I would suggest small mobilised army and the cost of conscripting a population is a huge factor in that choice.
Camouflaging a Tent
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I would suggest small mobilised army and the cost of conscripting a population is a huge factor in that choice.
Aye up All,
Pet subject of mine - been learning/teaching it for decades!
Scottishpinz - interesting post, good exercise - with ref to your tent base colour - you might be interested (if not already aware) that whilst most armies of the world use a disruptive pattern camouflage on clothing and equipment, the Israelis and the Austrians have stuck with shades of plain olive green - can you work that one out?
Notably the UK hunting/poaching fraternity (with the landed gentry to a lesser degree) have been enticed from those drab olive colours over to the 'glamcam' patterns which only work as you have described in specific circumstance and make them easy to pick out most of the time!
John Fenna - that is an interesting effect - have you found a location/vegetation situation where it works?
Madriverrob and MikeLA - Either the stick wasn't big enough or they didn't hit you hard enough with it - you missed out SPACING!
Ok i will give you that one. It was 30 years ago
I have one of those little tents in green and that makes a fairly good job of camouflaging itself in woodland from a distance as they do keep a low profile in any case. I have a picture of it somewhere, if only I could find it.
I don't know about that there's been a lot of military testing over the years and while I agree some of the patterns were created for force recognition and/or numbers masking over proper hiding British DPM and German Flecktarn are extremely effective
DPM won over pretty much all of the digital fancy patterns for years
Great workScottishpinz! 
Your tent looks great!
Here's a camo tent that I have dyed to reduce the "shinyness" of, just enough to make
the pattern work. Before I dyed it it was way too shiny and reflective and eventhough the
difference in colours isn't very big, the tent is now much harder to see in the terrain.
The rest of the pics are acctually different nets (and tents) I've got and the tents are shown
for comparason. None of the pics show any of my serious attempts to hide the tents, like I
do when I'm alone and really want to blend in....
Your tent looks great!
Here's a camo tent that I have dyed to reduce the "shinyness" of, just enough to make
the pattern work. Before I dyed it it was way too shiny and reflective and eventhough the
difference in colours isn't very big, the tent is now much harder to see in the terrain.
The rest of the pics are acctually different nets (and tents) I've got and the tents are shown
for comparason. None of the pics show any of my serious attempts to hide the tents, like I
do when I'm alone and really want to blend in....
Great workScottishpinz!
Your tent looks great!
Here's a camo tent that I have dyed to reduce the "shinyness" of, just enough to make
the pattern work. Before I dyed it it was way too shiny and reflective and eventhough the
difference in colours isn't very big, the tent is now much harder to see in the terrain.
What fabric is that made from and how was the dye applied? It looks to be some kind of nylon so no off-the-shelf fabric dye I'm aware of will adhere.
K
Great use of camo nets Ivanhoe. I guess the tent is the little Recon one-man tent. I like that the tent has a less obvious profile, but it is a heavy tent for its size.
Aye Up All,
Just got back to this thread.
Forgiven MikeLA - Down Ten! You might be interested to know that in some 'circles' it is now SSSSSMLNS!
Here is something that those seriously into cam may find useful -
I'm noticing a common misconception in some of the replies here that has come up almost every time that I have taught this subject and it is fundamental to the understanding of the 'art' so to speak - and very relevant to Scottishpinz's OP. Consider this -
Camouflage might be defined as - 'measures taken to blend an object on open view into its surroundings (effectively it's background from respective viewpoints).
This is what I suspect SP is trying to achieve/demonstrate (and making a pretty good effort too) - a non specific cam pattern (dpm) on the item, item on view, favourable location in the relevant environment and with the widest application within that environment.
This basically what nations try to achieve in their basic combat clothing.
Placing a cam net and/or natural vegetation over/around/in front of any object is not camouflaging it in the truest sense - that is concealing (hiding) it - in those circs the net/vegetation is the camouflage.
Hence the military trade-craft - Cam and Concealment.
All of that stated, it is most often a combination of camouflage and concealment that achieves the best effect and it depends on the primary task which has to be carried out as to where the balance lays - e.g. shoot and scoot or hide and bide.
Here are some examples that I have used - (not sure if the geko is genuine but it illustrates the cam aspect). The concealment one is genuine and took less than 10 seconds to achieve.
Corso - not so sure about direct cost - neither the Israelis nor the Austrians are short of a bob or two!
You are right about the Brit dpm v Glam cam but I have to concede MTP has it over Brit dpm. During some trials that I was involved in, at distance MTP came up as almost plain khaki and very effective in many situations where Brit dpm consistently showed up dark against its backgrounds.
Thanks for starting this one Scottishpinz hopefully those stealth campers will up their game theyre just too easy to find these days
Just got back to this thread.
Forgiven MikeLA - Down Ten!
You might be interested to know that in some 'circles' it is now SSSSSMLNS!Here is something that those seriously into cam may find useful -
I'm noticing a common misconception in some of the replies here that has come up almost every time that I have taught this subject and it is fundamental to the understanding of the 'art' so to speak - and very relevant to Scottishpinz's OP. Consider this -
Camouflage might be defined as - 'measures taken to blend an object on open view into its surroundings (effectively it's background from respective viewpoints).
This is what I suspect SP is trying to achieve/demonstrate (and making a pretty good effort too) - a non specific cam pattern (dpm) on the item, item on view, favourable location in the relevant environment and with the widest application within that environment.
This basically what nations try to achieve in their basic combat clothing.
Placing a cam net and/or natural vegetation over/around/in front of any object is not camouflaging it in the truest sense - that is concealing (hiding) it - in those circs the net/vegetation is the camouflage.
Hence the military trade-craft - Cam and Concealment.
All of that stated, it is most often a combination of camouflage and concealment that achieves the best effect and it depends on the primary task which has to be carried out as to where the balance lays - e.g. shoot and scoot or hide and bide.
Here are some examples that I have used - (not sure if the geko is genuine but it illustrates the cam aspect). The concealment one is genuine and took less than 10 seconds to achieve.
Corso - not so sure about direct cost - neither the Israelis nor the Austrians are short of a bob or two!
You are right about the Brit dpm v Glam cam but I have to concede MTP has it over Brit dpm. During some trials that I was involved in, at distance MTP came up as almost plain khaki and very effective in many situations where Brit dpm consistently showed up dark against its backgrounds.
Thanks for starting this one Scottishpinz hopefully those stealth campers will up their game theyre just too easy to find these days
It’s not the only reason but it’s a pretty big one. It isvery expensive to conscript the population, training, kit etc. all costs moneyand its not even a standing army. Both have made big cuts in their militaryspending over recent years and it would seem neither see it as a priority.
Not surprising since it cost the US military somethinglike $5billion for the disaster that was UCP and they’re still spending billions looking for the nextversion of the emperor’s new clothes
BTWI’ve seen reference to the Austrian army issuing a digital pattern so they maywell have been sold on the idea...
The tent is made from ordinary nylon, which basically won't accept any new colour.
I dyed it with a strong olive green colour and salt, which was just enough to get
the effect I wanted.
But most of the colour just got rinsed away...
You're correct in everything you say! It's the Recon tent.
I have a good enough (well, several acctually...) rucksack that I never mind carrying
a few extra kilograms...
I also have some extra "survival" kilos around my waist...
just to give you an idea, it would be relatively easy to make an older style camo net,
agreed it looks less like actual foliage but would still break up your tents outline and would give much needed lighter patches to the overall effect.
here is another one perhaps more suited to a darker woodland,
the adavntage of making your own is you can choose the colours that more closely suit your environment.
I made one for my kids to play with, I used a fish pond cover (black nylon 1" netting) and then added strips of 1-2" wide cheep polyester and nylon, theres no reason why you can't add patches of patterned camo material, mine wouldn't fool any specialist cameras as I'm sure it's not IRR material, but to simply provide a lightweight cheeper visual option it's worth a try.
agreed it looks less like actual foliage but would still break up your tents outline and would give much needed lighter patches to the overall effect.
here is another one perhaps more suited to a darker woodland,
the adavntage of making your own is you can choose the colours that more closely suit your environment.
I made one for my kids to play with, I used a fish pond cover (black nylon 1" netting) and then added strips of 1-2" wide cheep polyester and nylon, theres no reason why you can't add patches of patterned camo material, mine wouldn't fool any specialist cameras as I'm sure it's not IRR material, but to simply provide a lightweight cheeper visual option it's worth a try.
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