BDU Preference

[Greg]

Speaking of fading... I really like the look of MARPAT once it fades. It makes the black to other color contrast a lot more noticeable and breaks up your outline better.

[creed_DET5]

Thanks, Greg.  I was thinking the same thing.  Unless y'all are playing in southern New Mexico or around Ajo, there just aren't that many pure desert (i.e.: sand and a few rocks) environments out here.  Everything around here is various shades of medium-to-dark brown with scraggly off-green bushes thrown in, plus the occasional cactus.  A dark-brown based camo scheme plus some faded OD would work very well.  Now, how to fade my IDF vest...hmmmmm.

-Chris

[stoneaglewolf]

Ok did we miss the joke about the body paint. ei.. no clothes. Anyway.

Face paint does work in real combat. Your facial skin, teeth, and eyes offer the most reflection of light on the human body. It also helps to keep sweat out of your eyes. Since the object of camo is to break up the pattern of the human body it does no good to break up the first most recognized pattern (the human body) only to leave the second most recognized part (the human face) uncamoed. Even though hiding your face by looking down may solve the problem, do you really want to take your eyes off the enemy?  However, the true importance of face painting rises as your support decreases. (ie: survival, escape, and evade situations)  The origin of face paint was to instill fear in the enemy and motivate your comrade.

However, in Airsoft face paint doesn't help that much if you are wearing goggles that reflect everything under the sun.

[RickEJ6]

Im taking this from some stuff I read a few days ago (ill see if I can find the reference) but the human face isnt seen 1st of all of the features.  It is the backs of your hands (if left uncamoflauged) that give you away first.  Second being the black line that your rifle makes.  Face painting does help, but then again this all goes to the crapper once you start moving.

[stoneaglewolf]

Well, that is what the Instructors told us in our survival courses. These courses were for downed aircrews and therefore unlikely to have a rifle. That information also fell in to the training for search and rescue when conducting observations from a fixed or moving platform.

As for the hands, you can hide them and still look at the enemy which was one of the points of using face paint. And yes we were taught to camouflage the hands as well if we lost our flight gloves.

As for moving, you are correct but then why wear camouflage at all if we use movement as reason not to wear face paint. Also studies on visual detection show that movement in certain directions are less detectable (i.e. toward and away), and that once movement is detected then it is sent to the sensory memory where an attempted match is tried. This is where the disruptive pattern of camouflage works. To the untrained, detection relies of recognition of known objects. The point is that no one technique will work; however a combination will provide an advantage. Such is life.

The true answer to this cover and concealment issue is education and training. Without them you don’t know how or when to move and won’t know how to use camouflage.

Please remember this information is more applicable in combat than airsoft.

[azsarge]

Faded OD green baby! I know AZSarge doesn't like it, but when it starts to fade, it works great in areas with a light to heavy cover of desert-type fauna. I can't really compare it to coyote brown, though, as I have yet to see someone totally decked out in it.

LOL, you probably never will.  Coyote is a color for gear, not BDUs.  

If we're talking military clothing here, it's Crye Multi Cam all the way, HANDS DOWN!  At 200 a set, it's expensive, but that price might go down as production catches up with demand.

With regard to faded OD gear, the military got rid of OD gear because a camo pattern is superior.  Modern TA50 is made from nylon, which does not fade much at all.  The old cotton duck gear faded very easily, and since it was an organic cloth it was more prone to rot.  It was also not very abrasion resistant.  

When I say I hate OD gear, I'm talking about when people spend alot of money on "aftermarket" OD gear.  If you are going to throw down 165 bucks on a weesatch, get one that will blend in!  

It's 100% personal preference, so I won't bash anyone, I just think brown works better for our AZ environment and is more versatile.  One of these days I'll go out and take some comparison shots.

[Surplus man]

faded od is the way to go, ive seen so many tac vests with 3 color it gets boring its like im constantly seeing black hawk down. go with something unique the coyote brown sounds good.