The Hunt for Red October: Captain Marko Ramius

[Mike J.]

The short, short version: Here's the info on his ribbons: How do you say 'fruit salad' in Russian?

The long version:

We occasionally have themed potluck lunches at work. The last one was the perhaps unwisely dual-themed Hollywood / Celebrity Murder Mystery. While researching popular movies that came out in 5-year increments ago, I discovered that THFRO came out in 1990, which would make this year the 25th anniversary. While I didn't have enough time to execute a Ramius costume for the potluck, I filed it away to be used for Halloween.

And here we are, less than 6 weeks away from Halloween Friday / Halloween Eve. I'll be going as Ramius this year, because I like the film, it's a good anniversary, and it means I won't have to shave my beard off for once, which is time consuming at best.

Let's break down Ramius' usual costume, from top to bottom:

Black ushanka (only worn outside, with gloves & heavy coat)
Black dress tunic w/ pins & ribbons (More on that later)
White dress shirt (probably)
Black dress pants
Black dress shoes

SEEMS simple enough, right? As always, the devil is in the details.


-MJ

 

[Mike J.]

"Cold and hard..."

The Ushanka (Fur Hat)

Blog post here: http://gndn.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/hunt-for-red-october-captain-marko-ramius-hat-ushanka/

Since this is only worn outside the sub, in the cold, and it'll still probably be 80+ degrees on Halloween, I'm going to skip the hat, coat and gloves.


-MJ

 

[Mike J.]

Nothing fancy, just a straight ... jacket...

The Uniform Tunic / Jacket:

This is going to be the most difficult part of the build. I'll break it down:

• Locate or fabricate a black men's dress jacket with Mandarin / Nehru collar but with normal cuffs. The jacket has four pockets with flaps but not buttons, one on each breast and one on each hip. It has no belt loops and is not tucked in. I got lucky and found an old Calvin Klein jacket on eBay that's close enough for my purposes.

• Locate or fabricate epaulettes / shoulder boards. I bought a pair of old Soviet shoulder boards off Etsy. I had to remove a pin from each to get them to match, which left a small hole, but I think they'll be close enough as well.

• Add gold buttons: The real uniforms have gold buttons with an anchor on them. Real surplus buttons can be found on Etsy and eBay. I do not have these yet. You will need one button for each epaulette, two for each wrist, and however many chest buttons you have to replace.

• Add gold stripes and stars to cuffs: Ramius has 3 thick gold stripes that go around the outside of each jacket cuff, plus one gold star at the 'top' closer to the elbow. Should be easy to find similar at any fabric store.

• Add pins: on Ramius' right breast, he wears a gold WWII Soviet submariner pin and an unmarked Soviet military academy pin. These can be found on eBay, etc, but please check them carefully for quality. I saw some nice pins and some sadly ugly pins, all bent and wonky looking. Don't just pick the cheapest thing you see.

• Add ribbons: Ramius has five rows of four ribbons each on his left breast. I think I've ID'ed them all, thanks to Wikipedia, but there is one or two I'm not dead sure about: http://gndn.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/the-hunt-for-red-october-captain-ramius-ribbons/ Individual ribbons on their metal brackets, replica ribbons and the four-wide metal pin holders can be found on eBay. This will be time consuming. It may be easier / cheaper for you to fake the ribbons by buying random patterned ribbon from the fabric store.


-MJ

EDIT: Certain photos of Ramius' costume after filming show incorrect replacement ribbons. They are neither the correct ribbons, nor the correct size. Beware!

 

[Mike J.]

Tunic Collar Addendum & White Dress Shirt

The tunics have a fake white 'shirt collar' of some kind. IDK what that's called. You're probably going to have to fabricate it.

Though I don't think we see Ramius without his jacket on, thanks to Sam Neill's noble sacrifice, we can see that the officers wear a white Mandarin / Nehru dress shirt with white buttons. This shirt should be easy to find or even rent from a formalwear shop.


-MJ

 

[Mike J.]

The hunt is on!