<XMP><BODY></xmp> More camouflage ideas





More Ideas on Camouflage

        A previous article on this topic can be found here


        Recently I was reading a page on personal camouflage in which the opinion was offered that in certain situations plain colour uniforms were better than patterns.
        In desert plain sand-yellow was best, while best jungle camo was an OG jacket and tigerstripe trousers.

Emery Nelson writes:-
        I've got some very strong opinions on this, most of which I got from Vietnam Vets. My life experience since that time has only served to reinforce those beliefs.
        First of there's nothing more visible than the wrong camo. As I watched our troops parade around Shah e Kot I was struck by how much they stood out.

        PW: They were wearing woodland pattern? This appears to me to have too much green and be too dark.
        I suspect that a better choice would be a mix of green, sand-yellow, brown and lesser blobs of graphite grey.

        EN: The Canadians on the other hand were dressed in old fashioned OD and seemed to blend in with the surrounding terrain much better.
        Secondly, nothing shows up better than moving camo. If I have to move than I want a solid pattern and not necessarily OD. I'd rather wear neon than Tiger Stripe. I knew 2 old NCOs who were in Ranger companies in Vietnam. Both said that they wore "old" jungle fatigues when in the field. Unless they became somewhat faded or covered with dirt they stood out.

        PW: You mean tiger stripe? The original tigerstripe (based on a British pattern in Malaya I've heard) was just OG with black stripes painted on it. The commercial stuff out now, including that claiming to reproduce some of the issue stuff in VN is more complicated -at least four colours. Maybe this is one of those times when less is more.

        EN: During my time in the old FDR I noticed that Bundeswehr gray was by far the hardest thing to see in any kind of weather, terrain or urban area.

        PW: Grey is actually termed a "neutral" rather than a colour since it does blend in with about anything.

        EN: More times than I can remember I saw supposedly camouflaged armor vehicles of the U.S. army stand out like pop up targets.
        I've seen Leopard tanks backed into some sparse vegetation that were impossible to pick out until you were right on top of them. In one case I was within ten meters of 4 leopards and didn't see them until one moved the turret.
        I was in the army when we changed over to camo and we literally painted every vehicle in the bn over a two day period. During a division sized exercise I had a chance to see the value of this when my plt played Opfor with the 3/8 Cav. It didn't work.
        German grey was just flat out better and our old OD, although not as good as gray, was better than the new camo. One of the best US units I saw had covered their new paint with mud and were very difficult to see.

        Another issue is darkness. Again, nothing is better than gray in my opinion. I used to laugh at the Airborne dummies trying to sneak around at night. You could make them out very clearly with binoculars if there was even a hint of light. Once again the Germans would be almost impossible to see in their gray uniforms.

        PW: Reminds me of an old piece that I wrote (and have lost) suggesting that modern "ninja" should wear grey

        EN: One of the real problems with any camo pattern I've ever seen is it's meant for very specific vegetation/terrain. The problem is Vegetation/terrain changes within very short distances, especially when there's people around and you can't always blend in. Although nothing can ever be perfect, I'd push for a mouse/deer colored uniform. Kind of a grey-brown color.

        PW: As Mike Sparks points out, brown is more common than green unless it is the height of summer or you're in the jungle. Even then there are so many shades of green you may still clash.

        My limited experience suggests that Advantage would be very effective in European towns, wheatfields, certain deserts and mountains etc for a good part of the year. On the reverse side print the modified woodland pattern I suggest for woodland and jungle.

        Vehicles are a different shape to people so maybe the rules for hiding them are slightly different?
        This WW2 Camouflage manual notes:-

        “The enemy will usually see vehicles at an angle. At least two adjoining surfaces will be visible to him at once. For example, from close-range ground observation he might see a side and the front; from the air, or on an aerial photograph, he might see the top, a side, and the front. For this reason, vehicle patterns are designed to disrupt the cube shape of vehicles from all angles, to disrupt shadows cast by tarpaulin bows, to tie in with the shadow at the rear of a vehicle when it is faced into the sun, to tie in with the large dark shadow areas of windows, mudguards, wheels, and undercarriage, and to be bold enough to be effective at a distance.”

        “Camouflage painting is not a cure-all. Alone, it cannot be relied on to do more than render a vehicle obscure, making it hard for an enemy gunner to locate the vehicle and confusing him as to the location of vulnerable areas. Nor can it conceal a moving vehicle, because other sight factors, such as dust, reflections, and motion itself, will betray its presence. However, camouflage painting is a valuable supplement to other camouflage measures. Added to good siting, dispersion, camouflage discipline, and the use of nets and drapes, it increases the benefits to be derived from these measures. Together, and intelligently used, they will provide a high degree of concealment for any vehicle.”

        Vehicles are big tall massive blobs that create big shadows. There are some areas of a vehicle that will always be in shadow -under the barrel, under the smoke dischargers, turret ring, underbelly and wheels. Nature solves the problem of shadows by having a lighter colour on the areas of an animal most likely to be in shade.
        Maybe the same approach can be applied to vehicles? This topic is touched on by the manual quoted above.

        “White or light gray paint is applied to the undersurfaces of vehicles to cause them to reflect light, thus lightening the dark shadows of the undercarriage. This is called countershading”

        During World War Two most German army vehicle came from the factory painted grey or mustard yellow. Troops then added extra patches of colour as they saw fit.
        Carlton Meyer has pointed out that the base colour of mustard or grey with a few dabs of other colours would have made vehicles look less solid.
        Maybe vehicles should have a base colour of either sand or neutral grey with areas in shade painted with light grey. Spray paint of various colours can quickly be added by the vehicle crew to break up the shape of certain parts. Vehicles intended for an expeditionary role would be painted with patches of both sand and grey with other colours added when the area of deployment is known.

        EN: Your point about putting a lighter color on tanks is very interesting. Mice are very close to the ground and have white bellies. Something to think about.

        PW: This idea could probably be tested with a plastic model tank

Ralph Zumbro adds:-
        Phil, about a year ago, I was riding with the OPFOR at Ft Irwin and I noted that when a slab-sided vehicle turns across the sun, it's camouflage becomes useless and the side simply throws a flash that lights up like an arcade target.

        That suggests to me that texture is something that must be considered as well as colour. For something with slab sides like the M113 I'd be inclined to suggest that some camouflage netting be hung on the sides, much as Ed suggests in his Ghillie kit article.

UPDATE
        A vehicle's camouflage pattern won't make it invisible, and if the vehicle is moving it will be seen. What camouflage can do is make it more likely to be overlooked when stationary and make it less of a distinct shape to target.
        I decided to test out some of these ideas, and chose as my test model the Korean Infantry Fighting Vehicle (KIFV) since this has an ACAV style gunshield –something that should be seen on more M113s.

        I decided to make this a "temperate climate" vehicle so painted it a medium grey. The underside and inside of the track wells were painted light grey.

        The front and rear of the vehicle and the bottom of the appliqué side plates slope inward, creating shadow. To counter this the bottom of these areas was painted light grey and the technique of "dry brushing" used to blend the two areas of grey together. This proved very effective.

        The inward sloping bottom of the side gunshields also creates shadow, so this was also painted light grey and blended. This proved to be very effective and made the gunshield appear flatter and less three dimensional.

        Cupolas also seemed to create shadows, so some lighter shading was done here. If anything this seemed to make the cupola more noticeable until disruptive patterns were applied.

        When viewed from above the gunshield creates a pool of shadow. This can be reduced by painting the bottom of the inside of the gunshield light grey and the top of the inside "dirty white". The inside of the frontal gunshield was also painted dirty white to reflect more light back and reduce shadow.

        All vehicles are essentially a collection of easily recognizable geometric shapes:– tubes, domes, rectangles and circles. It is therefore necessary to break up these shapes.
        The KIFV is mainly made of rectangular sides that are longer than they are high. To break up such shapes near vertical and oblique "stripes" are used. These often need to be quite large –at least 10-15% of the width of the area being camouflaged. Where possible these stripes should pass over more than one plain of the vehicle to help break up the straight lines where sides meet. In fact any straight edge should be crossed by at least one band of contrasting colour

        All hatches and wheels should be at least two colours, and in the case of hatches these patches of colour should be part of larger patches. Its common practice to keep the rear hatch of the M113 open wherever possible to improve ventilation and situational awareness. The inner side of this hatch must be camouflaged.

http://www.aerotechnews.com/phtoarc/webphot/Puma/Pumaone.html

        RAF helicopters and Harriers use a camouflage pattern of slate grey and green. This seems to work pretty well on the ground and in the air and would probably prove very effective for ground vehicles. However, patterns need to be modified to suit local conditions and seasonal changes. This is why the Heer procedure of painting the vehicle one colour and providing the crew with paints to add to this was prudent.

        A base colour of grey with green additions would probably work well for vehicles stationed in an area such as Germany. The green areas would be overpainted with khaki or browns as is felt appropriate. Desert stationed helicopters seem to just substitute sand-yellow for green. For a ground vehicle in the desert or light coloured terrain I'd go with mainly Khaki/Sand with smaller patches of medium grey to break up the shape.

        If you watch the movie "Cross of Iron" you'll see a very good demonstration of how khaki and field grey blend into a background. In one scene there is a shot of a distant light-khaki painted T-34 –the main reason that this is visible is the shadow the turret makes. Painting this area light grey or "flesh tone" would have made this vehicle a lot less visible.

        I've proposed two base colours for vehicles that can be modified to suit local conditions –sand-yellow for light backgrounds and medium grey for darker. The question arises what colour should the equipment of contingency/expeditionary units be painted, since these may be deployed anywhere in the world at short notice. Since most of the world's likely trouble spots seem to be in hot dry sunny places I'd opt for sand-yellow with smaller disruptive bands of medium grey.

        An alternate khaki-based pattern can be seen on this Australian M113

        Another idea that occurs to me is is it possible to produce band tracks in an earth brown material?

        For the record, I painted the KIFV in medium grey and broke up the shape with stripes of olive green, light-khaki, red-brown and smaller amounts of "tar grey". The red-brown was more red than brown, so if I did this again I'd use a medium brown. Maybe my KIFV is operating in autumn near beechwoods! (actually the same shade is used in Italian camouflage patterns)

        This illustration from a 1944 manual on Camouflage shows that the idea of painting the lower areas of a vehicle lighter is not new. Credit to Carlton Meyer of G2mil for finding that reference.

http://cartome.org/pages/fm5-77.htm

UPDATE
        I've recently acquired a (very) cheap digital camera, so have added some shots of the KIFV model. My attempts to show the vehicle against the sort of background that this pattern have been designed for have proven beyond mine and the cameras capabilities, but this should give you some idea of how the pattern breaks up the image. If anything, the camouflage effect is better against the human eye than the camera.
        Notice how dark the interior of the vehicle and the gunner's shields appear, despite the fact that these areas were painted white.

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