TWS Update #1

Most folks interested in Costume building are interested mostly with screen accuracy and getting all the details right.  While I'm certainly picky when it comes to that stuff, the work I did on previous costumes for Captain America were important to keep usability in mind for games.  There is, especially in this case, a tactical element to this build.  I'm literally using BDU-style clothing to build the rest of this uniform off of.

If you've missed it, I'm aiming for the latest version of Captain America's costume seen in The Winter Soldier, coming out in April.  While initially, the goal is to have the costume ready for the premier, I need to keep the Halloween Laser Tag game in mind as it will get used again then.

It's fun blending the art of costume building with the practical approach to have this latest rendition work FOR me, not against me.  First up in this build is getting the shield harness together.  It mounts to the back of a modified leather shoulder holster.  Normally, the belts would connect to a belt.  Instead, Cap has it set up to go underneath the arms and meet back in the middle of the back to mount the shield.  While the bracket at the back isn't the metal belt system (which would probably be pretty uncomfortable in actual application) it does mount the shield on my back, as seen in the previews.

The rest of the pieces are on the way already.  The uniform will be built based off of a Rapid Assault Combat Shirt made by 511 Tactical.  There's also combat pants in the same Navy Blue as the shirt.  Not only will it be an excellent match for the colors needed for this build, but this is essentially the same kind of gear I run with for our outdoor laser tag games.  Both my Desert and Woodland MARPAT camouflage setups have a combat shirt base and they're incredibly comfortable.  My "Avengers" version focused on being lightweight and it was nice to use indoors and outdoors, but it was pretty much impossible to hide with, tough to carry much of anything with me.  No spare batteries, no screwdriver, not even a phone.  This new version is already darker (which should make me a little less obvious) and gives me the ability to store the shield on my back.  It can easily get out of my way when I don't want the flag on my shield to give me away.  Not only that, but I won't be limited to using a single-hand use blaster for the games.  With two hands free and the shield on my back, I can use a rifle like I normally do.  The LTAR-AR that I have in the works now should be more than complete by the time this game comes around!  I'll likely combat test the uniform before the Halloween Game anyways!

I really think that's what I'm most excited about with this one.  The ability to build a great costume but also to have it work a little more WITH me than simply serving the purpose of an iconic badass superhero.