Felgacarb
Sr Member
Since I seem to be in a bit of a movie era costuming mood recently, I thought it was time to do a piece worn by one of my all time favorite engineers.
This vest actually ended up getting a lot of screen time. I would speculate that it was originally made because either James Doohan wanted a more comfortable costume, or perhaps he no longer could fit into the white engineering jumpsuits made for TMP.
Guesswork aside, we saw this clothing article worn in Star Trek IV:
Again in Star Trek V:
Once more in Star Trek VI:
On the small screen, we got to see him wear it again in the 6th season TNG episode: Relics.
Two things always bugged me about this costume.
The first is the shirt. Whenever Scotty wears the standard monster maroon uniform, even in Star Trek: VII, he's got the proper gold (mustard? ochre?) shirt that matches the trim on the jacket and pants. Whenever he wears the vest, it's with a white shirt. (Even though the stripe on the pants stays gold.)
The second, are the use, or lack of use, of the insets. Overall, I love the insets, they appear on a great many of the original cast movie era costumes. On the vest, they decorate the pocket flaps, and are placed on the front for the chest badge insignia and, presumably, the rank pin. The chest badge is always worn- in fact in the TNG appearance he starts with the movie badge and switches to comm badge during the episode. The shoulder inset is never shown being used at all.
These issues aside, I decided it was time to tackle this . (That and the fact that micro suede was still on sale...)
To begin, I made some quick patterns-
And used iron-on interfacing to give the front panels some structure.
I spent a lot of time with the two front panels, since that is where all the detail is. The part that required the most thought was the opening seam- It is very plain, but somehow you have to attach the trim, the zipper, and the lining with only the one seam visible.
After that, it was time to make the insets.
The pen holder pocket - looks like it mostly is used to hold tire pressure gauges, 'cause you need those just all the time on a starship...
I chose to make two of the lower pockets functional- (I suspect that none are on the screen used, but I honestly don't know yet.) To do this I used basically the same technique as the insets.
Another typical feature of the costumes of this era are the zipper pulls. Roddenberry didn't really want contemporary clasps, zippers, buttons or even seams to used for his futuristic outfits, but still, they had to be made somehow. For zippers, they compromised by using spherical zipper pulls and hiding the zippers. These seem to have been used on many of the different vests, and on the field jackets.
The appearance on TNG is the one time we see him wear the vest open, and that was how I figured out that the zipper should be brass.
(OK, perhaps the figures are not totally screen accurate... but it does show the zipper!)
I started with some plastic buttons and a dremel:
I cut the original zipper pull and fit the plastic over it.
Then I painted my spherical pull gold and glued it in place.
Next up, was the 'bump plate' on the left front of the vest. I suspect this was a found item, but I haven't figured out what it is yet. For this project, I used a thin piece of sheet aluminum, some hard rubber 'feet' glued on, and some shiny silver paint.
That is then bonded onto a panel on the vest with contact cement.
So, here's what it has finished up looking like:
And in TNG mode:
(Yeah I'm wearing jeans... I haven't made the pants with the gold stripe yet... it's on the list...)
Thanks for looking!
This vest actually ended up getting a lot of screen time. I would speculate that it was originally made because either James Doohan wanted a more comfortable costume, or perhaps he no longer could fit into the white engineering jumpsuits made for TMP.
Guesswork aside, we saw this clothing article worn in Star Trek IV:
Again in Star Trek V:
Once more in Star Trek VI:
On the small screen, we got to see him wear it again in the 6th season TNG episode: Relics.
Two things always bugged me about this costume.
The first is the shirt. Whenever Scotty wears the standard monster maroon uniform, even in Star Trek: VII, he's got the proper gold (mustard? ochre?) shirt that matches the trim on the jacket and pants. Whenever he wears the vest, it's with a white shirt. (Even though the stripe on the pants stays gold.)
The second, are the use, or lack of use, of the insets. Overall, I love the insets, they appear on a great many of the original cast movie era costumes. On the vest, they decorate the pocket flaps, and are placed on the front for the chest badge insignia and, presumably, the rank pin. The chest badge is always worn- in fact in the TNG appearance he starts with the movie badge and switches to comm badge during the episode. The shoulder inset is never shown being used at all.
These issues aside, I decided it was time to tackle this . (That and the fact that micro suede was still on sale...)
To begin, I made some quick patterns-
And used iron-on interfacing to give the front panels some structure.
I spent a lot of time with the two front panels, since that is where all the detail is. The part that required the most thought was the opening seam- It is very plain, but somehow you have to attach the trim, the zipper, and the lining with only the one seam visible.
After that, it was time to make the insets.
The pen holder pocket - looks like it mostly is used to hold tire pressure gauges, 'cause you need those just all the time on a starship...
I chose to make two of the lower pockets functional- (I suspect that none are on the screen used, but I honestly don't know yet.) To do this I used basically the same technique as the insets.
Another typical feature of the costumes of this era are the zipper pulls. Roddenberry didn't really want contemporary clasps, zippers, buttons or even seams to used for his futuristic outfits, but still, they had to be made somehow. For zippers, they compromised by using spherical zipper pulls and hiding the zippers. These seem to have been used on many of the different vests, and on the field jackets.
The appearance on TNG is the one time we see him wear the vest open, and that was how I figured out that the zipper should be brass.
(OK, perhaps the figures are not totally screen accurate... but it does show the zipper!)
I started with some plastic buttons and a dremel:
I cut the original zipper pull and fit the plastic over it.
Then I painted my spherical pull gold and glued it in place.
Next up, was the 'bump plate' on the left front of the vest. I suspect this was a found item, but I haven't figured out what it is yet. For this project, I used a thin piece of sheet aluminum, some hard rubber 'feet' glued on, and some shiny silver paint.
That is then bonded onto a panel on the vest with contact cement.
So, here's what it has finished up looking like:
And in TNG mode:
(Yeah I'm wearing jeans... I haven't made the pants with the gold stripe yet... it's on the list...)
Thanks for looking!
thumbsup Scotty would be proud!
