R J MacReady

MacReady Flight Suit, originally uploaded by Mr Atrocity.

Next weekend I'm going up to North Wales for my chum Vivswindy's birthday fancy dress party and barbecue. The theme is the same every year - "film", and as always he will have made some amazing costume to out-do everyone else. We are talking about a man who contacted the people who made the actual leather jacket for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and got them to make him a facsimile when he decided to dress as Indiana Jones one year. Attention to detail is key.

I am not quite so focused, but I like to dress up as much as the next kid and particularly enjoy the fun of "make and do". Last year I went as Number 6 from "The Prisoner" and spent a painful afternoon hand stitching white piping around the edge of a blazer only to discover that my pal Root had a sewing machine. Bugger.

Anyway, this year in honour of my new facial hair I decided it would be churlish not to pick a character from the fine body of work of Mr Kurt Russell, who is probably my favourite cult actor (and not just for the beard). Initially I toyed with being Snake Plisskin, but quickly realised that the number of bicep curls I'd have to do in order to get the costume to fit was too much like hard-work so I settled on R J MacReady from "The Thing". To that end I have spent the afternoon painting the name-badge and general crud onto a cheap pair of overalls which will make a serviceable flight-suit. I have soaked a white, long-sleeved T-shirt in the dirty water I cleaned my brushes in to get a nice grimy feel and have procured snow goggles from eBay. Boots have been sourced, so the only thing left to make is the hat. Oh the hat! The very hat of hats or as it was described here, the hat that's "so hat I can't even begin to describe how hat it is." I have tried to get Mounties' hats from eBay but the damn stores in the US never got back to me to tell me if they could ship it here in time so it looks like it will have to be a papercraft spectacular, a bit like my Ent Costume of a couple of years ago. It's a shame really as I absolutely love the hat he wears and I'd like to have done it "properly". As it is, I fear it'll have to be brown card and camera tape and keep my fingers crossed it doesn't dissolve into papier mâché. I will also have to purchase a bottle of J & B in the week which will double as booze for the party and that final piece of costume attention to detail.

I'm so excited about the whole thing. I just got a text from the lovely Tinseltroos to say she has finished her costume too, so North Wales be afraid. Be very afraid.