Camouflage Extras

Jamie Innes - 25-6-05

In 2004 I covered camo markers, camo goggles & camo bdus, well what else is there really? Well when it comes to camo, there always ONE MORE thing you can do. Or in some cases... ONE LESS. But that's your decision.

CAMO TAPE

I've had a fair bit of trial and error with camo tape. Breaking it down there are 4 major types (not brands) of camo tape...

•  Duck tape
•  Paper tape
•  Fabric tape
•  Burlap tape

Duck Tape; You can always identify duck tape due to it's extreme stickiness and ease-of-rip. What I mean is... you usually don't need scissors. Duck tape has fibres in it and can be ripped like paper. So when it comes to ease of application, duck tape is awesome, it sticks to metal and plastic (your marker or mask). The downside is it has a shiny finish to it, although this won't necessarily reflect a lot of sunlight on the field, it does look "tacky". It also leaves a LOT of glue residue when you remove it.

Paper Tape; Typified by the "No-mar" brand of camo tape, stay away from this stuff like the black plague! This tape comes in rolls with paper stick to one side already, similar to double sided sellotape. No-mar sticks to virtually NOTHING (And it's not water proof). It doesn't stick well to metal, plastic, wood, or itself. Now before somebody decides to email me out of spite;- yes I have seen people use this stuff on thier markers or rifles or hunting bows. But from my own experience, I have gone through several rolls of the stuff fruitlessly attempting to camo stuff like marker, masks and CO2 tanks.

Fabric tape; Fabric tape is getting harder to find these days. It's usally sold in hunting patterns such as RealTree and Advantage. Try your local hunting and gun shops. Fabric tape doesn't appear very sticky to the touch, but it's excellent for camoing your marker or mask. Although it doesn't stick to plastic or metal so well... it sticks well to itself, is water proof and doesn't leave a lot of reside upon removal. If you can find it, prepare your wallet for a shock, it usually retails for about $30 a roll.

Burlap Tape; The only place you can really get this is at an army surplus store, or from an online store. You can of course get burlap 'strips' from cutting up a burlap sack. Burlap tape is simply a manner of convenience, wrap it around your marker, and secure it by tying it, or any medium strength glue.

NATURAL VEGETATION (For hardcore bushies only!)

Now I must admit, it took me a while to really take this seriously, but using natural vegetation as part of your gear can be a nifty addition. So why would you want to use it anyway?
Well as you know, camouflage is not an exact science, and one common problem is finding camo that works well in your environment, and can be changed. For this reason, chopping and changing of natural vegetation as part of your gear can help you stay unnoticed. However, it isn't for everyone. Many people don't have the patience to expend thought on ANY camouflage, let alone "additional" items.

The upsides are;-

•  Natural camo is lightweight,
•  usually breathes well,
•  is interchangeable,
•  and matches the environment perfectly.

The downsides are;-

•  Natural camo takes a lot of time and fiddling with to attach it your gear (depends on how you do it),
•  and vegetation reacts differently when hanging off you.

Case in point... Invercargill Big Game, January 2005. For this weekend I had affixed bush-patches (small elastic bands) to my BDUs, and affixed bits and pieces of the local fern bush. It was great for about an hour. Afterwhich the poor dead ferns atop my shoulders, arms and mask all turned brown and drooped;- Not so great. I was also the butt of smart alec comments... "Have you watered yourself today dude?"
The next thing I tried was affixing twigs with pine needles, since the field is a big pine forest. Much better results. The pine needles have the longevity. I also tried grass... but I don't reccomend you bother. Affixing a lot of grass is just pointless for so many reasons :)

Now generally speaking, there's no right or wrong way to add natural vegetation, any way you can get it to stick is fine, as long as you can remove it too. Opsgear.com sells bush-patches and gear-patches for affixing things to your bdus and mask/marker. Another technique is to buy some overalls, spray glue on them, then go roll around on the ground and hope stuff sticks to you. Yeah I think I'll give that ghetto technique a miss...

GHILLIE SUITS

Yes I just know most of you cringed when you saw that Ghillie suits were going to be in this article :) Like it or not they sometimes do get used in paintball, although thier usefullness is limited at best. Ghillies can be broken down into natural, and synthetic.

Natural ghillies are made from materials such as netting, jute, veil and burlap. These are materials covered in the marker and goggle camo articles. A ghillie made from jute or burlap has the advantage of looking more like the natural environment (due to the texture), but there are many downsides to them. Even lightly built ones can be hot to wear, heavy... but most importantly, they can bounce and even catch paintballs. Yes it's just not fair when you shoot 200 paintballs at the guy with the ghillie suit and you don't see any breaks. Be sure that you are in fact within range though (and in fact hitting him), before you start complaining.

Synethetic ghillies (Such as the 'GHOST RCS') are made from materials such as army netting, artificial plant vegetation etc. They are usually more lightweight and cooler to wear than a natural ghillie, and tend to bounce fewer balls. On the other hand, their camo-ability is usually very specific to a certain environment, and thus is often limited (or useless) as camouflage apparel.

REVISING YOUR CAMO

So you've done the marker, done the mask, done the BDUs... and maybe even tried out a ghillie. What to do next?
What can be improved on? Everything of course! Camo is not an exact science, you can always take the time to reasess yours colours and patterns. By now you've surely noticed that your field's grass has slighly different colour depending on the season, and surely you've noticed that some of the trees are deciduous... have fun, go nuts! And expect people to laugh at you :)

 Credits;-
"Paper Tape" thanks to Rifle95
"Fabric Tape" thanks to Yeti
"Ghost RCS & Synthetic Ghillie" thanks to Ricebrnr
"Ghillie & Burlap Tape" thanks to JohnJ