Costumes in Paintball
By : Rob “Tyger” Rubin
©2000 Panther Free Press
Imagine this. You're playing a big game in spring. The weather is nice, a beautiful sunny day. You're at the start zone for your team, checking your gear one last time to make sure that everything is tightened, secured, rattleproof, and otherwise dealt with. And on the horn you dig in, taking up as much field as you can. You get to about the mid-way point of the field and start shooting it out. With a couple of friends you flank out to your right, trying to out-maneuver the other team.
You come over a ridge and make a run for a bunker. That's when you see… a deer. It's in the bunker you were running for. It's wearing JT Spectras and a jersey. And it's shooting at you. Before you can say “What?” you have a face full of yellow Marbeliser. Sounds too “out there”? I don't think so.
You see, that deer would be me.
Now you may think that wearing a deer costume to play paintball is weird. My argument is that it's not any weirder than half the costumes people wear to play on a normal day. You'd almost think that half of these people were colorblind. My other response is that I don't wear it all the time. Only to big games. The rest of the time I usually play in my “Ears and Tail” getup reminiscent of my feline nickname.
I've been costuming on one level or another since almost 1990 when I made my first set of “ears” and a neck drape on a BDU cap in college. The attire has gotten more elaborate over the years, and my last costume was “Boomer”, a blue bunny. All of my costumes have been animal based, but costuming isn't just about making a bunny suit.
Scenario gamers are infamous for elaborate costumes and makeup work. I'm especially jealous of some of the “Alien” costumes that I've seen out there. But “Comet” the deer won third place at the '96 “Last Blast” for best costume, so that may speak for something. With scenario games skyrocketing in popularity, costumes are becoming more and more common to the casual player.
Why?
I pose this as the first question, because I get asked this a lot. “Why
would you put on a bright blue bunny suit to play paintball?” or “Why
would you wear ears like that?” It's a good question, but it's also the
easiest to answer. “Because I can.”
Costumes allow for more individuality on the field. It's a way to carve out your own identity in a sea of mediocrity. Anyone can go out and buy a Raven jersey. I wear mine with tiger ears and a tail! Wearing a costume also gives me a personal “Edge”. There's an intimidation factor I carry onto a field in costume that I can't get when I look like everyone else.
I played an indoor pump-gun tournament at “Country Club Paintball” in Chicago. I played in a Raven jersey, black cutoff shorts, tiger ears, tail, and “Tyger Eyez” Goggle Skinz. We aced our first three games because the other team was thrown off balance when they saw where I went. Egotistical? YES! Was I that much a factor on the field? No. But it worked to our advantage. And that's what a costume can give you.
Costuming 101
There's several levels of costuming, and several ways to accomplish what
you want to do. Low levels of costuming are easy. For example, Jim
Reible plays in California in a “Donald Duck” hat, and Bambi Jo Bullard
wears a set of antlers. This is a low level of costume that's easy to do.
By comparison, Ron Orr wears a lion suit that has tufted ears, a tail, and
paws that he made himself. Then again, Ron is also an experienced costume
maker, so that may not be fair.
Some levels of costume are for historical accuracy or family pride. At the '96 Knoxville Indoor, “Phantom Regiment” wore kilts of the Blackwatch. There's a player in Wisconsin who wears a historically correct “Doughboy” outfit, down to the gaiters and steel-pot helmet and cosmetically altered VM-68. There's so many more that it gets hard to remember it all. One of the things you have to remember when creating a costume is your “audience”. For the most part, you won't be making a costume to take to “WorldCon” (A science fiction convention with a masters level costume competition). You don't have to be perfectly correct in all details. And, for all it's worth, mistakes can be used to your advantage. But first you must decide one thing :
“Who do I want to be?”
When creating your costume this is a very important question. My
personal preference is clear, but you may be creating a scenario character
and have specific needs or effects. I'm not saying you should be spending
days exploring method acting, but you should make considerations of
character to looks for scenario games. If you're supposed to be a general
of a galactic army then BDU's just don't make a good costume.
Let's say you're playing a fantasy scenario game in which you know you will be playing on the “Orcs” side. If you know in advance that you'll be an “Orc”, then you can create something appropriate. A simple costume like fangs, a snout and some horns and you're now an orc. You wouldn't do this if you were on the “elves” side. Some knowledge is an important thing.
Playing or Showing
This is the next thing you want to address. All of my costumes were
created with playing in mind. Scenario gamers make really spectacular
costumes that are not meant for play. They are meant for competition or
for role-playing only.
As a rule of thumb, never take anything onto the playing field you're not willing to have lost, stolen, bent, ripped, torn, mashed, tweaked, fondled, broken, spindled, folded, mutilated or otherwise damaged in any way. Keep this in mind when costuming. Nothing hurts more than losing the one prop you spent weeks creating.
If you're playing in the costume, use materials that are easily washable. Cottons are good, but they shrink if you don't wash them correctly. Whites are impossible to keep “pure white”, and will show stains. If you're not playing, then pick materials that will work for the effect you're going for.
Affording it
I wanted to include a bit about the cost of a costume compared to what
you will do with it. The last costume I made, “Boomer” the bunny, wasn't
that expensive. Only about $45 in materials and a month of time working
on and off. (mostly off.)
As a thought experiment once, I figured out how to make a fairly decent dog costume for less than $40. Brown sweatpants, brown sweatshirt with a hood, costume ears, snout and a tail brought from a costume shop, and it was less than $40. Not very spectacular, true. But it's cheap.
Some of the more spectacular makeup effects can be pricey. I'm talking about prosthetics at this point of which I've seen some. But for the most part you can find costume bits for very little money if you're assembling a costume.
A lot can be cheap, if not free. It just depends on where you look.
Discovered Effects
Ask any “Star Trek” fan about props and you may be in for a shocker.
Many of the cool buttons and emblems are actually mundane things like salt
shakers. It's a “well known secret” to many movie costume designers that
using mundane things in unexpected ways creates a cool costuming effect.
It's called an “Assembled Costume”.
For example, you wouldn't think twice about seeing some green rope cord, some beads, and a boonie hat. With some work and time, you can create a headdress like the aliens in “Predator”. And that's a simple idea. I've scoured stores with friends saying “You know, we put this and that together and we can make horns!” It's all about keeping your eyes and imagination open.
Building the Perfect Beast
There's a few things I want to cover here before you start creating
something. When it actually comes time to make your costume, you should
already know what you're going after. Don't expect that what's in your
mind is going to be what you end up with. It rarely works out that way.
I want to make a mention of safety here. Never, and I MEAN NEVER
compromise the integrity of your face mask! “Boomer” and “Comet” have
snouts zip-tied to the mask, but it does not compromise the safety of the
mask. I don't care how cool your “Headless Horseman” costume would look
with a “Jack-O-Lantern” grin sawed out of the mask, don't cut your mask
up! There's a reason you have it there. LEAVE it there! If you have to
do it, then PAINT it.
Never place anything on your costume that could injure yourself or others. Studs and spikes may look cool, but a possibility of injury exists. For example, Comet's “antlers” are felt, and sewn on. You can also run into=20 problems if you have anything that's made of glass, metal, or anything else that can corrode over time. Use common sense. Safety first, and you can't go wrong.
Depending on your ability and costume complexity, a costume can take anywhere from a few minutes to months to create and perfect. If you're assembling something from parts, you want to make sure that it's all assembled in a manner as that it won't fall apart. Anything linked that moves can wear down, for example.
If you're going for historical accuracy, then you may want to go from scratch. Sewing from scratch offers a lot more flexibility, but a lot more headaches. If you don't know how to operate a sewing machine, learn fast. It can make a huge difference in how much time you take creating a costume.
If you're playing in your costume, you have to make preparations for that. Both “Boomer” and “Comet” are created so I can wear knee pads and elbow pads either under or over the costumes. They also allow me to wear a jersey over them, provided the jersey is a fairly decent size. The ears on all my costumes were made to “flop” when they get hit with paint, making sure that paint doesn't break.
There has only been one time that a paintball broke on an outer wear costume. A long time ago, in an earlier costume, I was shot in the tail. Due to the weighting I used on it to keep it down, the ball broke. Because of that, I'm using lighter and more flexible materials now. (Jim, I still owe you one big time…)
If you're recreating a historical costume, or creating a high-tech one for a scenario game, keep in mind that you will have to be comfortable in the costume, and you may be wearing it for hours at a time. Also keep in mind you're not being graded for historical accuracy. Cheat on the zippers if you can, it's ok. Velcro is your friend.
“It's ALIVE!!!”
Once you finish creating your costume you're going to be eager to play in
it, as well you should. A lot of hard work goes into creating something
like that. But before you go out there, take one more precaution.
I always bring with me a spare set of playing clothes. Why? Because I've had too many rips and tears. The first deer suit ripped on the playing field at the Big Game in Racine during the first game of the day. The suit tore up the seat about 6 inches, and was unrepairable. I switched clothing and kept on playing the big game.
I always pack for the inevitable disaster. It may be paranoia, but I'd rather be prepared.
The other thing I've found when playing in costume is that I have to change my game plan. “Boomer” is not camouflage by any stretch of the imagination, so I play without camouflage. “Comet” is actually a subdued brown, and “Comet” has crawled up on players before. It's all a matter of playing a little differently. But, there's one more part to playing in costume.
Paint Magnets
This is the downside to wearing the cool-looking costume on the field.
As I said before, a big 'ol deer and a bright blue bunny aren't exactly
subtle. Unfortunately, you have to expect it. But, it can also be useful
to know.
The way I figure it, I can play dodgeball forever if I need to. If I can get the whole other team shooting at me, then my teammates can do something “useful” like flank around the other team.
Costumes add a dimension to paintball that you may not think of. Historical costumes add a lot to a reenactment game, as do futuristic costumes for scenario games. It immerses the players just a little bit more in the events, and makes a story that much more fun. And, frankly, it's fun being the deer once in a while.
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