Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

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Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by Moondog »

World Camouflage Patterns and BDU's
by Moondog

Camo is one of my favorite parts of airsoft. I'd like to share some of my links and resources for camo history and references. A good camo is a contradiction. It functions to both conceal you and to identify you. Nothing makes your team look more like a team than when all of your members wear the same pattern.

There are hundreds of camo types. Each country's military has its own and even within a country's military, it's not uncommon for different branches, divisions, and units to adopt their own uniqe type. Some countries have adopted camo patterns of other contries (ie. the Iraq military uses our phased out 6-color desert "chocolate chip" pattern) or in some cases copies another countries design and modifies it (ie. CADPAT and MARPAT).

There really is no 'best' camo. Just like football teams or AEG's, everybody has a bias for their camo pattern. But we can talk about what camo works better for the time and place.


COMMON AIRSOFT CAMO

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US Woodland is the most common and most copied pattern in the world. It's so common that even the bad-guys wear it due to it's broad availability (even Bin Ladin wears it in his vidoes?!) It is also the most common pattern used in airsoft.

Woodland relies primarily on tonal contrast (dark and light shapes) to break up the wearers silhouette. It's brown, green, OD, and black colors were chosen to best blend in with the landscape of Germany and central Europe (developed at the end of the Cold War). In the varied terrain of North America it's best used in late spring and Summer in heavily green and wooded areas. A liability in dry arid fields and during winter/late fall in seasonal fields.

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3-Color Desert (TriColor) and 6-Color is the second most common airsoft camo due to its surplus supply. DCU 3-Color was developed as a cheaper replacement for the earlier 6-color 'Chocolate-Chip' desert camo used in the Gulf War. It was desiged for the Arabian desert and arid MOUT environment. Somewhat more useful in the fall/winter than Woodland, it can stand out in very lush greeen folliage of Summer.

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MARPAT the US's first fielded 'digital' camo. The USMC's MARPAT (short for MARine Disruptive PATtern) was based on the success of Canada's CADPAT (though some argue how much) Digital patterns rely on small color shapes and variations to create a blending texture to the background. A similar effect is achieved using non-digital means by Flecktarn.

MARPAT comes in woodland, desert, and urban (not officially deployed) variants. All more effective in blending in with the environment than either traditional Woodland or 3-Color. DMARPAT is slightly more useful for fall/winter woods, arid and urban terrain. The Marine's did a much better job than the Army in choosing colors for the specific environments.

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UNIVERSAL CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN (often mistakenly referred to as ACU) is the US Army's new all-in-one pattern of tan-grey-foliage derived from the MARPAT pattern. It was was chosen under the assumption that in future conflicts the US Army would be fighting in urbanized environments. There have been prototypes of UCP in other colors but there are no plans to produce it.

UCP has become a very popular airsoft camo because of it's standard use by the US Army since 2005. In field games it blends well against rocks, gravel, buildings and deadfall. But in the lush greens of summer folliage, it tends to stand out. 'Commercial' and early batch ACU has a slightly blue/grey tint compared to current Army issue has a tan/pink tint. It works very well in winter and on CQB fields. ACU stands for "Army Combat Uniform" which actually the name for the design of the uniform.

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TigerStripe utilized by US Speical Forces since Vietnam, it's longevity proves its effectiveness. Commercialy availiable in both desert and standard 'jungle' colors. TigerStripe thin and rougher edged shapes better blend in with the folliage than Woodland. A new digital variant is the new camo pattern of the US Airforce. Contrary to myth, TigerStripe was not designed to simulate a 'blur' to allow a soldier to be concealed while moving through jungle, nor is it designed to be only used prone to simulate tree trunks. Desert TigerStripe contains hints of OD green that allow it to be used year round in many environemnts. Visually, it shares similar properties to Brittish desert DPM. In summer woods, it blends well against tree trunks and wood bunkers.

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MultiCam is known as the Gucci of camo partly for its exceptional cost. But it is more than worth its price due to its effectiveness. Made only by New York's CRYE Precision, it has become bootlegged by Chinese knock-offs. MiltiCam was an outgrowth of an earlier 'Scorpion' pattern that Crye developed for the US Army's Future Warrior Program. The Army instead chose UCP because of a misguided desire for a 'digital' pattern to keep up with the USMC's MARPAT. It is utilized by SOC units and is has now been issued to US Army units entering Afghanistan.

Its small pattern size and active blending of browns to light greens throughout the fabric allow it to blend in with the broadest range of enviroments of any camo I have seen. It works effectively year round in seasonal fields and is quite effective in urban CQB as well.


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DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) is the pattern used by Brittish Armed Forces. An early version was used by Brittish paratroopers in WWII. Though similar in color palette to US camo, DPM's paint brush shapes better blend in with folliage. Desert DPM has gone through some variants from 2-color to the current 4-color. Safariflage is a commercial version of DPM with a more 'universal' color palette. Actually quite effective year round but some question its MilSim authenticity.


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Flecktarn is the camo of the German Army (Bundeswehr). Its small colored dots work in the same way as digital camo's in breaking up a silhouette through visual texture. Tropentarn is the desert variant. It is fairly easy to find Flectarn uniforms in US surplus retailers. Flecktarn is an exceptionally good camo pattern for woods year round.

Type03 is the Chinese Army ripped-off version of Flecktarn. Exact same pattern but with a brown/grey color scheme, used by PLA troops in Tibet. Difficult to get, it is insanely good for blending in with winter/fall foliage.


RealTree, Smokey Branch, Mossy Oak Also known as NOOBCAM. Don't wear 'hunting' camo to an airsoft game. Airsoft is a military simulation game and you will not earn much of a rep for wearing hunting or paintball clothing to an airsoft game. You're better off wearing kahki cargo pants and a black polo shirt (at least you'll look like a contractor.)


REFERENCES

Kamouflage.net
http://www.kamouflage.net/en_030000.php
An exceptionally broad database of world camo patterns, with background info and a very usable thumnail gallery.

TridentMillitary
http://www.tridentmilitary.com/WorldCamouflage.htm
A Pennsylvania based surplus store that specializes in hard to find camo types from around the world.

Henrick's Camoflage of the World
http://www.henrikc.dk/camouflage/index.asp
A friend from Denmark, Henrick Clausen's website shows off his amazing private collection of camo.

Military Morons
http://www.militarymorons.com/
A personal site created by a fellow military geek and gear whore. Featuring some great articles on MARPAT and Multicam as well as real steel weaponry.

Dusty's Depot
http://www.dustysdepot.com/dustysdepot_003.htm
This guy does a decent job of comparing different US camo types in different environments. Some of the photography could be better.

DeltaGear
http://www.deltagearinc.com/CamouflageFacts.htm
A great web article on the history of camo and various US camo types.

FlectranUK
http://www.flecktarn.co.uk/
A UK surplus retailer that sells DPM and...you guesed it, Flecktarn.

MARPAT on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARPAT

ACU on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Combat_Uniform

TigerStripe on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Stripe

DPM on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive ... n_Material

MultiCam
http://www.cryeprecision.com/view_catalog.asp

Flecktarn on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flecktarn
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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by Shogun Mitsu »

Sorry, but I felt re-visiting this topic was a must Moondog.
Another great resource for finding your perfect camo pattern can be found by following the link below. It gives you an image of the patterns used by practically every country that has a military or law enforcement. You choose a country & it will show you all patterns that have been used by that country & during which time frame. This is great for Battle Re-enactment based events. You wouldn't want to show up at a world war one event wearing acu's would you? Be advised that alot of what you will see may be very hard to find.

http://camopedia.org/index.php?title=Fi ... pedia5.jpg
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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by primer »

and being a gear whore...

There's a difference between AOR-1, AOR-2 and Desert Marpat and Woodland Marpat.
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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by Shogun Mitsu »

primer wrote:and being a gear whore...

There's a difference between AOR-1, AOR-2 and Desert Marpat and Woodland Marpat.
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Yes there IS a difference, even though it may be slight dont say you have aor1 when its desert marpat... Primer & I WILL know! Lol :lol:
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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by phridum »

It's not Marpat unless it has little Eagle, Globe, and Anchors in the pattern. Marpat=Marine Pattern.

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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by Keats »

phridum wrote:It's not Marpat unless it has little Eagle, Globe, and Anchors in the pattern. Marpat=Marine Pattern.
What do you mean by that? My BDUs have a logo on one of the chest pockets, but those aren't integrated into the pattern itself. See:

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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by sonic »

true MARPAT does indeed have the little green (or coyote brown) EGAs in the pattern, but it might not always be there depending on how the fabric was cut. If you can't find the EGAs doesn't mean you don't have a real MARPAT garment.

Make sure the piece was made by one of the licensed companies making the pattern, like American Apparel.

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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by phridum »

Regardless of how it's cut, you can always find a little EGA somewhere in the pattern of the issued uniforms. It's always there. You probably can't get them this way outside the supply chain or a base uniform store to prevent aftermarket inferior uniforms from being mistakenly used. Prevents any caveat emptor issues.

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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by youngbuck »

where can i get real woodland marpat? Im hearing American Apperal, Propper.... But they dont sell to civillians?
Also how is regular digital woodland not marpat? I think tru spec and propper make it. Which is better?
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Re: Guide: Camouflage Uniforms

Post by Moondog »

youngbuck wrote:where can i get real woodland marpat? Im hearing American Apperal, Propper.... But they dont sell to civillians?
Also how is regular digital woodland not marpat? I think tru spec and propper make it. Which is better?
Where can you get REAL MARPAT? That's super easy, go here and apply: http://www.marines.mil/

You can get used MARPAT on Ebay though technically it's property of the US Gov.
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