Author: A.H.

Image Analysis: Garqi Agricultural Academy

(image originally published in WotC’s Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds (2004), artwork by Langdon Foss.)

This image is a great ‘slice of life’ for children on an agricultural backwater—sort of a Star Wars Norman Rockwell scene: who hasn’t been a youngling ‘flying’ toy spaceships around while making PEW-PEW sounds? But what’s more important is how especially valuable this image is for the rare look it gives us at GFFA commoners’ fashion. Here are a few pertinent tidbits I’ve teased out:
Continue reading “Image Analysis: Garqi Agricultural Academy”

Project: Wookiee battle shield (part 2)

(Part 1 of the Wookiee shield project here)
With wroshyr trees a little hard to come by in this galaxy (likewise quality hardwood lumber in the 10”x4”x8’ range), I’m keeping the woodworking on hold until I can acquire an ideal piece of wood (paying in terms of time by choosing ‘I want it Good’ and ‘I want it cheap’ from the Designer’s Paradox). However, the Wookiee battle shield also includes some metal (‘bronzium’) elements which I thought I could try my hand at fabricating in the meantime. This gave me another reason to play around with sculpting wax, and I continue to enjoy working with this material. When I take my time to get a piece sculpted and cleaned up, I am extremely pleased with the feeling of having made a real prototype.

wookieebrnz1
Continue reading “Project: Wookiee battle shield (part 2)”

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’:
rainmen1_AotCVD
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. Continue reading “Artifact ID: Donovian Rainmen revisited”

Revisiting the winter hat

(Apologies for my delay in postings of late…with winter holidays arrived I now have a few weeks’ reprieve from school-matters, which I intend to use to finish up some posts and projects for this site).

Last winter, as I reskinned my Swedish milsurp hat, I was left with a few quibbles. (I find it’s helpful to write down these thoughts for just this very reason, so that I know what needs tweaking should I decide to revisit the project down the road):

“Were I to undertake this project again, I would’ve done a few things differently:
-using a heavier khaki material–like the plentiful scraps I had leftover from my donut helmet (uncovered only after I had finished this project!)
-only using two layers of wool for the flaps, instead of three.
-better copying the shape of the curvy panels that are added to the flaps.
-making the rear ribbed panel shorter (to better match the original artwork), while extending the neck coverage and shortening up the flaps a bit.”

As the weather has been getting cooler, I’ve been having to wear my flap hat more often, and as I’ve also been integrating more and more Star Wars style into my daily wardrobe, I finally felt that the vaguely-close-enough-ness of my hat just wasn’t accurate (or hardcore) enough.
And so, after pondering on what would be involved, I decided to go ahead and tackle the Pfilbee Jhorn Hat, Mark II.PfilbeeJhorn1

^ The look we’re going for^

Continue reading “Revisiting the winter hat”

Project: Modding a Jacket

wools-beforeafter
In my continuing quest to subtly apply a Star Wars commoner’s aesthetic to my everyday wardrobe, I consistently make at least a weekly pass through my local secondhand shop to look for garments which have GFFA modification potential. As someone who also puts a lot of focus on having a wardrobe that not only looks good but also is practical for outdoor use (i.e. I try to avoid slow-drying cotton and melty synthetics as much as possible) I have been searching for a good Star Wars-y jacket that looks the part but isn’t plain unlined cotton or light linen.

Thankfully, I’ve had some good hunting of late; so when a fine 100% wool ladies’ blazer ($6) made by PENDLETON came up the other day, I quickly snatched it up with an eye for modification.
Continue reading “Project: Modding a Jacket”

Project: Wookiee battle shield (part 1)

While (yet again) leafing through the Complete Visual Dictionary, looking at artifacts, I happened upon a particularly fascinating example. I was attracted to its vaguely Polynesian(?) design—kinda like a giant pouwhenua—as well as the stylized tiki-style iconography. I actually vaguely remember seeing the prop in person at Celebration 3 back in 2005(!), and being pretty impressed. As I’ve been building up my woodcarving skillset over the years, I thought it might be time for some large-scale work—and what’s larger scale than an heirloom Wookiee shield from the Battle of Kachirho?:
wookieeshield
Continue reading “Project: Wookiee battle shield (part 1)”

Project: Twi’lek dagger (part 1)

As I was leafing through my Star Wars Visual Dictionary—after looking up one thing I usually wind up flipping a few pages to see if anything new jumps out—a few months ago, I came across a particularly un-Star Wars-y looking knife: a Twi’lek dagger with a ‘Taulek -style handle’:
twi1 20180630Not only are there no extraneous greeblies, this would appear to not even be intended to be a vibroblade—just a run-of-the-mill, stabby, fighting knife along the lines of a Sykes-Fairbairn. This makes it the perfect candidate for authentic replication, as it requires no hand-waving or suspension of disbelief to explain. Continue reading “Project: Twi’lek dagger (part 1)”

Whittling & galactic ‘pocket trash’ – R4 Astromech

In his Getting Started In Living History series, Master Jon Townsend suggests that the small items carried on one’s person are a great way to add depth to a living history impression, as well as create a more intimate connection to your persona. Reenactors refer to these items collectively as ‘pocket trash’, and can be anything from a love letter from the homefront, empty brass and small change, to an interesting rock or a pocket compass.
Continue reading “Whittling & galactic ‘pocket trash’ – R4 Astromech”

Ode to the Side-Release Buckle

 

 

While I currently have several projects on the proverbial back burner–waiting on, among other things, a modeler, a printer, and a blacksmith–I am doing my best to keep the blog from lapsing into content-hiatus. This week, I offer a simple collection of images, centered around the humble side-release buckle. This piece of costume hardware was apparently commonplace throughout the Galaxy, and so would be an appropriate item to include in one’s GFFA kit.
Continue reading “Ode to the Side-Release Buckle”

Applied geometry: Star Wars style

thermos1155-after4One of the largest stumbling blocks to getting a real-world-functional GFFA kit is the lack of references to everyday material culture in the Galaxy. We have little evidence, for example, of the kinds of containers your average galactic citizen has around the house—do the citizens of Bespin have Tupperware? And as someone with an interest in creating a realistic—but recognizably Star Wars-y—set of outdoor-adventure gear, this is a wall I have often run into. When we have so few resources to draw on, we instead have to get creative in our solutions. In this case, since we have little gear to draw aesthetic inspiration from, why not draw inspiration from the gear that influenced the aesthetic we aspire to?
Viewed through modern eyes, it’s pretty clear that the original Trilogy films are products of the 1970s and 80s…so let’s take a look at late 70s and early 80s Tupperware and Thermos products!
Continue reading “Applied geometry: Star Wars style”