Urban Camouflage

I live in the center of my city. It is hard to get more in the center than where I live. I always wondered if typical Urban Camo



I had always favored the VietnamTiger Stripe Camo, [camouflage.fandom.com]



I have a pair of Army/Olive green pants to go underneath the shorts, and I also have a Coyote Tan BDU shirt, so I can not look so 'tactical' and more of a 'grey man'. Also, I have multiple Boonie hats in different colors, from Black to Woodland Urban to Tiger Stripe to Desert Tan.





Lucky for me, my local Army Surplus store had an Urban Tiger Stripe shirt and shorts on sale.
This is what the Urban Tiger Stripe looks like:




I found these articles on Urban Camo, from different perspectives:

Quote
https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/MCWP%203-35.3.pdf
1. PURPOSE
Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-35.3, Military Operations on Urbanized
Terrain (MOUT), provides doctrinal guidance and detailed information on tactics, techniques, and
procedures to be employed in MOUT within the operating forces.
2. SCOPE
This manual provides guidance for the organization, planning, and conduct of the full range of
military operations on urbanized terrain. This publication was prepared primarily for commanders,
staffs, and subordinate leaders down to the squad and fire team level. It is written from a Marine
air-ground task force perspective, with emphasis on the ground combat element as the most likely
supported element in that environment. It provides the level of detailed information that supports
the complexities of planning, preparing for, and executing small-unit combat operations on
urbanized terrain. It also provides historical and environmental information that supports planning
and training for combat in built-up areas.
3. SUPERSESSION
Operational Handbook (OH) 8-7, Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT), dated
November 1980.

Quote
https://newbieprepper.com/best-urban-camo/
Grey Is Better Than Green
The first information that you have to understand better than anything else is that grey patterns are better than green ones. The green patterns work incredibly well for the forest scenery. They’re going to make you disappear with the many leaves and trunks that you are going to be surrounded with. They are the obvious choice in this scenario.

Quote
https://prepperswill.com/escaping-out-of-a-city-does-urban-camouflage-really-work/
Knowing all the skills related to turning yourself into a gray man is surely the best way to start with if you are caught off guard because you found yourself in a city for a business meeting or whatever.

The Gray Man and Profiling

the gray man and profiling

“Going to the theater or having the honor of performing in theater reminds you of your humanity in a very different way. It’s a real release and an incredible challenge. But the stage is a dangerous place. You gotta be trained. Plus, crowds like when things go wrong. I think that’s part of the thrill. Anything can happen.”

– Nina Arianda

The FBI has developed profiling programs since the Seventies. They consisted mainly in gaining a large amount of data on the individual you have to deal with.

BPH B1The data was strictly related to:

job
social status
approximate income(from the way she/he dresses, spends, travels, etc.)
habits
tendencies(from body language, gestures)
This incredible cluster of data can be easily turned into a real benefit for yourself if you need to understand if you can trust the person you are in contact with.

Profiling, however, is an art, and it needs to be done with caution and diplomacy. The other person may feel something is wrong if you are too obvious about your analyzing process, so he may adopt a defensive behavior.

If you appear harmless, you will be extremely proficient in gaining information on people without being suspicious when doing it.

Inside a city, the more the gray man is smarter and invisible, the more advantages he can actually obtain to escape in a silent way, evading from potential ill-intentioned people and without leaving any signs of his passage.

Quote
http://prepare-and-protect.net/2014/09/urban-camo/
If you live in a city then woodland camo might not be your thing…you might be going for more of a Batman look as in Batman Begins. If you are prepping to bug in then some of these patterns may be for you; after all, going out at night might be the safer alternative. I don’t much care for the urban stuff as it has a limited working environment and is all but useless during the day, but it might just be your cup of tea. Also check out my other camo databases below and let me know what you think; and like any database, I will be adding to this as I discover more patterns.

I always find it funny that these SHTF-type guides rarely talk about footwear. A good pair of boots is a must.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2022 11:31PM by jasonstone20.

Jason,

Some of the best “camouflages” I’ve found are in shades of Earth Brown. Check the old SADF (South African Defence Force) Nutria for examples of how well it works in the natural environment. It also doesn’t look “threatening” or “out of place” in the urban environment.

I wear genuine army surplus camouflages of various types almost exclusively as I like the high quality and the vast array of pockets it all has. I don’t live in a city or even a large town so I don’t look too “out of place.”
Usually you can get it at good prices as well. Almost all of the reproduction stuff made for civilians is highly inferior to actual military contract manufactured clothing.

Brown as Camouflage is so effective I cannot understand why more militaries don’t use it. It’s clear from observing various military patterns and their use in various environments that the designers often don’t have their heads on right. To paraphrase Cliff, “it’s designed by picture, not practicality.” And yet we know they spend millions on designs that are simply ineffective in all environments.

Here’s something I wrote about browns/camouflage to share with my circle of friends interested in the subject. This is specifically relevant to Australia and so if one finds this information useful some adjustments may be required for the location. I hope someone finds it of some use.





Observations on Natural Camouflage
Amongst The Animals In The Australian Wilderness
And Their Relevance And Application To Camouflage Uniforms


By Wolfgang Koop



Some Considerations–
Q: What are the dominant colours of animals in our forests?
A: Browns and Greys.
Q: What are the dominant colours of trees, branches and large bushes at ground level?
A: Browns and Greys.
Q: What are the primary colours of Camouflage we see used by men?
A: Greens.

Hence, there’s a problem.
With animals we most often observe a light coloured belly (white/light grey/tan) and a dark coloured top coat (brown/dark grey/black).
Why? Survival. All small animals, and dangerous creatures such as those which live at actual dirt level - such as spiders, scorpions, and snakes - and beneath the larger animals see the colours of the larger animals blended in with the sky and light when looking up, thus making the larger animals less visible. All larger predator animals see the darker colours of the smaller animals blending in with the ground when looking down. This is the reason why many dark coloured birds have a lighter belly, they are seen less easily when we look up as they blend in with the sky. The Airforce has known about this for decades and you will often see the bottoms of airplanes painted a lighter colour than the top. The top is darker as when another airplane is above it it’s harder to see as it blends in with the ground. However, there are always exceptions to the rule but we cannot live by exceptions, nor are foundations and principles based upon exceptions, and so we must generalise to get an image we can work with.

When used sufficiently and in proper context all of these colours contrast to create the illusion of invisibility. With camouflage, contrast is a necessity to breakup the silhouette of that which needs to be hidden, or to have an advantage if only for a moment as it can be the difference between success and failure in hunting, escape, or evasion.
Browns blend in very well in green terrain, which contain a huge amount of browns regardless of how green it is while greens blend in less well in open brown and/or grey rocky terrain. Brown is good for all seasons while green isn’t ideal during summer/early autumn when things are very dry, but great for winter/early spring when things become very green again. In the wilderness there’s always plenty of dirt in numerous shades of brown and dark grey but there isn’t always masses of green vegetation available and so it’s simply a matter of choosing the colours which overall dominate most of the year. That colour is brown.

From these observations I’ve came up with two main camouflage combinations for myself. The First is simply the SADF Nutria brown uniform. The Second consists of solid Nutria brown or camouflage brown trousers and green camouflage jackets. When in the wilderness it is essentially mimicking a part of a small tree or bush and creating a colour contrast to breakup the human silhouette, which is always easily seen by man, and without the need of wearing an impractical ghillie suit.
A Third option is an all brown camouflage made from dying various green patterns. With all of these patterns a cap or hat of the same pattern as the jacket can be worn.

The all Brown camouflage models are:
A specific reproduction German Pea Dot pattern (Erbsenmuster) trousers, jacket and cap; only the one made by Mil-Tec. It has far more browns than greens and what greens it does have are very dark. The colours are, and in order of dominance: Brown, Tan, Dark Olive-Drab, Dark Green.
SADF Nutria Brown surplus. While not technically camouflage, as it’s a solid colour, it does work extremely well is as evidenced by its long term use, and success, by the SADF.

Easily modified existing patterns:
US Woodland M65 (surplus if you can get it), German M31 Splittertarnmuster (reproduction only), Swedish M90 surplus, German Flecktarn surplus, or Danish M84 surplus dyed with Rit Dye* brown to create a multi-brown camouflage results in a highly effective contrasting brown pattern. The results of dying will create contrast with all combined colours as they will all be different shades of brown; it won’t be a solid brown as the existing colours take the dye to varying depths to one another. These patterns are all great candidates for dying brown. Alternatively, one can simply wear an all brown uniform if one can find it. Of standard non-modified camouflage the Bundeswehr Flecktarn is, in my experience, superior to any other. If one can find it there is also a Chinese version of Flecktarn known as “Tibet Flecktarn” that is mostly brown and this would make an excellent camouflage or dying candidate.



*
Important note on dying: Use Rit Dye for synthetics as many fabrics are a mix of cotton and polyester or nylon and almost all of them use polyester thread in manufacturing, which will not take the dye if using the Rit Dye designed for natural fabrics.
Another thing worthy of note is that the quality of authentic Military surplus is far superior to current civilian reproduction uniforms, both in fabric quality and manufacturing quality.

WK. 2021



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2022 02:50AM by Wolfgang.

I totally agree on the brown and grey colors being highly effective, especially in my own local environment. The SADF Nutria brown color is a great example of that, it would be very effective around here. This YouTube channel has a lot of very helpful videos on the effectiveness of various camo patterns, you might be familiar with the channel already:

[m.youtube.com]

Quote
Ryan Nafe
I totally agree on the brown and grey colors being highly effective, especially in my own local environment. The SADF Nutria brown color is a great example of that, it would be very effective around here. This YouTube channel has a lot of very helpful videos on the effectiveness of various camo patterns, you might be familiar with the channel already:

[m.youtube.com]

Yes, I was going to include a link to Brent0331 but forgot about it. His channel is great for getting an idea of how patterns handle a few environments.

Brown is so effective it really boggles my mind why more militaries of the world don’t use it.

The reason I like the Swedish M90 and the old German M31 (Swedish is based on it and the M31 itself goes back to WWI in origin) is for their disruptive patterns. Check out old German and British ships from WWI and you can really see how it’s so effective at completely changing the shape of the object to be disguised. I can’t understand why most have moved away from this pattern either. It’s absolutely brilliant. I found a source of M31 reproduction done in brown as well! Can’t wait to get some of that to try.

Zebras have a disruptive pattern and that is one of the factors of why they are so good at escaping.


I’ll include some links to the patterns I have talked about so others can see them.


Swedish M90
Danish M84
German M31 and Variants
German Pea Dot, Oak Leaf, etc. Of particular interest is the Autumn variant
SADF Nutria, the best of all of them in my opinion



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2022 11:44PM by Wolfgang.

Wolfgang, Ryan,
Good stuff!

Found what I wanted:

Wolfgang, Ryan,
I did a little research a while ago on the Woodland Camo vs the newer, more tan/brown Woodland Style Camo:
[www.beyondt01micron.com] .
Wolfgang, is that how the Woodland M81 looks after the brown dye? Like the newer woodland-style camo?

Found this, the history of US Camouflage:
[www.madcityoutdoor.com]

Quote
jasonstone20
Wolfgang, Ryan,
I did a little research a while ago on the Woodland Camo vs the newer, more tan/brown Woodland Style Camo:
[www.beyondt01micron.com] .
Wolfgang, is that how the Woodland M81 looks after the brown dye? Like the newer woodland-style camo?

Just picture the woodland in various shades of brown, no greens, no tan. Like the colors of Dutch cocoa, standard dark chocolate, 90% dark chocolate, and licorice.

Like this mock-up, but the lightest color is going to be much darker, all colors will be a much darker version of what we see here. Black will always be black.

I first dyed woodland in 1999 and was really pleased with the results. It even works well on the blue version of woodland and looks about the same.





Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2022 10:49PM by Wolfgang.

A few examples of why I prefer to limit green in camouflage.

Green exists, yes, but it’s generally not as prominent at ground level where we all live.

Also note in the second image the lighter colors of the Jaguars belly and inside leg portions etc.

This first image demonstrates that black is acting as shadow, contrast, and as a disruptive pattern. You could walk within 50 feet or less of a Jaguar at rest and wouldn’t even see it.







In such an environment this old defunct camo would be ideal.



As would this:





Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2022 11:09PM by Wolfgang.

Mil-Spec Monkey did some interesting work on solid colors a while back:

A Real Urban Grey, Part 1

A Real Urban Grey, Part 2

Interesting aritcle!

Seems interesting, I’ll read it all.

Thanks.

Wolf