Diamonds – Living History in the Star Wars Galaxy

Diamonds in the Rough – Colin “OddViking” Adams (part 2)

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 the second half of our two-part interview with Colin Adams, and after digging deep into the design stages in last month’s entry, we’re ready to follow along as he starts his actual build process!

When first considering this project, Colin said he knew how to sew “at a moderate level”, and knew there were other folks who made custom Mando-style flightsuits. However, he also knew that if he was able to attempt this and succeed at it, not only could he learn some new skills, but he would also be able to alter and tailor it himself! I’ve always been a big fan of Lev Vygotsky’s ‘ZPD’ theory when applied to reenacting-crafting, and it helps to choose projects which not only build on one’s existing skills but which can help push them to the next level – but not to bite off something completely outside your existing skillset! If you’ve never touched a needle and thread before, sewing something as complex as a screen-quality flightsuit for your first project would likely result in you getting frustrated and giving up. There are no ‘skip three levels ahead’ cheat codes IRL, so it pays to work smart, start small, and build on what you already know! Looking back on his project, Colin said that while things like setting a zipper fly were so much more complex than they seemed at first, “I feel like I leveled up two levels doing this suit: it really came out great and fits me perfectly.”

the secrets of authentic Star Warsy crafting continue…

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

Diamonds in the Rough – Keith Olsen

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 month’s entry comes from Keith Olsen, who has done his research to put together an excellent impression of a generic ‘Pyke Syndicate’ soldier.

As you can see, this build was initially inspired by the appearance of the Pykes as seen on ‘The Book of Boba Fett‘ (though as I’ll discuss in a bit, an animated-style Pyke would look quite different!), and as such is based at around 5 ABY.

Keith did a lot of old-school costume replication legwork – unless something goes on display for an exhibit, this typically involves very carefully scrutinizing screenshots – to determine the materials and types of clothing that could be bought off the shelf for this outfit.
Let’s examine the elements one by one!

keep reading for the full breakdown and details

Diamonds in the Rough – Mandalorian foundling

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 month’s entry is actually a bit of a carry-over from last month, because while building his own Mandalorian ‘Kryos’ kit, T.H. also created a simple but highly-effective outfit for his own youngling at home:

Less is more!

Diamonds in the Rough – ‘Kryos’

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series! In this feature, I interview Star Wars costumers who have ‘gone the distance’ and put in the effort to create solid, in-universe outfits or personas. This month, we’re learning from T.H., who has taken skills he honed as a historic reenactor and applied them to the GFFA setting, to great success with his excellent Mandalorian kit, ‘Kryos’:

When asked about his initial inspiration for this character design, TH says he was born in winter and has always felt a connection to snow, so creating a snow-based kit was only logical! As we would expect, the snowtroopers of Episode V were a big influence.
TH began the creation of this outfit by looking to “many influences”, not only the aforementioned snowtroopers, but also Echo Base rebels, other ‘arctic Mandalorian’ fan costumes, and real-world cultures from harsh climates, like historic Scandinavians. While he admitted that many of these inspirations didn’t end up in the final costume, as he says, “the research helps in getting on the right path.”

more insights in the full interview

Diamonds in the Rough – the ‘Normandy Quarren’

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series! In this feature, I interview Star Wars costumers who have ‘gone the distance’ and put in the effort to create solid, in-universe outfits or personas. This month, we’re very fortunate to bring you a look inside the French organization Transfert à Ord Mantell. The group is made up of several traditional (historic) reenactors who have applied their skills at reenacting to the galactic setting. When the photoset from their recent Normandy beach shoot hit the interwebs last month, it made quite a splash, and I knew I just HAD to pick their brains and learn more!

While there was obviously a lot of high-standard work on display, as the majority were existing character types (Imperial officer, stormtroopers, mudtrooper, scout trooper, a lowly rebel technician) or a known character (Boba Fett), the one that really caught my eye was their original Quarren character design:

what is it that makes this design WORK so well?

Diamonds in the Rough – Scott Bowen

As you might imagine, Scott’s initial inspiration for this character design was the ur-Rodian example, GREEDO! His goal had a challenge embedded, however: not only to create an original Rodian character, but also to try and stick to Greedo’s iconic orange/teal/yellow colorscheme. As we will see, he definitely succeeds!

read the complete interview!

Diamonds in the Rough: Sean S

read the full interview!

Diamonds in the Rough: Buck

Welcome back to our monthly spotlight series! In this feature, we talk with Star Wars costumers who help illustrate what high-quality, in-universe costuming looks like, and provide some insights into their character creations!
This time around, we’re looking at ‘Buck’ and his excellent custom Mandalorian kit!

Buck told me that his original inspiration for this outfit were the blue tones of Jango Fett and the Death Watch, with the hooded poncho coming from Bo Katan and the Nite Owls’ appearance in Season 7 of The Clone Wars.

When designing this kit, Buck referred to the excellent work of Brian Matyas (concept artist for The Mandalorian) to get the general aesthetic. As Matyas has a rock-solid grasp on what authentic Star Wars looks like, you’ll see no garish colors or high-contrast custom Mandos here!

Diamonds in the Rough: Max

Special shout-outs this month to Doremy and Renee for their generous donations to help out the site – you all rock! 🙂 If you like this series and would like to support my work as well, consider contributing below!

While I personally avoid the divergent creative and aesthetic decisions of the post-Disney era, these outfits are still quite representative of the general galactic style and worth showing off!

read the full interview!