STARGATE SG-1 is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. This webpage is for entertainment and costuming information purposes only. The owner does not proclaim to be associated with either MGM, the STARGATE SG-1 series, or NASA.

The Character:

Michael Donovich was on detached service from the U.S. Air Force to NASA as a mission specialist, as part of operation "Watchtower" (which involved the deployment of the "Mongoose" hyperwave early warming satellites)--this during the time of the destruction of the spaceshuttle Columbia at the hands of the Goa'uld--his background in NASA and as an aeronautical engineer and published science fiction author, made him a valuable asset in the government's effort to classify (cover-up) the incident.

Donovich's recruitment into the SGC followed the Air Forces' tried and true method for keeping "Top Secret Projects" under raps; such as with "Project Blue Book" back in the 1960's, which was used to confuse--rather than cover up--various test and operational flights of classified military and government aircraft. The intention was to set up such reports in the public mind-set as nothing more than unverifiable "crack-pot" Flying Saucer sightings.

As a condition of joining the SGC, Donovich insisted on not being return to active duty, "He felt he could do more good if he was able to get around the military chain-of-command; but I think he just didn't want to shave off his beard." quotes then Colonel Jack O'Neill; despite this, he was eventually returned to active duty; "Typical," stated now acting MSgt (Master Sergeant) Donovich.
(photo by: Danielle McPhail)

Although not slated for Off-World assignment, Donovich was pressed into service as a member of the newly reformed diplomatic Team SG-9; this after the incident on planet P3X-513, in which the late Captain Jonas Hanson (USAF) suffered a severe laps in judgment. "That's what it says in the report. I take it the new team leader doesn't have a God-complex?" asked Donovich when he was told of his new assignment. "Nope." remarked Captain Mark Morgan, Public Affairs Officer SG-9, "But at least Major Mike Hunnicutt looks the part."
            (photo caption: "What do you mean by, 'stand here and guard that box'"?)

Currently he is on extended assignment with Off-World Team SG-2, under Major Edwin "Reaper" O'Connell; "This team (SG-2) has a long and valiant history; since the time of Major Kawalski's, when the snake-hits-the-fan, they were the team the SGC send through the gate to pull SG-1's collective butts out of the fire; under Major O'Connell, nothing has changed" 

To date, Donovich is still assigned to the SGCs' science division; but he seems to spend more time in the field then he does back in the labs.

To avoid any future problems with Donovich's seeming inability to shave off his beard--as per regulations--he was unofficially diagnosed as having PFB (pseudofolliculitis barbae), an issued a shaving waiver.

(photo by: Ron Logan)

Photo gallerys of Mike McPhail as
 SSgt Donovich in Stargate Costume.

COSTUME: Duty Uniform (Blue)

(photo by: Ron Logan)

Belt: This is the 5.11 Tactical Series TDU belt, at 1.5 inches wide, black in color (also comes in OD green). I also found these at Galls (item NP569) (pictures to come).

Patches: The two 4-inch patches (the standard Earth address patch, and in my case the SGC instead of a team patch), and a 3-inch USAF patch, were ordered from Creation Entertainment, and are affixed to the uniform with black Velcro. (Note: Creation is not planning on restocking the 3-inch USAF patch, and their 3.5-inch is too big in this case. Patch photos courtesy of Creation Entertainment).

(Left-Side, Patch photos (SG-2, SG-9) courtesy of Sci Fi Patches.)
 

Headgear: My USAF ball cap was not part of the series (but I like it).

Boots: Any veriation on the US, gloss black, combat boots will do.

Note: For indoor events, I (in the finest tradition of the SGC) wear my BDU shirt open to reveal a black T-shirt and a pair of dog-tags (this just isn't done in the service).
 

COSTUME: Off-World Uniform (Version 1)
 

 
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Picture courtesy
of
US Wings
 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Jacket: The Off World Uniform is based on the Navy's WEP jacket (the real world version has a glossy nylon outer casing, and was not  used. In the first episodes they used the US MA-1 "helicopter" flight jackets, which also has a glossy outer casing.). The ones used in the series were made of OD green (or black) ripstop material.

Vest: This is the Blackhawk Medic Vest. I obtained mine from Elite Tactical Source (ETS) for just over one-hundred dollars (US) total (which included taxes and shipping and handling). Their customer service and speed of deliver were both first rate. The vest was shipped directly from Blackhawk.

Holster: This is the Blackhawk Omega Drop Leg Assault Hostler available from both Galls and ETS.
 

The black beret w/Stargate flash has become my head gear of choice when playing Sergeant Donovich, as seen here at an event in Mount Holly, New Jersey, October 2009.

Click to enlarge.

Patches: Same as above, plus either team SG-2, or SG-9 (SG-1 for reference)

Uniform: Standard OD green BDU pants with black long sleeve T-shirt.

Belt: Same as above but in OD green.

Headgear:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

(1): OD Green Army-style cap. Used with G8
(2): Black Police-style "Tactical" ball cap. Used with G8
(3): PASGT helmet, w/black cover, goggles and elastic band w/cats eyes.
       Used with G8
(4): PASGT helmet, w/woodland camo cover, and goggles.
       Used with SG-3, M65 field jacket
(5): USAF "Team-style" ball cap. Used with all uniforms.
(6): Blue Air Force Academy beret w/Stargate movie flash (like that warn by
       Kurt Russell). Now retired.
Flash was from Sci Fi Patches
(7): "Biker Shop", Duerag w/USAF markings. Used with G8
(8): Black beret w/Stargate flash
(9): Blue Army-style cap (not shown). Used with Blue Duty Uniform
 

Gloves: I wear a pair of black fingerless gloves (also reminiscent of O'Neill), which I've always used for weapon handling.

Boots: Any veriation on the US, gloss black, combat boots will do.

Weapon, P90: As for a toy P90, all of my locale stores wanted over a hundred dollars for even the most basic model; online you can find them for as little as $28.00 US (plus shipping) from Toy Arsenal out in California. The down side is that the magazine has a pull-back hatch for loading plastic BBs, with no mock ammunition. But, you can buy a realistic (fake bullets) magazine from Airsoft for more than the price of the P90 in this case, or Kapowwe, which is were I obtained mine. (Picture of P90 courtesy of Toy Arsenal; picture of P90 magazine courtesy of Airsoft).
 

Weapon, M9: This is an Airsoft,  92F Beretta Heavy Pistol from Toy Arsenal, at about $18 (picture courtesy of Toy Arsenal).

Legal Notice: Airsoft guns are required by law to have the tip (1/4 inch) of the barrel permanently colored in blaze orange; the removal of said tip--and/or any warning stickers or protective markings--is a violation of Federal law. The use of any look-alike or toy gun in the commission of a crime may carry the same legal ramifications as if a real firearm had been used. State laws can also very greatly, such as in New York City, "any realistic-looking toy gun is band outright", blaze orange tip or not.

The only exception for a toy-gun is as a "theatrical props", and then only under very specific conditions.

Status as of March 2009

Vest Modification: From season to season, there were small changes to the vest--my advice to you, is find one you like and stick with it--I liked the silvers pocket snaps, but then I would have to change out all of them, so I decide to go with adding black ones. In addition, I cut a hole in the top of the pocket, and forcibly slid in my Motorola radio into it, then looped behind it the clear ear-tube.

Status as of February 2009

G8: I'm making a new G8 from a jacket I found on a clearance rack just after Christmas. Project images to follow.

Vest: I now have the clear earpiece for the radio pocket (my birthday present from Galls), so I'm now going to do a proper refit of the vest to be series accurate (canon). Project images to follow.

Status as of June 2008

G8 Version 1: My jacket is as complete as its going to be--its not canon* to the series--but under the circumstances, its the best I can do with the available materials, and besides, it looks great under the tactical vest.

Knife: In the series it was typically an U.S. M9 bayonet, in any number of different scabbards. In my case, I'm using a toy survival knife--the grip looks the part, and I can sand down the cutting edge to a flat, for both safety and security reasons--placed in my Explorer Mk-II's (seen right) scabbard, which comes with a military belt mount. Generally the knife is only used for photogrphic purposes, and is not carried at events.

P90: Its now has a tactical laser mounted to its left side. I was walking about a local flea market, when I can across an dealer selling airsofts (and pseudo-airsoft) weapons, and $15 dollars later, it was mine. It looks great, but at 5 mW, I would not be comfortable using it around people, so I left the batteries out.

The Case: This lovely thing use to house an Army issue, night-vision scope. I found it at a local flea-market (one of my favorite places to shop) from a man who said "he had lots more stuff like this", and that he would be back next week. That was over a year ago, and I haven't seen him--or his van--since.     This wasn't specifically picked up for my Stargate costume (I collect such things in general), but it has the look of something they would us on an off-world mission. Normally I use it as a "stand here mark" when I'm doing photography, as seen in the "Costume: Off-World" section of this page.

Harness: Thanks to a comrade over at SFHs' SG-9, I now have the canon front latch for the P90s' harness. These cost all of a $1.50 (plus S/H), from a company out of China; www.bestbuynet.com (this is not the U.S. Best Buy electronics).

On the right, are the new clips, with my old one at the top. Left is the new clip on my old harness.

The term, "canon"--in this case--simply means, that it is an accurate version of what was seen in the show.

New Projects: Currently I'm working on a Stargate Movie costume, based on the one warn by Kurt Russell. The need for this version, came about because my G8 is to heavy to where continuously in temperatures above 70 degrees; let alone two full days in the middle of a heat wave in the forest of Maryland. Mission MDFF08 (photo caption: "Wish you were here. Love and kisses from Abydos." Don.) (photo by: Danielle McPhail)

I have no idea what I'm calling it yet. I found it on a discount rack, and it looked like something a Jaffa might using in training. Its suppose to be a toy Tazzer; it lights up, makes noise, and vibrates at two different settings. Once Its painted up like a Zat, I'll put a holster together for it. Until I locate a proper Zat, it will do when either "peace-bonding" isn't enough for my P90, or if there are no bananas* available.

Status as of February 2008

My credits card information was stolen from one of my Internet transactions. Basically, someone in South Korea had a great time on my dollar; the report shows they ran up over a $1,000.00 bar tab, then went out and picked up a thousand dollars worth of groceries.

Happily, I will not be charged, and the card company will be going after the bad-guys on this one. My problem is, which of the company that I delt with, lost my information.

From this point on, if I can't do it through PayPal, its just not going to happen. In fact I will list which companys I deal with use PayPal.
 

Status as of January 2008
 

Velcro: This is a 4x12-inch sheet of hook and loop, military grade, OD green Velcro. At just over $4.00 a set, it turned out to be the biggest pain in the butt to find. This lovely stuff came from Supply Captain in upstate New York.

Left: My current G8 with OD green loop Velcro for the patches.

Right: The SGC patch with Velcro hook backing.

P90: This story just gets better and better. Thanks to Christmas, I suddenly found I had the finances to get the improved P90 magazine w/mock bullets.

Update, February 2008: This is now being refered to as "The 2,000 dollar magazine", we believe that my credit card information was stolen during this transaction.
 

Tokyo Marui P90 series -
68 rds magazine

same magazine
side view.

When this arrived, I discovered that engraved on the side was the following:

"MOD.P90 50-ROUND MAGAZINE -2001- RESTRICTED LAW ENFORCEMENT / GOVERNMENT USE ONLY"

My first thought was, "it was an outlawed item; atleast in the USA",--after all it did come from Japan--so I e-mailed seller, and they nicely explained, that that's whats on the side of the real magazine; and re-enforced the fact that they would not sell anything illegal.

:
Left: Toy Arsonal Magazine
Right: The new magazine

View of the modified P90s'
magazine clamp.

I was told by others, that I would have to modify the Toy Arsonal P90, in order to accept the new magazine. As you can see (above image, left), the Toy Arsonal magazine is held in place by a rectangular block--in addition to the spring-loaded clamp--so this had to be removed from the P90 (above image, right). While I had the beast apart, I removed all of the BB gun mechanism, and the lead weights.

P90, Muzzle Brake: Unfortunately, my toy P90 does not have the proper muzzle brake for the real-world weapon. Since I'm using this as part of a competition costume, and for photographic illustrations (a.k.a. as an amateur theatical prop), I needed to make it a new one. It important to note, that  at no point did I remove or paint over the airsoft P90s' required 1/4 inch blaze orange barrel tip; the muzzle brake slips over the exsisting tip, and is only used at very specific times.
    Initially I ran into a few problem, namely I hadn't done any modeling in over a decade; had no workshop in my new home; and no access to my old supply lines (such as industrial plastics and related materials). Well, I cleaned up the garage, set up my drill press and bench rig, and went to Leows.
 

It started with a PVC plumbing fitting (top, left), and after hours of filing and sanding I ended up with this; its easy, just remove what isn't part of the muzzle brake (top, right). Here I'm comparing it to the Internet printout that I used as a guide (bottom, left), The finished product (bottom, right).

The finished P90 w/tactical strap.

Another view of my P90 w/muzzle brake. Under normal real-life or convention conditions, I can't carry it. When I can, its without the bullet magazine and muzzle brake; only during costume call can I use all its options.

P90 Tactical Harness: (see update: June 2008) I didn't even know this existened in the show; I though the P90 sling connected to the front of the medic vest. Well after some research (net and DVD) I found several views of the harness, but dropping big buck for the real thing (which would not mount to my Toy Arsenal P90 anyway) was out of the question.

So here's the big truth about costuming: Either you have a friend or family member (my Mom did all my costumes back in the 70-80s; now I have an award winning wife to do that. In theory) do it for you; or you need to know how to sew, and use a sewing machine. In my case, I knew how to sew, but need to learn my wife's sewing machines. After a couple of days, I picked up the basics and made several of the costumes' key componants, including the P90 harness.

The basic bits to the harness (above, left) are 1- and 2-inch wide black nylon banding; 4-sliders and a quick release latch. I had to improvise the shoulder -to- front connectors (top, middle) using heavy gauge wire and a set of loops from a discarded piece of exercise equipment. The actual front clamp, is used on baby carriages and some cars seats, but I have had no luck finding it, so I'll have to wait for the summer and hit the flea markets (swap meet to some of you). The back (top, right) is just a cross peace to hold everything in place. All the connections are box-stitched. I'm waring a yellow t-shirt for better contrast to the black harness and vest.

Left: P90 on harness.

Middle: P90 on harness, over vest, front.

Right: Harness seen thought vest, back.

Status as of December 2007
Turn your Christmas gifts into costume bits.

So far, finding 3-yards of OD green Velcro (without having to buy 25-yards from the government) is turn out to be near impossible. So for now, I'll just sew the patches directly onto the jacket. Happily I found a place with ALL the SG teams and related patches I could ever need for this project. (Sci Fi Pacthes).

Update on Velcro: Just found a place in New York State (Supply Captain) that will send me a 4x12-inch OD green (military-spec) Velcro set (hook and loops) all of $4.00 each (plus $4 something for UPS shipping) The set also includes a strip of brown, tan and black.

I made (using the sewing machine-thingy) the arm pocket from a bit of material that was removed from the bottom of the jacket when it was shorten for the elastic strip. Although not visible in this photo, there is an Army issue button under the flap.

Another good thing about using the M65 as the base for the G8, is its button-in thermal lining. Sometimes the G8 has it, sometimes it doesn't. As you can see, the collar has yet to be swapped out for the elastic one.

My holster (and M9 pistol) came from Toy Arsenal (along with the pistol for about $40 with shipping), and in this case, will do nicely (picture courtesy of Toy Arsenal).

CLICK TO ENLARGE
 

The Toy Arsenal holster was a good start (right);  they used Blackhawks in the show with some modifications, so I rebuilt this one to show-specs. (left).

For comparison: the Blackhawk Omega Drop Leg Assault Hostler (picture courtesy of ETS).

Not pictured here, is the P90 chest sling I built from parts from the fabric store (and using that sew machine-thingy).
 

Status as of November 2007
Special thanks to Tina (and her understanding husband Tony), for putting this together for me on such short notice. We love you!

This project jumped ahead with the early arrival of my Blackhawk medical vets from ETS.. Originally I was going to try for this costume sometime in early 2008; all of a sudden it became possible to have enough of it done so I could wear it at the launch party for my new book "Breach the Hull", which premiered at this years Philcon.

As you can see, the jacket is still under redesign--but with the vest over it, it worked out well--the collar needs to be changed out for the elastic one; the arm pocket must be added; the extra side pockets have to be removed.

G8-A

Update

G8-A w/vest

G8-A w/vest, back

Rather than trying to build it from scratch (they sell the jacket, but that's out of my price range; that on top of all the other goodies I need), we are using an US M65 field jacket. It has many of the features as the G-8 (re-enforced back, epaulets and two large front pockets), but will require modifications to the waist, wrist and collar, in the form of elastic banding, which we canibulized from an OD green Army sweatshirt.

Left: US Army M65 field jacket.

Right: Discount store "Army" sweatshirt.

Websites of Interest:

(Blue Uniform)

(Blackhawk Medical Vest)

*TOY ARSENAL*
(P90 & M9 w/hulster)

(Magazine)

*SUPPLY SERGEANT*
(SWAT Black Helmet Cover)

*BUTTONS/BUCKLE*
(P90 Harness Buckle)

*SCI FI PATCHES*

*SUPPLY CAPTAIN*
(OG Green Velcro)