Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Colonial Marine Raiders
I've been following the production of Christian Matzke's "Last Flight of the Freya 7", an "Aliens" fan project that has some excellent production values. That includes these Colonial Marine Raider patches from William Pace. They're great conjectural props, and the presentation is outstanding.
I like the fact that the patch is grounded in familiar territory, referencing the mood of WWII patches. This lends a lot of believability because it is subconsciously rooted in historical patches, thus making it a quick mental scan as something (future) historic. The First Division Marine Raiders patch is referenced in mood as well as a few others, which makes it immediately believable.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough obscure insignia and patches that are abstract, but with strong designs that can be used in costumes, especially if you combine elements. Foreign rank pips on collar patches make for a realistic uniform. In fact I have used a simple parking valet shell jacket (bought at a local thrift shop) as the basis of a futuristic SF officer’s dress coat. It was simple, neat and trim with a vaguely military feeling which only took a few insignia to make a uniform coupled with tuxedo pants (with the stripe down the sides) and a pair of inexpensive white gloves. A little military bearing doesn’t hurt the image along with a military haircut. I didn’t even need a Sam Browne belt or a sidearm to make it work.
The caltrop patch of the 3rd Army Corps is another favorite as well as the Pacific Ocean Areas generic WWII patch with the star group and red arrow that can be positioned in any direction with the round patch. Don’t forget there are a world of patches and insignia of foreign origin that works well for SF costuming. Trivia: the collar insignia worn in the original Battlestar Galactica was a US Army intel pin. http://www.militaryvetspx.com/miinpin.html?ref=lexity&_vs=google&_vm=productsearch&adtype=pla
Awesome!
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