It’s been really quiet around here so I thought I’d drop in with a new post.
I started this costume the day after my first con with the finest where I was inspired to get going on what’s next. Firefly has always been a favorite so it was just narrowing down which version to do. I decided after looking everything over for options to do the 50th anniversary (v28) Firefly as close to it as I could.
Looking at the figure and what other people have done with their versions I decided that just starting with a grey combat uniform would work best and do a mask and paint job for the camouflage.
This was no small task but I was able to water down the fabric paints and shoot them through my airbrush and mask off with painters tape the light portions of the costume. I basically did one area at a time, referencing the figure for each part.
I ran through a bunch of options for these bandolier pouches and settled on these grenade pouches to balance against the other side of the chest with 4 baseball style grenades. These were also fabric painted grey from their coyote brown color.
I’m using a couple of rubber cold steel daggers for the boot area and made a custom kydex sheath for it to complete the look.
This version of Firefly seems to be hip to H&K guns so I grabbed up a MP5 Airsoft that was broken but I got it for cheap compared to the list price. The mistake I made was buying one that was not compatible with a collapsible stock so I ended up buying a different branded collapsible stock and had to retro fit it to this MP5. I also scaled up the compressor from the toy to make one out of scrap aluminum I had around. It turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself.
I’m still working on the backpack parts but I was able to pick up this pack and add it to an ALICE frame that I painted grey to match the rest of the parts.
The pipe bombs are just made from PVC pipe with caps glued together and a quick paint job and red wire to match the figure. He’s carrying three bundles of three sticks on all of his person. I’m giving myself the opportunity to leave these off the costume as Firefly is probably a little scary to show up to cons as.
This last weekend I started to rig everything up to the bandolier which is made from adjustable grey military style belts. There’s a total of 4 belts used in this configuration but I was able to get these for less than $5 each shipped for free on eBay.
Some test shots of the parts together and it’s starting to look like firefly.
Still working on parts and the big thing will be making a custom balaclava to match the costume.
