringing an airsoft. And be try not to walk around with it in public, even if holstered. Concealing it in the buttpack may be the way to go. Always be safe when walking around with replica weapons.

Gloves

I bought these gloves in a size 4. Military sizes are weird, so here’s a size chart. I wear a small glove size, and probably could’ve gone smaller than a 4. I cut off the fingers that Snake does, and hand sewed the seams shut so they wouldn’t unravel.

Survival Knife + Sheath

Snake uses a survival knife, but a real one isn’t cheap nor allowed at cons. I bought this cheap rubber practice K-Bar instead. It has a blunted tip and a nice heft to it.

The sheath isn’t 100% accurate, since Snake’s sheath has a little extra pocket, but this one was cheap and close enough. Getting the rubber knife in their was a bit of effort. I used hockey tape to tie it to my leg, and that was a bad idea since it didn’t stick well and left a big smudge on the sheath. I’ll try other tapes next time.

Kneepad

I originally bought one of these. But this was before I found the shiny pleather mentioned above. If you buy one, make sure to get the bigger one, as I had trouble getting the smaller one over the fatigues without cutting off circulation. If you can, make your own because circulation in your leg is awesome.

Boots

I bought Jungle Boots from the local Surplus store. I should have gotten gel insoles, because by the end of the day, my feet were killing me. These look like the boots I got.

Misc and Accessories .

CalorieMate was found at my local Mitsuwa. It’s a real thing and it certainly surprised me. These were only $3 a box. If you don’t have any Asian Supermarkets near you, you can get some on Amazon. They taste kinda like shortbread. I recommend the chocolate. The cheese is only okay, and I heard the fruit flavor is awful. Haven’t tried maple yet.

Face paint: I didn’t want to feel greasy all day, so I didn’t do face paint. I bought some $4 jungle camo paint, but ended up not using it. Again, this is from the surplus store, but can be found here.

Cigar: Might be better to find a prop one, unless you don’t mind how pungent cigars can be. I didn’t have a cigar humidor, so I should’ve waited until closer to Halloween to buy one. I tried cutting mine and charring the edge, but I didn’t want to get ash everywhere, so I decided to leave it in the pouch all day.

Fake snake: I saw rubber snakes at Spirit Halloween, and was tempted to get one. But it would have been only for laughs.

Cardboard Box: A box to fit you will probably be pretty big. This can be a real pain to carry around. So either dedicate to carrying it, find a place to set it down, or carry a comically small box for laughs.

In Closing

Here’s a full album with all the pieces and close up detail.

I’m @MuldoonX9 on Twitter. Feel free to hit me up with questions or comments. Things like if you need some better pictures, or more info on how I made something, or even correcting grammar and spelling mistakes. I use Tumblr infrequently and I’ll be way more responsive on Twitter. But if you don’t have a Twitter, just leave a comment here, but it might take me a while to get back to it. Thanks for reading, and I’ll do my best to update this for ComicCon.