Month: August 2023

Galactic Style Guide – Backpacks I

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the bimonthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! This topic has been requested by several folks, so it’s been a long time coming. In this entry, we’re taking a look at an oft-overlooked category of gear, which can really elevate an impression and make it feel like a living, breathing kit. We’re talking about backpacks! Due to the sample size, I’ve decided to break this into two parts – one for ‘hard’ backpacks, and one (next month!) for softer packs.

Let’s go chronologically and kick things off with this paired bedroll-backpack from the old, Old Republic (Tales of the Jedi: Redemption #3). As usual, the cover art is far more evocative than the actual panels, but I include it here as the pack itself seems to be fairly structured:

The inclusion of a big ol’ wooly blanket/bedroll is not only appropriate given the hostile climate of Rhen Var, but also a very attainable piece of functional kit!

I’m sure there have to be other pre-Prequel-era examples, but I haven’t found them! If you know of any, please let me know below! Next, let’s move on to some liveaction hard packs.

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Diamonds in the Rough – Colin “OddViking” Adams (part 1)

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series, where we discuss Star Wars costumers who have ‘gone the distance’ and put in the effort to create solid, in-universe outfits or personas. This is actually the first half of a two-parter, because our subject has gone so totally above and beyond and built an incredible kit with tons of details that spreading it out over two months is the only way to really do it justice!

If you’ve spent any time exploring Star Wars content on Instagram in the last several years, chances are you’ve seen Colin Adams’ incredible work before. As a professional graphic designer/illustrator, Colin has a very large bag of tools to draw from, and puts them all to good use with a number of impressive cosplays and kits, each fully-detailed and seamlessly dropped into immersive settings with the magic of Photoshop. At the beginning of this year, when I saw Colin was starting a custom Mandalorian build, I knew the final result would be amazing. As we’ve discussed previously in our First Steps series, one of the keys to successfully creating an effective GFFA character is to dedicate time at the beginning of the process to doing your research and really nailing down what the ‘outer persona’ should look like.

creating this incredible mando kit, step by step