The Real Basics

Ok, if you're going to do this Stargate uniform thing, I've got some advice.

First, be prepared to spend a lot of money. This can't really be helped, but you can save quite a bit of time and money if you do some basic research and do things right the first time. Also, set yourself a budget and stick to it. You will want to have everything all at once, but if you limit yourself to a few pieces a month you will enjoy the hobby longer, save your marriage, and keep yourself from sitting in a complete canon uniform wondering why you couldn't pay the electric bill on time.

Second, get in shape. I don't care how accurate your uniform rig is, if you don't look like you could pass an Air Force physical, you're not canon. I know this sounds harsh, but an SG team has to be in excellent physical shape. I knew as soon as I put my first WEP jacket on that I didn't look or feel like a member of an SG team so I started jogging every morning, lifting weights, doing crunches, and eating more sensibly. In the last three weeks, I've lost 15 pounds and feel better than I have in years. And I look a lot better in that WEP jacket.

You should get DVDs of the entire series. These can be had pretty cheaply on eBay. Every re-enactor of any kind knows that the best way to ensure accuracy is to have a picture, and the series is the best source there is. Freeze frame, pull jpegs, study the costumes as closely as possible. Whenever possible, you will want to have a specific image from the show to use to create the costume from, and then pose yourself in the same position in your costume--that way, if you have a friend who is handy with Photoshop, you can replace the cast member in the image. Sweet.

Get Stargate SG-1: The Ultimate Visual Guide. This is an inexpensive treasure trove of information and reference images for costuming and props.

Don't impulse buy. Research everything to make sure what you are buying is going to work. This is especially true when buying on-line or through eBay. There are a lot of knock-offs that are not accurate and you will agonize over the money you waste buying something that you can't use because it is the wrong size, shape, or color.

I haven't been able to stick to this next piece of advice, but generally it is a good idea to build one complete uniform at a time rather than having a closet full of half-finished projects.

Clean up after you finish a session of working on something. Nothing will drive a wife or significant other crazy like stepping on needles, finding bits of velcro and thread all over the place or a TV room that looks like a supply depot blew up there.

Don't think for one minute that pressuring your wife or significant other to play Samantha Carter to your O'Neill is going to happen unless they come up with that idea on their own. If she wants a uniform, she'll ask you about it. If she does, that's great. If she doesn't, make sure you spend at least as much time and attention to her as you do the uniforms. Your splendid new Tokyo Marui P-90 is going to make it pretty tough to justify only getting her a card for your annniversary. And be sure to have other things to talk about with her than your SG-1 obsession. If she isn't wearing a uniform by her own choice, I doubt she wants to hear about yours as often as you want to talk about it. Hence this blog.

Be careful how often and where you wear your completed uniform. In the United States it is illegal to impersonate a member of the military. Lots of people wear cammo pants and combat boots...but wearing the whole rig out in public can get you noticed by people, and in a time of justifiable nervousness over unusual behavior you don't want to attract unwanted attention from law enforcement. This is 1,000 times more true if you happen to be wearing a tactical vest and carrying an airsoft gun.

Remember, your hobby should add joy to your life and relieve stress. It should not cost you your life or put you in prison.

Getting Started

Two years ago I had a bout of pneumonia and I was too weak to even change the channel with the remote. As fate would have it, I was parked on the couch with a Stargate SG-1 marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel.

In short, I got hooked. Last Christmas my wife went out of town for nearly a month to visit her family without me, while I was supposed to be working on a commissioned play. Unfortunately for the play, a friend had loaned me his entire DVD collection of Stargate from season 1 through season 8. I watched every single episode, in order, went out and bought season 9 and watched it too. Little did I know that doing this was akin to being indoctrinated in a cult.

For me, one of the primary attractions of the show...apart from excellent writing, acting, and special effects...was having a main character who was unashamedly in mid-life with graying hair. Just like me...well, apart from the unashamedly part, but Jack O'Neill gave me a role model sorely lacking on other television shows.

I think I was originally drawn to the theatre by the opportunities it affords to put on costumes and pretend. Wearing costumes has always been a big part of my life. So has pretending, to be honest. In highschool my step-mom made me a collarless Beatle suit and I worked nights as a dishwasher to save up for a "canon" bass guitar--the beautiful Hoefner Beatle Bass, left handed.

Well, you get the idea.

And this sort of thing always begins with the hats, so I started looking for a hat similar to the one O'Neill wears on the show. I quickly discovered it wasn't going to be a simple as just getting a hat. Not by a longshot. The image on the left is a screen worn cap from www.stargateprops.com, which sold for $750.

The hat worn on the show is a loose fit, 6-panel cap in black, taupe, or olive drab. It has no eyelets, and the buckle on the back is on the left rather than the right. These are just not available anywhere off the rack. In fact, the canon cap is one of the few items I still need to get, but looking for an O'Neill cap led me to a great resource. www.stargate6.com. This site used to have a great costuming portion run by a guy named LT, who had canon hats custom made for a very reasonable cost. Unfortunately, he has been laid up for a long time and the shop has had to close down because he can't fill any orders. No knowing when or if it will ever return.

Even though the shop has closed down for the time being, the website is still a very active forum for an international community of people who are enthusiasts for Airsoft guns (high end toys that shoot little yellow BBs) and who dress up in Stargate SG-1 uniforms that are as screen perfect as possible.

If it hadn't been for this incredibly useful forum and their collected knowledge, I'd never have been able to put together my uniforms as quickly or as completely as I have.

This blog is going to be a place where I track the building of my uniform sets, airsoft guns, props, and so forth.

Mostly because my wife doesn't want to hear about it and I have to tell somebody.

I'd love your comments and questions, and to have you share your useful hints on costuming.

Thanks for reading.