Building the Jedi Persona: 4.1 – Canteens

As promised earlier, I’ll begin with a quick writeup on the mysterious canteen which DK has put to triple use as a GFFA prop-base.
Dimensions: approximately 6 x 8 x 2 inches.
Capacity: approximately 1250 milliliters, which is about 250 more than most of my other canteens (my WW2 Russians, US, and UK are all just a hair over or under a liter), which is pretty nice. However, getting this maximum capacity involves getting any air out of the top section next to the spout. I wonder if–based on the similar shape of my vintage icepack–this canteen was meant for cold weather use?, as the top section might allow for extra expansion during freezing?
My canteens are both clearly marked ‘US’ in a recessed area (on the other side of the props), and ‘1 US 1993 H.T.P.’ on the bottom. While this would normally give us some info to research, I haven’t been able to find any solid details such as model designation (any information to satisfy my curiosity would be appreciated!).

The main downside to this canteen is that it is plastic—and therefore it cannot be used to boil water, at least not safely. (While it is possible to boil water in a plastic bottle, doing so releases carcinogens from the plastic, and so should be limited to true survival situations). This means that any backcountry water carried in this canteen must first be processed by either a chemical (iodine, chlorine bleach, etc) or mechanical system (pumped ceramic filter, etc).
With that in mind, I picked up some 10% iodine solution to pair with this canteen, which serves a double function for cleaning wounds as well as water purification.

Now, I already have a solid canteen for my Rebel persona ‘Citizen Olis’, and I really picked these plastic ones up to better outfit my AgriCorps-on-the-run Jedi persona, ‘Silo’ (which, yes, I later realized, is just Olis backwards!). This actually works out pretty well, as the source the canteen-based props (one of which is a water container) originate from is DK’s Episode II Visual Dictionary. This tells us that the artifacts are associated with the period immediately before the Clone Wars, which, due to my age and the timescheme I worked up for this persona, began only a year after Silo would have washed out to the AgriCorps. In other words, the general idea is that Silo is on the run about 6 years before the Battle of Yavin, with gear that was current issue during or just before the Clone Wars.

[Sidebar/temporal mindfuck I realized the other day: if the Battle of Endor took place in the year 2016, then the Clone Wars occurred between 1990 and 1993! Wow!]

With that in mind, I needed some way of carrying the canteen on my person, and its size doesn’t lend itself to either belt-pouch or being stuffed in a cargo pocket. I had already made up a carrier for my enamel canteen, using hemp canvas and P37 webbing, but to my eyes at first it didn’t translate as well to this plastic canteen, which is wider than the enamel one, and so the canvas body just made a big ol’ square.
However, I didn’t really see any other viable options. The ‘water pod’ artifact, as a non-functional prop, could get away with having the carrying strap simply screwed onto the canteen…but that wouldn’t work for me. Instead, I re-hemmed the top of the canvas body, to show off a little more of the canteen’s ridges, while allowing the visible hem to provide a bit of ‘visual interest’.

Since the ‘water pod’ is a nonfunctional ‘just-for-looks’ prop, I wasn’t too concerned with slavishly copying it…the cap glued on the side and the textured side plate might actually detract from the GFFA look in this case, so I opted for a simple GFFA paintjob. The pair I bought were black, and plain black plastic looks like, well, plain black plastic, so I gave mine a silver undercoat with a Machinery Gray overcoat, using the mustard trick to let some dings show the silver underneath.
In the canteen’s recessed panel, I shaved off the ‘US’ designation, roughed it up with sandpaper, and epoxy’d on some greeblies—various pieces from a B-25, Bell X-1, and Corvette model kit.
A little weathering to bring out the details and a few satin clear coats and I was feeling much more confident in my ability to stay hydrated in GFFA style:

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