New Camo Theory and Application

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marauder
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New Camo Theory and Application

Post by marauder » Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:09 am

Recently I have been working on camoflauging 2 of my guns. About halfway through the process I started developing a new theory about how I would go about painting, or possibly even building a cover, the next time around. I've also spent a lot of time recently looking over old war photos, comparing the camo that was used with the actual environment of the battlefield. If we've spent any significant amount of time in person you already know that I'm very outdoorsy and that I'm at least into hiking, canoeing, and studying wildlife as I am in to soakers. So with that in mind, I've taken a new approach to how I will camo blasters and equipment in the future...

First, before you start camoflauging your guns and equipment it's important identify the area(s) that you are going to be fighting in most often. For this particular guide I'm going to be using Acorn Hill, NY as identified by SEAL in this thread.

Next we need to identify what colors are in this area, since that's what we will be using to paint with. I'm going to use Color Thief to pull the colors out of the image.
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Color Thief will give you something like this. We are only going to use 5 or 6 colors in our paintjob, so I'm going to cut this down to 6, and I've included the color palettes from the other photos:
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SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

DX
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by DX » Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:20 am

Cool project. I've definitely noticed that the best colors to have for camo vary among our community war battlefields. Sycamore Island has more greens and lighter shaded greens. Dug Hill tends to be very dry and goes best with browns and narrower greens for the pines, but when wet, can get very dark and the old woodland camo pattern works very well there. Dark colors also work well at Paine, which always runs on the darker side even when dry. For wars in the fall and winter, a variety of browns are best, to match with fallen leaves.

I still intend to cover soakers rather than paint when possible / when not lazy. There are times when I am very glad that my gun is a bright color, like in the parking lot at Carderock.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

marauder
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by marauder » Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:35 am

Next I eliminated all similar colors and cut it down to the 6 colors that best represented the color palettes above. Notice I've got a tan for grasses and light soil, a color for stone, a dark color for shadows and bark, and 3 different greens to represent foliage. Now the trick will be to find paints or a combination of paints that best reflect these colors.
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Good camo doesn't always mean you will be able to sneak up on your opponent completely undetected. Sometimes it's just enough to allow you to get into a superior position before being detected. That's why I'm still a strong believe in camo even when there are few ambushes that result in hits.

In regards to creating covers, you can still use this theory for making covers. Fabric is available in an incredible amount of different colors, or you can always just paint various strips of fabric.
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SEAL
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by SEAL » Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:44 am

This is cool. So what do you do once you get all the right colors? How would you apply them?

The only problem is that you'd have to get a whole bunch of different guns for different environments, unless you use covers instead of paint.
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marauder
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by marauder » Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:59 am

You would go about painting or applying the fabric however you want. Personally, I don't believe in having all the colors in equal amounts. That tends to make everything blur together a bit too much, which from a distance can end up just looking like one color. If you ever used a windows 3.1 computer the effect is the same as how colors used to be displayed on old computers - e.g. using crosshatching with white to lighten a color. In this instance I'd use the tan and bright green sparingly. I'd use the dark color and grey moderately and I'd use the dark olive and regular green for the base. All colors would be kept from mixing except the 2 base colors, which I'd keep separate in some areas, but blend together in others. This is an effect I learned from multicam. Speaking of which, I put together color pallets for commercially available camo patterns in case anyone wants to know what individual colors to purchase.

In regards to needing different colors for different battlefields I would probably go with multicam if I had to pick just one color scheme. It works well in winter, it works decent in eastern mountains, it's decent in deep foliage, it's better than woodland camo in high grass. A lot of people tend to fight in just a few individual battlefields and only during warm weather, so choosing a single color scheme would work better in most people's situations. We not only fight across state lines but we also fight during all seasons, so our situation is a bit unique.
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isoaker
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by isoaker » Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:52 pm

I really like threads like these - looking forward to see what your end results look like, marauder!

:cool:
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wetmonkey442
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by wetmonkey442 » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:32 am

Yeah, I can't wait to see how this turns out! Although I seem to remember you stating recently that you prefer covers to paint-jobs. What's changed your opinion? Or are you still planning on implementing this as a cover primarily?
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marauder
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Re: New Camo Theory and Application

Post by marauder » Sat Jun 07, 2014 12:03 pm

I actually came up with a really effective $7 cover recently, so I haven't fully abandoned the idea of covers. My idea was to try to come up with a cheap cover that anyone can make, since a majority of people into this hobby are young people who aren't fully financially on their feet yet. It's also the easiest cover to take on and off (takes about 2 seconds). Unfortunately my camera died so I'll have to wait until at least the end of the summer to get a hold of some equipment to make an instructional video and or guide.

The paint job idea actually came after spending some time with world war 2 aircraft at the air base in the next town over. I've really been into all the detailing and nose art, which has inspired me, but I'm not yet ready to fully reveal how it's inspired me yet; but that is what got me back into painting. Mostly for the fun of it, and with some smaller guns I think paint jobs can be almost as effective as covers. If you carry a camo XP 270 to a park it's probably not going to freak out the locals as much as a camo CPS 2000.

This theory can still be applied to camo covers, however. Just choose the colors of your cloth accordingly, or paint accordingly. I have a lot more in the works, including the applied part of this subject, but you'll have to stay tuned.
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