The Thing - RJ MacReady - Costume Research and Progress Thread (Back at it! 1/9/24)

[MorbidCharlie]

"Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired... there's nothing more I can do, just wait...this is R.J. MacReady, helicopter pilot, US outpost #31."

The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies and with the snow down here (Texas) and craziness going on in the world, I figured it was time for me to tackle an easier cosplay that I have been wanting to do for a while since work on other projects is going to have to be put on hold until it gets warmer.
I saw howlingwind13 's MacReady recently and decided to get to work.

There's nothing terribly crazy about the costume, it's just sourcing everything.

• Boots: Looking at a screen grab of the sole, the chevron pattern matches boots made by "RO Search" which were military issue in the 80s. These are the closest I can find, given that Kurt Russell's boots actually have lifts on them, which can be seen in the image below.
  
  
  
  
  
• Flight suit: Basic Nomex flight suit. Again, easy enough to pick up.
• Jacket: I've seen numerous sources that ID the jacket as a Schott 674 bomber jacket. I looked online and found several but actually managed to luck out and grab an "Excelled" bomber that looks identical as far as I can tell. Near enough for the $20 I spent on it. I'll need to distress it, once it arrives.
  
  
  
• Sunglasses: ID'ed as Vuarnet 027s and very expensive. I was able to score the Rei Glaciers (a reproduction) on EBay.
  
  
  
• Gloves: Pretty sure these are Castre leather snowmobile gauntlets. This particular style was made in the 80s. I was unable to find any that had the leather cuff so I purchased a pair with the fabric cuff and had a friend replace the fabric with leather.
  
  
  
• The hat: I've decided to go with Screencapped Hats version. Waiting for it to arrive.
  
  
• Flamethrower: The M2A1-7 model. It's a hybrid of the M9-7 flamethrower wand used in Vietnam with the tank system of the M2 from WW2. This will be a 3D printed prop.
  
  
  
• Blue hoodie in "heather blue" and t-shirt.
• The revolver that MacReady uses is actually Garry's and he ends up with it near the end of the movie. The revolver is a Colt Trooper Mk III with a 4" barrel. Garry's revolver is lighter and a little more worn in the movie. Kokusai (SMG) replica on the right.
  
  
  
• The ammo belt and holster are going to be extremely hard to identify, so I went with best guess. Both are similar to Hunter brand equipment so I went with the Hunter 138 ammo belt and Hunter 1100-12 snap on holster off of EBay. The holster MacReady uses is to large for the Colt Trooper so I veered a little from screen accuracy and bought the appropriate sized holster. The rounds are empty casing with 3D printed bullets inserted into them.
  
  
  

 

[howlingwind13]

Sweet! I did get a cheap felt hat made...from. hat maker on etsy. Although not perfect it gets the job done. My flamethrower was a scratch/junk build. Good luck with your build. Also I've never sculpted before but made a petri dish blood monster from air dry clay...acrylic red paint, then blood gel, over the top then red glue sticks
Mike

 

[howlingwind13]

Also the gloves I went with are spartan wanderer thisulate...maybe not exact, but they are gauntlet style with the chevron pattsrn

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Also I've never sculpted before but made a petri dish blood monster from air dry clay...acrylic red paint, then blood gel, over the top then red glue sticks

That looks awesome!

Also the gloves I went with are spartan wanderer thisulate...maybe not exact, but they are gauntlet style with the chevron pattsrn

Thanks for the tip!

I was working on the model for the flamethrower and printed up a test piece and realized it was to small when comparing it to movie pauses, but also realized it was shaped differently. I scanned through the movie again and noticed that the wand was much smaller in the movie than the M2 flamethrower so I looked over different flamethrower models. Every source I have checked has said that the flamethrower is an M2, but that's only partially right. The wand being used is from an M9-7 flamethrower, but the tank system MacReady is wearing is the M2 system so it's a hybrid. Glad I caught this early before I really began printing.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Every 3D model I have found online for flamethrowers feature the M2 wand. I was about to give up and found that a game called "Rising Storm 2: Vietnam" features the M9-7 wand. With a little digging, I found a pack with all of the weapon models available for download. The model is actually very detailed, but still needs a little work so I am cleaning it up and increasing the poly-count. Almost done!

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Printing coming along on the flamethrower. The wand should be completely printed by Tuesday. The pack will take a little longer. Picture on the right is the real deal.

 

[Malibu139]

Fun build. Gonna watch. One of my all time fav movies too. I need to check the other build too.
Don't forget a good supply of J&B

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Glasses and jacket have arrived. The jacket fits great, but with layered clothing underneath, I'll probably need to stretch it a bit.

All of the pieces for the flamethrower wand have been printed and fitted. Doing the finishing work on it now. The gas canister backpack is printing.

 

[GrenadeKing]

Flamethrower is looking good so far. Nice work.

This makes me want to revisit the dynamite I was working on a few years ago.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

This makes me want to revisit the dynamite I was working on a few years ago.

Same costume, or just dynamite in general?

 

[GrenadeKing]

Well dynamite is always fun. I was working on MacReady's though. There was a thread here discussing it and I did a ton of research on my own. Only thing I hadn't gotten nailed down was the date and the color. Really need some nice HD or 4k screen caps.

This is the original thread.
Help Identifying Carpenter's "The Thing" Dynamite brand.

The best part was when an actual miner joined the site to tell us how good we were doing and give us a few tips.

I have some pictures of my latest build I can post if anyone is interested. I don't want to hijack.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Really need some nice HD or 4k screen caps.

Let me see what I can do.
EDIT: The best images I could get are the same that are in the thread you already referenced. May be the best we can get.

I have some pictures of my latest build I can post if anyone is interested. I don't want to hijack.

By all means, anything you share will help me. I'm going for "fairly accurate" with my build.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Watched a few more frames of the movie to see if I could a better match of the combat boots used.
The snow on the sole of the boot really shows of the chevron pattern in this shot:

Looking through combat boots of that time, I found that "RO Search" boots have that pattern and I snagged a used pair off of EBay for cheap.

Most of the smaller parts of the flamethrower tank pack are printed, starting to print the actual tanks now. I'm going to try and shape the frame out of PVC. We'll see how that goes.

I updated the original post with current info.

 

[howlingwind13]

I went with a thin hoodie, also if its only a costume, remember you can cut the sleeves off the hoodie to give you more wiggle room in the shoulders and arms. I have another costume that involves a hoodie and a wool trench coat and it gets hot at conventions... so cut the sleeves off

 

[GrenadeKing]

The lighting on these could have been better but, this is my last dynamite attempt. I printed it out at an angle to spiral wrap it like the film pieces and wax dipped them. I've been using cheap manila craft paper and aside from always looking a little different I think it's good compromise between the real deal and the film. I did find a really good color of paper at an office supply store but I haven't gotten around to testing it with wax. I did try acrylic clear coat. It doesn't change the color of the paper like wax does but it always feel sticky which is unpleasant. Maybe a spray on coating would work better.

As far as the logo, it's probably... 95% accurate at least. Just can't figure out the dates and if we cant get better screenshots then, educated guess is all we can do.

Cool thing about wax is that it makes these water and snow proof.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

The lighting on these could have been better but, this is my last dynamite attempt.

I think those look great! Are you willing to share the logo work?

 

[MorbidCharlie]

Won't know until I have it in my hands, but I am very happy with the images the hat maker has sent over. Supposed to get final images tomorrow. I told them to hold off on the band and straps - going to try and make those myself, but the shape is looking good!

 

[MorbidCharlie]

I think I might have ID'ed the gloves. If they aren't these, they are damn close. They appear to be Castre leather snowmobile gloves from the 80s with the tag removed. I have had ZERO luck finding any of these for sale online.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

I did manage to find a slight variation of the Castre gloves above. They made an exact same style but with a fabric cuff instead of a leather one. One of my friendly seamstresses is going to remove the fabric cuff and replace it with leather.

 

[MorbidCharlie]

GrenadeKing was kind enough to provide the logo work he did for the Hercules label on the dynamite used in the movie. Using 1" SCH 40 PVC, some craft paper and some candle wax, I made some dynamite. I love the way these look.