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Digital Camo for everyone? What hath the Marines done!

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  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 6:38 AM
[:0]

I think I am sticking permanently to WWI A/C now...
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Oklahoma
Posted by chopperfan on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 2:32 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Tankmaster7

I hope that planes and tanks don't use that. Painting would become a nightmare, except I love modelling so it would be like a nightmare-dream. never mind.

Uuuuhhh, a little too late, Tankmaster7.
Take a look at this.
Randie [C):-)]Agape Models Without them? The men on the ground would have to work a lot harder. You can help. Please keep 'em flying! http://www.airtanker.com/
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, November 29, 2004 11:38 PM
QUOTE: That's why I'm sticking to WW2 uniforms...I have a hard enough time doing the German dot patterns!

Sign - Ditto [#ditto] Exactly my feelings.

mpabis; That's quite the book you've written there. Laugh [(-D]
Maybe someone will come out with some kind of decal-like thing to replicate this pattern. Better start buying Micro Sol by the quart! Tongue [:P]
  • Member since
    January 2003
Posted by Jeff Herne on Monday, November 29, 2004 11:03 AM
That's why I'm sticking to WW2 uniforms...I have a hard enough time doing the German dot patterns!

J
  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Moooooon River!
Posted by Trigger on Monday, November 29, 2004 8:28 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by mpabis

Here is how to recreate the MARPAT uniforms on 1/35 figures.

Salt Weathering and Digital Camouflage...


Salt huh? Interesting. Okay, I never would have thought about that. I'll try that out as soon as I can to it and post results I've got Tamiya's 1/16 modern U.S. soldier that's going to be a Marine fron OIF last year. The NBC suit will be standard woodland, but the helmet will be desert MARPAT. Should provide a good test subject...
------------------------------------------------------------------ - Grant "Can't let that nest in there..."
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Saturday, November 27, 2004 2:07 PM
oh, but I do agree tho... the prisoner outfit left something to be desired...
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Saturday, November 27, 2004 2:06 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by navyao

I love it! I've been wishing the Navy would go to a BDU for a long, long time. We've always had to many freaking uniforms. We're the only branch that dresses in the same attire as some prisoners do. The camo's a little busy but overall, I like it. I especially like the Navy seal on the left breast pocket; it's the same idea as the Marines having the Eagle Globe and Anchor on their BDU's.


I wonder if it is going to be universal? or just for corpsmen, tooth fairies and chaplains serving FMF? (And of course SpecOps) I wore a set for about 3 yrs... it really came in handy when you were deplyoyed with the USMC at sea, one day Marines go head of line at chow, wear the cammies... next day its navy so you wear your blues...

that lasted all of 3 days tho... as you can imagine...
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: Western Canada
Posted by ghamilt1 on Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:31 PM
I read something in the newspaper about a new develpment in uniform camos the Canadian Dept. of National Defense is currently working on. This new uniform will be able to dissipate body heat, and so make the wearer all but invisible to heat sensitive night vision goggles and (more importantly) gun sites. How does one paint that!? I can see it now, someone will enter an empty base at a local IPMS show, and tell the judges that it's a grouping of infantry with stealth camos on. Brilliant!
  • Member since
    January 2003
Posted by mpabis on Thursday, November 25, 2004 10:35 AM
Here is how to recreate the MARPAT uniforms on 1/35 figures.

Salt Weathering and Digital Camouflage
By
Mike Pabis (w/ help from an FSM article)

Items needed:
1. Paint brush
2. About a tablespoon of ordinary table salt
3. Water
4. Airbrush and paint
5. Toothpick

Time Involved: minimum two days (mostly drying time)

Steps to weather models with salt
1. Complete your model to the point where you have primered the pieces you want to weather.
2. Determine what you want your bottom coat to be. This should be the color that you want to show through the topcoat when everything is complete. Example, if you are planning on showing chipped paint on an aircraft, your bottom coat would be aluminum and the topcoat would be the aircraft’s color.
3. Spray on the bottom coat and let dry for at least 24 hours. Note, try not to use the metalizer paints as water beads off the dried paint and makes it very difficult to place water where you want.
4. Once the bottom coat has sufficiently dried, wet a paintbrush with water. Use a thinner brush for most applications. “Paint” the water over the area where you want to show the bottom coat. On an aircraft, this would be at the edges of the wings, worn areas of the fuselage and areas where other items come in contact with the aircraft. Armored vehicles would show through on the corners and exposed edges. Basically, think where paint would chip off on a vehicle and apply the water there.
5. After applying the water, get your table salt and sprinkle the salt on the wet areas. Depending on how much weathering you want to show determines how much salt to sprinkle. It might be best to use a little bit more than you think, as salt crystals are very small. The salt will basically glue itself to the model when it is mixed with a tiny amount of water. Let this dry overnight.
6. Spray on your topcoat over the model and areas where you applied your salt to and let dry at least 24 hours.
7. Once everything is dry, either with your fingertip or a flat toothpick brush the salt off your model. Sometimes the salt can stick a little bit, so apply just a little bit more pressure to pull it off. Depending on how much you put on, it should only take a few minutes to pull off. As you pull the salt off, you will see the bottom coat start to show through. Now you are done with the weathering. Essentially, what you have done is recreate the exact process of paint chipping.

Steps for creating digital camouflage on figures
1. Salt is the perfect tool for creating this new, difficult to paint pattern. It is a cubic crystal, which makes it great for creating the cubic digital camouflage patterns. Rather than spend hours gently dabbing on microscopic dots that will drive you crazy, you can have this done in a couple minutes over a few days.
2. All steps are the same as weathering with salt. However, there a few things that needs to be done slightly different. Think of painting the new Marine Corps MARPAT woodland camouflage pattern. There are three primary colors and one secondary color: black, brown, buff, and green.
3. In step 3, make sure the bottom coat is your darkest coat. Using the example of the MARPAT pattern, this would be black.
4. Repeat steps 3-5 with each subsequently lighter color – brown, buff and green. Make sure that green is the final coat. You will be adding a lot of salt over time, so brush it on gently in order to not soften and remove the previous layers. You will have three layers of salt and four layers of paint when finished.
5. Follow step 7 and remove all the salt. What you are left with is the new digital camouflage pattern. Quick and easy. This process can be repeated with any of the new camo patterns, desert, gray, blues, etc. Always start with your dark bottom coat and use the next lighter color at each subsequent step.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 9:28 AM
i gotta say though, make the flies zippered ! i have a pair of army surplus pants that have button flies and they are a PAIN ! for some strange reason, the buttons arent sewn on properly, and i had to resew them, compounding the problem cos my sewing is lousy. now if there is one place where buttons cannot fail, its down there! i may never serve in any of the forces, but unless they will be used in conditions that cause the zipper flies to freeze shut, i feel they oughtta be zippered.

thats my 2 cents


btw tankmaster, they already have prototype F-18s flying with digi camo.
  • Member since
    May 2004
  • From: Oak Creek, WI, USA
Posted by navyao on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 8:57 AM
I love it! I've been wishing the Navy would go to a BDU for a long, long time. We've always had to many freaking uniforms. We're the only branch that dresses in the same attire as some prisoners do. The camo's a little busy but overall, I like it. I especially like the Navy seal on the left breast pocket; it's the same idea as the Marines having the Eagle Globe and Anchor on their BDU's.
AO, Baby!
  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Moooooon River!
Posted by Trigger on Friday, November 12, 2004 10:17 AM
Yeah, I'm sure ACU will work fine in areas like Iraq, Afghanistan or other arid, sparsely vegitated or urban areas, And considering all the places the Army has seen active combat since the end of the Cold War, that was probably a big factor in the design. But let's say about seven years from now, Kim Jong Il (publicy) flips his lid and sends troops across the DMV? Or The Balkans flare up again? Then what? There's a reason the services have had seperate camouflages for wooded and arid areas for what, 20+ years now? I don't know why they just didn't take the brown, tan and green colors from the old woodland and digitize them. We know those colors work, and it wouldn't infringe on the MARPAT or CADPAT copyrights since all those colors are different.
SoapBox [soapbox]

LOL - Nice call on the Navy's 'UHF' pattern - "Theeeeey're heeeeeere!"
------------------------------------------------------------------ - Grant "Can't let that nest in there..."
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Aaaaah.... Alpha Apaches... A beautiful thing!
Posted by Cobrahistorian on Friday, November 12, 2004 1:23 AM
Trigger,

From what they're telling us, the new ACUs will be one pattern, all environments. Apparently they've had some successes with them during trial-by-fire in Iraq. As for the other services adopting digital patterns, all I can say is thankfully the Air Force dropped the Blue Tigerstripe idea. That was a boneheaded idea! But that navy pattern looks more like white noise on a TV screen than camouflage. Maybe it comes with a set of rabbit ears so you can adjust the pattern!
"1-6 is in hot"
  • Member since
    August 2004
  • From: Nowhere. (Long Island)
Posted by Tankmaster7 on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 3:15 PM
I hope that planes and tanks don't use that. Painting would become a nightmare, except I love modelling so it would be like a nightmare-dream. never mind.
-Tanky Welcome to the United States of America, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, in partnership with Halliburton. Security for your constitutional rights provided by Blackwater International.
  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Moooooon River!
Posted by Trigger on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 8:52 AM
I think the Marines have had the MARPAT for almost that long, but you're right - CADPAT did come first. Ha ha! - glad to hear your boys in Afghanistan got their desert cammies finally.

I know that AF SOF will wear whatever works best when they go to work and they'll still at least have the option of flight suits. But you know Navy and Army SOF teams are just shaking their heads (And is the ACU supposed to be one pattern/three scolor schemes or is it just one color scheme for use in all environments?)
------------------------------------------------------------------ - Grant "Can't let that nest in there..."
  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: Western Canada
Posted by ghamilt1 on Monday, November 8, 2004 5:57 PM
I never thought I'd live to say this, but the Canadian Armed Forces have been ahead of the U.S.A. on this one. They've been sporting Digital camo greens for at least two years now. They had them on the deployment in Afganistan in 2002. In typically Canadian fashion, the government sent the boys to Afganistan wearing those bright new jungle green uniforms. Not to worry, they got their desert uniforms earlier this year, so they should be blending in quite nicely. I think they look pretty good, and should present a real challenge when it comes to painting a modern figure.
  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Moooooon River!
Digital Camo for everyone? What hath the Marines done!
Posted by Trigger on Monday, November 8, 2004 2:17 PM
Just kidding Marines - I think MARPAT not only looks cool, but looks pretty Censored [censored] effective. And I'm not just saying that to keep from getting my butt kicked, I really mean that. I'll admit that I was a little worried about the desert version until seeing it on the news and in pix worn by the Marines outside of Falluja these past few days. I was wrong - it works too.

No, what I'm commenting on is, now everyone is jumping on the digital bandwagon looking for a "unique" look. We've already seen the Army's new ACU, but have you seen these?

http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/041105-F-0000W-002.jpg
http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/041105-F-0000W-001.jpg

And not to be outdone...

There's also an woodland pattern design that used the same colors as the above image:
http://www.news.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/041018-N-0000X-002.jpg
http://www.news.navy.mil/list_all.asp?id=15565

Now, I'm having a hard enough time MARPATing the helmet on my 1/16th Tamiya OIF figure kit without losing my mind; Heaven help me if I had to do the whole thing! With all these uniforms popping up, we'd better figure out a sane way to recreate these patterns.

------------------------------------------------------------------ - Grant "Can't let that nest in there..."
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