STV Assault Uniform: Taking Command

"Listen up, everyone. The battle we're about to join is going to be critical. You will not fall back or surrender for anyone or anything. I'm leading a detachment to the planet myself. Tactical, have photon tubes 1 through 4 stand by for orbital bombardment of predetermined targets on my signal. All decks to general quarters! This madness ends here, though we pay with our lives."

So, now that the story of how my "approximated" ST:V Captain's Assault/Commando Uniform came to be has been told, it's time for me to do a little appraisal of it. First of all, when I first realized that I was assembling a Starfleet uniform out of a woolen sweater, I balked - I usually don't wear wool and rarely ever wear sweaters (I prefer jackets) unless they're relatively thin ones, so I had nightmares about being a hot, itchy mess weighed down by the outfit and barely able to move. However, I'm pleased to remark that this actually isn't the case at all. The modified Wooly Pully sweater does fit me pretty tightly, but it's surprisingly flexible and easily moves along with me when I have to move my arms. I can comfortably aim a rifle, roll, do push-ups or even engage in hand-to-hand combat without feeling like the Wooly Pully is restricting me. And although it is a wool sweater and I do get a little hot in it, I don't feel like I'm burning up. I think part of it may have to do with the part that the wool is breathing better than I thought it would, but it may also have to do with the fact that the undershirt I'm wearing beneath the wool is sleeveless.

Thankfully, this uniform only comes with a single pin-on insignia and that's the rank badge going on the armband. This configuration, besides being less "busy" and slightly less noticeable than the standard TWOK uniform armbands that had Pips and Squeaks, still makes it clear what rank the wearer holds, although this uniform's color scheme would have made that obvious to begin with since only Commanding Officers wore green versions of the Commando Uniform while everyone else wore sand/tan. Because an already somewhat thick armband has been sewn on top of a very thick wool sleeve, it's really hard to get the rank insignia pinned through the sleeve and secured. But because the wool is so thick, once the pin is on, it stays on - and furthermore, the usually painful military-style butterfly pin-clasp doesn't dig into my skin like it normally does because there is so much thick wool around it. That's something I definitely appreciated!

The pants were made just like the long, non-blousing, semi-elastic TWOK slacks from Cosplay Sky that I used with my Black "Generations" Captain's Waistcoat, only modified with a slightly smaller waist and an adjusted length for the pant legs. I washed this pair of pants once before I put it on to ensure a good fit, as I had recalculated my measurements having taken into account that it was going to shrink the first few times I washed it. However, the shrinking wasn't such a big deal this time since the pants needed to be jammed into the boots to begin with. They sit comfortably around my waist, can easily take my black belt and TWOK buckle and, most importantly, can effortlessly accomodate having a tank top, TWOK undershirt and Wooly Pully sweater jammed into them and then secured with a belt. This is very important because the whole sleek appearance of the Commando Uniform depended on all parts of the top tucking into the pants. The pant legs themselves fit well and are also easily flexible, allowing a near-full range of movement; unlike my very tight-fitting original set of TWOK pants, I can throw kicks in these if I have to or even go hiking.

As for the boots? I tried not to measure my feet and calves too tightly because I knew that I'd have to jam two large pant legs into the boot tops. The boots themselves look "collapsible" or "flimsy" at first glance, but they do their job remarkably well. The black "bands" on the front are connected to the boot pieces by Velcro and can be removed for easy cleaning, while the boots themselves fit my feet easily and also give me enough room to fit a Dr. Scholl's insole inside to make it easier for me to walk around in them, something I had also factored in when I calculated the sizes I needed to give hunny_lee when making the boots. They give a good enough general impression of the layout of the original Commando Boots to do the job I needed them to do even they aren't 100% accurate - in fact, their only disadvantage, and the only disadvantage of the entire kit, is that the very long tongues of the boots seem to have a certain habit of shifting from the center of the boot to one side as I walk around.

But you know what? Considering the effort and the headaches I went through to conceive this costume and get it done, that's a very small flaw to nitpick over. Overall, I think I can write this uniform set off as "mission complete."