Now that the Alteil Halloween costumes are all done, it's time for the non-Alteil related costumes!

Since this year Halloween falls on a Saturday a few of us showed up to work in our costumes. Lupos has been slowly acquiring the parts of his awesome Dee Snider (from Twisted Sister) costume, while AnnaTheRed and I decided this year to be splicers from the game Bioshock.

For those not in the know, Bioshock is a first person shooter game that takes place in an underwater city called Rapture. At the time of the game the city has descended into chaos and most of the citizens are now crazy people called splicers who have altered their genetic code to gain special powers but in the process have gone totally insane. So basically you have lots of people in 40s and 50s dress bludgeoning each other with large pipes, meat hooks or just shooting each other with various firearms. We're cautiously optimistic about the sequel, but are very unsure about where the game's story can go after the first game ended.

First thing we did was go to Goodwill to pick up some clothes for our costumes. I ended up getting a pair of pants and a white shirt for $20. Funny thing is the shirt is from Saks Fifth Avenue so it's probably 95% off or something :P Anna got a black dress for her costume. I got some suspenders with skull designs on them but just flipped them over.

Next up were the props. AnnaTheRed used this Bioshock splicer mask papercraft to make our masks out of poster board. She then reinforced it with paper maché using newspaper and tissue paper which gave them a nice texture. I bought some chrome pipe from the hardware store that I scratched up with sand paper to get rid of the shine. Also used the sandpaper to rip up the shirt and pants to make them look old and worn. Anna ripped up her skirt and stockings a bit too.Even in the game I think they don't have so much blood on them, but it gives it a better effect. We've seen lots of Bioshock cosplayers and they never seem to have enough blood on them :P.

For all the blood splatter we used a mix of instant coffee and red food coloring which gave a nice reddish brown color since blood stains dry brown (so as I write this I smell of coffee :P) The blood stains ended up being a mix of the coffee dye and also some red spray paint that we also used on my metal pipe. Anna later made her Spider Splicer hooks out of poster board, duct tape and leftover fabric from her Merciless Death cosplay.

 Splicers vs Dee Snider???

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