How to Be the Gun Witch

If you like to dress up for Comicon, you know the more obscure the costume from the pantheon of comic book personas, the better! Why not do the GUN WITCH?

Who is the GUN WITCH, you ask?

The Guy in the Hat.

He is from "The Nocturnals", a superb graphic novel series by Dan Brereton.

Little is known about the GUN WITCH, but it's safe to say that yes, he is a good guy, and was probably resurrected by a voodoo priest.

to protect this equally spooky girl.

It's also safe to day he was probably a sheriff in the old west.

Originally, I thought this would be an easy costume: find a poncho at a thriftstore, get a witches hat and boom, pretty much done.

But in a big city, nice ponchos are never easy or cheap to find in a thrift store. Also, I have a large cranium, so cheap witch hats never fit.

And those hats never come with dangly orange balls.

step one: get the easy parts. I got these boots at a flea market. The scruffier, the better. Remember, The GUN WITCH is undead and crawled out of the grave so he should be a wee bit scraggly.

GUN WITCH has a Colt .45 and an old time six shooting revolver like a cowboy would use. Here, I spray painted a toy gun gunmetal grey.

So I opted for the more realistic six shooter from a toy store, ordered black holster on ebay, and stained an old light brown holster to darker brown that a friend found in a flea market.

This was a weight lifters belt that I trimmed extra leather off of, and stained with wood stain I had laying around.

This bandolier was a lucky find on ebay...nice and ratty!

Batman gloves from the costume shop with painted pentagrams on them. Using acrylic paint is best. I get my paints at those game shops at the mall. Very thick, durable and flat colors.

Next came the hat. This went through several iterations and well, several hats.

I used cloud clay from amazon.com for orange balls. Cloud clay drys over night, and is very light weight. Before it dried, I jammed black yarn into the center with a piece of the yarn hanging out.

When the balls dry, I paint them with orange acrylic paint. I then sew them to witch hat. The dangly cloth was already on the hat and helped hide the yarn.

The hat has teeth around the hat. Once again, rolled up ovals of cloud clay dried overnight then painted and applied with hot glue gun.

Cloud clay doesn't stay in very exact detailed shape, so my odd ball bat glued onto the hat was no easy thing. Cloud clay is easy to paint though, and light weight.

Now for the hard part....the dreaded poncho.

To find a poncho in a mens size that's just brown was impossible, so I got a brown thick table cloth at a thrift store and cut a line down straight to the center of the tablecloth.

I used black yarn to make it looked like it was sewn by a crazy person. Get the biggest needle you can find to poke the thick cloth.

I went to a leather store and dug through their scraps for cheap leather. I got half an inch strips going vertically, but I didn't cut them all the way off the strip. Then sew onto cloth for fringe!

Then I got halloween colored cloth scraps and sewn them on all pell mell like sloppily sewn patches to fill gun holes. Remember, use the large sewing needle.

I used permanent markers to draw odd patterns onto each patch.

Here it is flat on the floor. Notice its a round tablecloth. When done, drape it around you like a cape and swing one side of it over your torso. I used the weight lifters belt to secure it.

Don't forget some western clothes underneath the poncho. The older and torn up the better.

Now for make up! I like Paradise make up because it is super thick and water based, so just a little water on a smudge foam pad will go along way. The GUN WITCH is either sickly blue or green in skin.

I like to add lines on the face to look like his mouth is sewn shut. Use your best judgment on a death like skin tone. Grey, green or blue undead skin color...it's all good!

The GUN WITCH!