Personal camouflage

Military camouflage is the use of camouflage by a military force to protect personnel and equipment from observation by enemy forces.

Camouflage for the patriot from IF109

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Firstly, lay out all the equipment you are going to use-whatever pattern it is. These instructions should cover rucksacks, webbing, weapon, helmet and vehicles.

Start with your rucksack, this is the biggest piece of your personal kit so needs the most camouflage. The rucksack forms a large part of your silhouette, so its distinctive shape needs to be broken up. Do this by attaching pieces of scrim to tabs on the sides and top of the rucksack, being careful not to cover any zips or openings. Once this is done, you can attach local camouflage. As you come across it. If you can, stand back and look at the bag from a few meters away, and check that the shape is hidden.

Next, move on to the helmet. British Army helmets have a camouflage cover in Woodland or desert DPM and have straps and tabs for attaching camouflage. Start by breaking up the shape with scrim, hessian, burlap and cloth. Once this is done, push local vegetation into the straps. Make it secure and check that it does not impair your vision. Check that the shape is hidden entirely.

Be careful with webbing. Webbing is a dangerous bit of kit to camouflage, you mustn't camouflage it in such a way that you may not be able to access any part of it quickly. Put some scrim between the pouches, stitched with a few stitches of cotton. Also make a loop that you can slide over the belt buckle, especially if it is metal, and sew scrim strips to the loop. Repeat this for any other buckles on the webbing (this also helps to dampen 'jingle').

Be extremely cautious when disguising your weapon. Your weapon is the most important item you are carrying. In the case of automatic and semi-automatic firearms, you must be careful not to cover the magazine, cocking handle, trigger, forward hand guard or pistol grip, select-fire switch, stock or the SIGHTS! So, there is not much left to camouflage then... Well the modern weapon really requires a paint job to be camouflaged. Diagonal strips of 3-colour scheme paint should do the job, though ensure the width and pattern varies to stop a pattern from appearing. If heavier camouflage is required, scrim around the barrel can be attached, but ensure that this does not block the sights. Scrim can be wrapped around Sniper rifle scopes, and put a lens cap over both ends to reduce reflections.



So there is a good start on visual camouflage. Next up, IR camo.

Paramus Viam (We Prepare the Way)