Artifact ID: Donovian Rainmen revisited

As we stand on the threshold of 2019, I hope that this blog will help inspire more of you to use this year to break out of the limiting ‘cosplay box’, and experience the Star Wars galaxy in the most authentic way you can! This is a follow up to a post I made almost exactly a year (51 weeks!) ago, which identified several items of European military surplus used to outfit some Episode II background extras portraying a crew of ‘Donovian Rainmen’:

This post would not be possible without the help of one T.K., who reached out from Germany and was kind enough to supply a list of several more items from the various films that he has identified, including several from our friends the Rainmen! T.K.’s observations are backed up by actively serving in the German Bundeswehr (Army) – so he has had first-hand experience with many of these pieces of gear.Most helpfully, he corrected my initial conclusion that the rainmen are wearing modified civilian rainjackets. As it turns out–in accordance with all the other milsurp items they are wearing–the jackets are actually a Bundeswehr flak jacket, or “Splitterschutzweste”!
These jackets were introduced in 1992, but have since been phased out for official operations. (The diagonal tab on the chest pocket, and the snaps connecting the shoulder caps are easy identifiers):

Aside from a paintjob to cover the flecktarn camouflage pattern and the addition of ‘tent tubes’ to attach the hoods, it would appear that no modifications were needed!

Second: footwear! Our reader further identified the snow leggings/gaiters of the left two rainmen as being German army field gear. I had previously said they were Swiss or Swedish, and they may be, but all are very similar.Our rightmost rainman wears what I had thought were an unknown sort of rubber boot, which TK has ID’d them as a Bundeswehr Überschuhe (‘overshoe’–galoshes!). This identification is supported by the v-shaped strings used to zip the boots up, clearly visible at the top of the rainman’s right boot:

Finally, TK believes the middle rainman’s hat (hanging at his belt) is not in fact a Swedish winter hat, but rather a German army winter hat, which has a long pedigree. The same style of hat is still in use by the Bundeswehr, just in flecktarn instead of gray or OD. TK even spotted another background extra wearing the same kind of hat (see the ‘Twinkle Beyond Pluto’ Episode II DVD webisode at 1:03, 1:41, and 2:08), which I apparently overlooked initially since he’s not portraying a rainman. However, this actually gives us yet another example of a flaps-and-brim hat in the Galaxy, which is very useful for our purposes of interpreting the galactic commoner. Even if you don’t feel up to the challenge of recreating something like the Pfilbee Jhorn hat, adding a simple nondescript and no-nonsense milsurp hat like this to your wardrobe can help you move closer to the authentic (and achievable!) galactic commoner’s aesthetic. Onward!

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