Your Complete Guide to making a Barret costume.


The gun was made out of a plastic jug that I got from the dollar store. The plastic jug had a handle at the very top of the rim which connected to the bottom of the plastic jug. I cut this off by cutting off the top inch of the rim and cutting away the plastic handle at the bottom. I then cut a hole at the bottom of the barrel so that I could insert my hand through it. The barrels of the Gatling gun is made out of PVC pipe while the PVC pipe is held by a piece of aluminum which is super glued to the top of the jug. I originally had thought about making the Gatling gun out of just metal but due to security concerns at the hotel I was at (which is on federal property and at an airport) I was forced to make it out of plastic. I considered using just PVC pipe but opted for the plastic jug because it was cheaper and easy to manipulate than PVC pipe. I added scratches to the plastic too make it look more realistic. The gun was spray painted with a metallic paint spray which can be bought at any hardware store. The gun is missing a rim at the bottom of it which is near the place where the hand would be inserted. I am planning on adding that piece to the gun in the future. I also am thinking about adding parts from an electronic toy gun to make my gun have sound effects. I am also considering maybe in the future making a new gun from scratch that would have a barrel that would turn :)

The jacket I bought from the toddlers section at a Burlington Coat Factory. I wanted it too look small like Barret's so that’s why I bought a jacket meant for a 4 year old. If you look at pictures of Barret from the video game you will see that the jacket would be very difficult to zip up or button up in the front it is obviously to small for him. I cut out the gray cotton inside lining of the jacket.

The pants are just normal dark green cargo pants that can be bought almost anywhere.

The boots should be dark brown but mine are black. I am in Air Force ROTC so I just used my ROTC boots for the costume. One important think to note on the boots are the way your pants should look in the boots. If you ever see military personnel wearing BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) also known as camo(camouflage) you will see that their pants are kind of rolled up from their boot. If you want to see what I’m talking about look at the picture of my costume. To get that effect you need a pair of "blousing straps". Yes that’s what they are called and you can get them at any military surplus store. They are basically straps that are used to secure the extra legging from your pants that you roll up your leg.

The brace and the abs armor I wore is made out of aluminum flashing. It is a aluminum sheet metal which I believe is used in piping or roofing. You can find it at any Home Depot or ACE Hardware store. I bought I believe a 10in.x20ft. piece of aluminum flashing. I then wrapped it around my waist to get an idea of how much I would need to cut for it. After doing that I cut the metal into three stripes which wrapped around my waist. I then duck tapped the metal behind the metal to make it look like it had been cut and then put back together again, which is what Barret's armor looked like to me. I then put 4-5 metal beads in the center of the center stripe. This piece had no padding at all inside of it and I was uncomfortable in it the entire time I was at the anime convention. I would recommend that anyone who does the same thing I did put some type of foam padding in it and also bend it around the edges or sand down the edges with sand paper. The bracelet was made out the same material as the abs piece and was made in a similar fashion as the abs piece. It also was uncomfortable and I suggest the same thing I did for the abs piece.

The belt was just a brown belt I had around the house. In the photos I had of Barret it looked like I had some type of ammo on his belt as well as some type ammo boxes or pouches on his belt. I bought 2 ammo pouches from the military surplus store that looked somewhat similar to what I had thought Barret’s looked like. They probably aren’t very accurate.

Barret has a earring in his ear which I did not find. If anyone knows where to find fake loop earrings that you can wear without piercing your ears let me know. I guess I could have fashioned one out of metal myself and fitted it onto my ear.

I did not have a skull tattoo like Barret had but I plan on finding some type of temporary tattoo in the future.

The two dog tags I had made at a military surplus store. I chose not to have silencers (rubber which goes around the dog tags to keep them from ringing together) because I didn’t see any on Barret’s dog tags.

I had a cut off black glove for my left hand but halfway through a convention I lost it so in some of my pictures I am not wearing it

That’s about all I can think of right now if anyone has any questions or if I left out anything please leave a comment with your contact info and I will get back to you :)