Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy
applying the methods of progressive historic reenacting to the Galaxy Far, Far Away
The quarantine project queue continues apace! It’s been a couple months since I started my functional A295 blaster rifle project, so I thought it was time for an update on how things are progressing.
Since I’m not scratchbuilding a prop gun, the steps to convert from StG44 to A295 are actually relatively simple, and most everything is reversible:
-Step 1: cut off the protruding rod* (okay, that one’s not reversible 😉
Welcome to the first installment of the Galactic Style Guide, a monthly series in which I will be collecting and curating many visual examples of a single type of in-universe item. Why am I doing this, you ask? Besides having a lot of time on my hands in quarantine, too often when we think of ‘Star Wars’, we limit ourselves to thinking only of the main cast of characters, with secondary or background characters falling by the wayside. In this series, I hope to turn an analytical eye towards the incredible variety that collectively creates the larger ‘galactic aesthetic’. To my knowledge, this sort of project has never been done before, and I suspect will likely prove very useful to those of you heading (once they reopen, post-pandemic) to Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge parks, which are becoming very accommodating of GFFA-style outfits (provided they don’t stray too close to those of main characters). By shining a spotlight on previously-overlooked designs, I hope OC cosplayers and potential ‘Batuu bounders’ will see that there are many more options for Star Wars style beyond copying Han, Luke, Leia, Lando, etc.
With that out of the way, for our first installment, we’re looking at BELTS. Let’s get started!
Greetings from quarantine!
While the world may presently find itself in the grip of a pandemic, one silver lining does exist. While it can be stressful in other ways, a month-long quarantine lockdown has the unexpected benefit of suddenly giving crafty-minded folks a lot of time with which to finish ‘backburner’ projects, and so—as several of my other WIP projects are currently stalled due to quarantine-created supply-bottlenecks—I thought I would share one item I have been able to finish up during the current situation.
Back in December or January(?) I snagged the above gaudy orange thermos from the thrift shop for (I think) $2. It didn’t look especially Star Wars-y at first, but my ‘propmaking eye’ saw that it had definite potential, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out! Continue reading “Project: vintage thermos facelift”
Thus far I haven’t posted anything related to The Mandalorian, but this one was “all too easy”.
Too often, Star Wars prop collectors fixate on weapons, armor, and vehicles. But we—who are engaged in Star Wars living history—know there’s more to life in the Galaxy Far, Far Away than fighting: there’s also…DRINKING! Continue reading “Artifact ID: Greef Karga’s cup”
Disney decided to market this item as Yoda’s illuminator, but it would be more accurately called ‘Luke’s flashlight’, and we can assume that Luke brought his to Dagobah as part of standard-issue Rebel survival gear. While maybe not recognizable to the casual fan, once you know the scene, the item springs to mind pretty easily.
It’s not surprising that Disney went to the trouble of producing this lamp, but for $30, is it worth buying? Continue reading “Galaxy’s Edge merch: Yoda Illuminator”
While I try to avoid association with the post-Disney canon, I feel like the recent announcement of the-project-formerly-known-as-Luminous could prove very intriguing, and I wanted to share my observations and initial thoughts as they relate to our pursuit of the ‘costume arts’ and authentic reenacting in the Star Wars setting. As has been mentioned by many, the idea of a multimedia publishing campaign is nothing new for Star Wars; it’s somewhat reminiscent of the ‘movie without a movie’ approach of the Shadows of the Empire project in the mid-Nineties (games, a comic miniseries, toys, novel, soundtrack). But while SotE filled in the gap between 3-4ABY, the High Republic has a much bigger sandbox to play in… Continue reading “First thoughts on ‘The High Republic’”
It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘back to basics’ post, so we’re taking a break from the usual projects-and-research content and taking a turn for the nitty-gritty. The vexing issue this week is that of the ‘OC’, or ‘Original Character’ (differentiated from a recognizable ‘Face Character’). Stick around at the end for a list of character ideas to take your OC to the next level!
After hanging around a popular SW cosplay facebook group for the last few years, I have noticed a pattern that my historical-authenticity-focused mind finds quite aggravating: Continue reading “The issue of Original Characters”
If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t posted in far too many weeks, this is one of the reasons. Don’t worry, projects are proceeding apace!
*I use EU terminology. If you’re into post-Disney stuff, just replace any instance of ‘A295’ in the following with ‘A280C’*
About a year back, I began toying with the idea of retooling my SKS into a more GFFA-style slugthrower. Eventually, though, I had to resign myself to the limitations of the Simonov platform, and abandoned the idea. However, a few weeks ago, someone in the Endor Commando facebook group was seeking help on a A280 prop rifle they were planning…and I got the bug again. I never liked the looks of the Endor rifle…it just seemed clunky and ugly to me (the alternate version with the triangle buttstock especially so) – give me an A295 Hoth rifle any day!
Owing also to having more time onscreen and the easier availability of the base gun*, I see way more prop A280s online. At the same, I got to thinking about what folks these days could use to build an A295 prop out of, and one fellow pointed out the most accurate base rifle would be AGM’s all-metal electric airsoft StG44, which retails for $235; he commented that it would be awfully expensive “for something you will be cutting up” for a prop rifle. I agreed, but this led me to my next question: well, what if you were cutting it up, but it was still a functional rifle? And just out of curiosity, how cheap could I do it for?
Continue reading “In search of the functional ‘blaster’ rifle”
In the spirit of my New Year, New Gear tradition, I recently finished up an essential piece of my in-universe survival/hiking kit. Some 20 months ago, I made a discovery – I noticed that the health powerups in Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were essentially the same design as one from an early SWRPG sourcebook:
a bit of digging turned up similar designs in the Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology and the more recent SWRPG Revised Core Rulebook (2002):
As my backpack’s current first aid kit has been stashed in a repurposed extension cord waterproof safety box, I’ve been thinking about what I could use as a container for my medical supplies that would better fit the in-universe aesthetic. Continue reading “An authentic Medpac at long last!”
The color scheme basically was the baddies would be black or gray, with the exception of the stormtroopers, and the goodies should be in earth colors—fawns and whites…Mollo tried to keep the colors muted wherever possible. Color is very, very difficult to use. Bright colors don’t work well on film, particularly reds and blues. George always goes for the authentic….and if it’s all garish color, it doesn’t work.” – Star Wars Costumes – the Original Trilogy (Alinger), p15.
At this point on my journey into the hobby/lifestyle of Star Wars reenacting/living history, I have a number of no-nonsense, generic civilian garments hanging in my closet, and as I’m always looking to Star Wars-ify my everyday wardrobe even more, I’m always on the lookout for things that fit the bill—or could fit the bill, with a little tweaking! Today, we’re talking color, and the surprising transformation seen below:
Continue reading “Project: Adventures in Applied Color Theory!”
Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy 