Tag: gear

Galactic Style Guide – Ammo belts and Pouches 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’! In this entry, we’re taking a deep dive into a specific category of gear that plays a major role in creating the GFFA’s uniquely grounded, quasi-militaristic aesthetic – belt pouches! As a great number of Star Wars character designs utilize longer robes or tunics instead of more western/modern shirts and trousers (and thus are are sans pockets), it seems that even the most pedestrian costume designs are routinely festooned with a wide variety of semi-rigid containers for carrying small items!
Due to the great number of onscreen examples, I waffled back and forth for how best to organize and present them all. Eventually, I decided to break them down by real-world source (milsurp vs. non-milsurp) and era (Classic Trilogy vs. Prequels) within these categories. As usual, we’ll close with some important takeaways for those of you who may want to incorporate a pouch or two in your own kit to add some in-universe style points! Let’s begin (as we so often do) on Tatooine!

The first folks we see onscreen wearing military surplus are the Jawas, who set the trend for what follows. Much like the majority of base firearms used for blaster building, the Jawas’ belt gear is comprised of European ammunition pouches and bandoleers drawn from a period of roughly 1890 to 1945 CE.

Jawas and Tuskens are both seen using British pattern 1903 bandoleers
K98 Mauser triple pouch

Farmboy Luke continues our trend of leather Euro milsurp pieces, sporting an interesting trio of belt pouches:

keep reading for more examples of authentic, in-universe belt gear!

Galactic Style Guide – Backpacks II

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’! In this entry, we’re returning to our examination of in-universe backpacks, this time focusing on some less rigid examples, encompassing not just backpacks but also things like satchels and bedrolls.
As we said last month, this kind of unassuming and field-functional gear is woefully underrepresented among the GFFA costuming community (who tend to go for eye-catching and…less-than-functional). This is too bad, because a good pack can really elevate an impression and make it feel like a living, breathing kit and not just a costume: it shows the viewer “I am a real individual with needs beyond what I carry on my belt or in my pockets.”
Let’s dive in and get some ideas!

The softpack that gets the most screentime in the Lucas films is probably the one Luke totes Yoda around in during his Jedi training. As far as I know, nobody has yet identified it as a milsurp piece (though the buckles might be?) so it may have been made in-house for Episode V. If anyone has any details on it, please share them below in the comments!

keep reading for more in-universe backpack inspo

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…

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.

Continue reading

Galactic Style Guide – Text

Welcome to another installment of our ‘Galactic Style Guide counterpoint’ subseries, where we help you strengthen your ‘Star Wars eye’ by highlighting and remedying common faux pas that can make your kit look Not Star Warsy. As part of the GSG, the ultimate goal is still to help you create a more accurate ‘outer persona’ – but we approach the goal from the opposite direction!
This month, we’re taking a look at a design phenomenon that’s big on the Disney side of things (whether it be in films made under them, things sold by them, or costumes worn by fans while visiting them) but which was only ever a minimal part of the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’: text on stuff!

The fact that we went six films with zero non-technical Aurebesh (and the first two, most seminal films had NONE at all) should tell you everything you need to know: when it comes to Aurebesh on kit items, it’s always superfluous.
With that in mind, I want to look at some examples to illustrate why you’re better off omitting Aurebesh entirely. Out of respect for the SW costuming/maker community, I’m focusing on publicly-available items sold by Disney, but the point is still applicable: even when executed correctly it’s still largely* unnecessary, and—if used at all—should act as a garnish, not a side dish – let alone the main course! If your impression is relying on Aurebesh to make sense, something’s not working and it might be time to go back to the drawing board.

*As we saw before, pretty much the only folks we saw wearing Aurebesh pre-Disney are prisoners and biker-gang types. Occasionally we see small identifiers like ‘crew’ or ‘staff’, but these simply serve to demonstrate the wearer’s membership in a group as separate from the public.
For a refresher on examples of places where we do commonly see in-universe lettering, check out this GSG entry.

Let’s start off with a couple items featuring completely redundant Aurebesh additions. Did you ever notice that all the top brass at the Death Star’s conference room had matching drinkware?

Here’s the version sold at Galaxy’s Edge:

From one side, it just looks like a slick space-fascist travel mug. From the other side though, it looks like the Empire thinks its officers need to be constantly reminded of who they work for.
more Bad aurebesh products, and how to prevent them!

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

Galactic Style Guide – Ponchos 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’! It’s been a minute since our last entry in this series, but here on the last weekend of Star Wars Month, we’re taking a look at examples of garments which have been part of the GFFA look since the very beginning: ponchos! For our purposes, we’re defining a poncho as a garment worn as an outer layer for protection from the elements and which covers the front of the body; things like capes and cloaks tend to be open in the front and worn more for form than function (hence their frequent use by ‘classes’ like gamblers and politicians). As we’ll see, ponchos on the other hand are almost always associated with salt-of-the-earth folks who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Let’s dig in!

The first poncho we see in the Original Trilogy is worn by Luke as part of his farmboy attire:

While it’s a fun idea, as we’ll see next month, this is not Qui-Gon’s poncho.
more examples inside!

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

An Introduction to Galactic Glamping: laid-back camping in a galaxy far far away

Hello there! Instead of a fresh entry in the Diamonds in the Rough series, this week I’m happy to present a guest post, courtesy of Anders of DT Blasterworks. Be sure to read to the end to learn about an exciting upcoming Star Wars reenacting event!

The intent of “Galactic Glamping” is to have a fun, relaxed, car-camping experience while enjoying the Star Wars aesthetic: it’s another way to enjoy cosplay outside of the confines of a hotel or convention center and really get in touch with the way the characters interact with their environment. In this primer, we’ll go over the look of the gear and equipment you should be using, some good in-universe food and snack ideas, and general recommendations. The most important thing about this is comfort and convenience—by not having to carry everything in on your back, and instead letting your “speeder” carry your gear, you aren’t limited to lightweight, small items. You can bring that heavy tent, use hard-sided containers like footlockers and coolers to transport your stuff, and cook a good meal out there!

Luke may have been “roughing it”, but his campsite is a great example of what this activity can look like!
Learn more about galactic glamping within!