Ghost Costume - Projects - Beneath the Waves

Ghost Costume

I've always been impressed with some of the elaborate costumes fans of various films, TV series, and videogames come up with, and I've also always thought it would be fun to work as a prop-master on sci-fi films. So in 2004 I decided to try my hand at something along those lines, built mostly out of found objects in the style of classic Star Wars props.

My favourite costumes in science fiction have always been the ones that involve futuristic armour, regardless of the strength of the rest of the production - Boba Fett in Star Wars, the elaborate suits that Robert Short created for Captain Power and Super Force, and so on - so this was the obvious choice.

I wanted to make something that would be at least vaguely recognizable, but that I'd be unlikely to see anyone else dressed as. At the time, there was a lot of prerelease hype about StarCraft: Ghost, and I'm a fan of that fictional universe as well as Blizzard's stellar concept artists, so I chose to go with something based on that.

StarCraft: Ghost was eventually canceled, but at the time there was a large amount of concept art and screenshots for it available on Blizzard's site. The original real-time strategy game (StarCraft and its Brood War expansion pack) only includes very low-resolution pictures of the Ghost units, but the printed manual had one slightly better image, which depicted their environment suits as being quite bulky. Nova (the protagonist of Ghost) was a woman, so the designers gave her a much more sleek and lightweight outfit. I decided to go with something in-between the two, partly because I would look ridiculous in a Nova costume, and partly because I liked the idea of bridging the gap, a la the Yesterday's Enterprise episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In the StarCraft universe, Ghosts are the far-future equivalent of today's Special Forces in the US Army. They have personal cloaking devices, carry sniper rifles, perform reconnaissance behind enemy lines, and "paint" high-value targets with laser designators to guide incoming nuclear weapons. This reinforced my opinion that their armour should be relatively lightweight and not too bulky, so I used motocross armour as a starting point. The chest/shoulder piece is by Vega, and the arm guards are by SixSixOne. The knee pads are elbow guards that turned out to be way too big for me. I ran blue electroluminescent wire through the chest and shoulder piece to provide the glow that was depicted in the concept art of Nova. The EL wire was connected to a distribution bus that I wired up between the battery/transformer box and the EL wire itself.

For the sniper rifle, I started with an airsoft replica of a British L85A1. Bullpup rifles seem like a clever idea to me, and I thought that it would be even more effective for a sniper rifle, since they need very long barrels to increase accuracy and muzzle velocity. I replaced the stock barrel with a longer one made from 1/2" galvanized steel pipe and part of a hairstyling implement from a thrift store. I removed the scope and substituted a much larger one which was actually a toy telescope, held to the scope mount with metal rings from a rubber pipe joint. The laser sight from an airsoft pistol provided the target-painting capability. I also added a sling designed for an M-60 machinegun. I put a green cold-cathode neon tube inside the forestock, but I wasn't able to find a way to attach the transformer and batteries in a way that looked right, so it ended up going unused.

To flesh out the equipment, I added an airsoft replica of a silenced Walther P99^[1], a pair of rivet-head goggles (by Dyce) and a lightweight medical oxygen mask (for operations in non-breathable atmospheres), and a utility belt.

All of the plastic and metal equipment was painted in semi-gloss white and/or grey.

Underneath the equipment is a white pilot's uniform shirt with captain's bars, a pair of white Fox cargo pants, and a pair of Vegetarian Shoes Cyber Biker boots (which are no longer produced, sorry).

Costume Parts

Motocross Kneepads

Motocross Arm Guards

Airsoft L85A1

Rifle Parts

Motocross Armour

Airsoft P99

Date Shot: September-October 2004
Camera Body: Nikon CoolPix 775
Lens: Zoom Nikkor 5.8-17.4mm
Filters: None
Date Processed: September-October 2004
Version: 1.0

Test Fit of Parts

Date Shot: September-October 2004
Camera Body: Nikon CoolPix 775
Lens: Zoom Nikkor 5.8-17.4mm
Filters: None
Date Processed: September-October 2004
Version: 1.0

Electroluminescent Wire

Bus Detail

Date Shot: September-October 2004
Camera Body: Nikon CoolPix 775
Lens: Zoom Nikkor 5.8-17.4mm
Filters: None
Date Processed: September-October 2004
Version: 1.0

The Finished Costume

Taken at my apartment at the time, at The Mercury on Devil's Night 2004, and at the Noc-Noc on Halloween 2004.

Date Shot: October 2004
Camera Body: Nikon CoolPix 775
Lens: Zoom Nikkor 5.8-17.4mm
Filters: None
Date Processed: October 2004
Version: 1.0

Footnotes

This was inspired by my having just seen a Walther Nighthawk air pistol. At the time, I assumed it was a pellet gun replica of an actual firearm. In reality, only the CO2 version exists. It is certainly the most ominous-looking pellet pistol I've run across, although apparently the actual performance is a bit lacking.