If you like, you can see the last article here: What camo is best, part one.
In our last article, we suggested getting either OD green or woodland as your first camo outfit. OD green stands for Olive Drab Green (often called "Army Green"), and was used for most US military uniforms up through the 1960's. Some US military equipment is still painted OD green, and the color blends into the woods quite well. A person, crouched and still in OD green is reasonably hard to see as long as they use shadow and environment to conceal their outline. In open fields in later Autumn and early spring, it can stand out plainly (as most green based camo will).
In 1981, Woodland was put into use for many US military forces, and many of their allies as well. It was one of the most popular camo patterns ever, and is still widely used by military forces the world over, as well as some fashion designers. Woodland is made up of large splotches of green, brown and tan with black "branches". The only real drawback to it, is that Woodland was really designed for a longer range engagement, and as such it is not quite as good at the close ranges that airsoft is played. (If you get lucky, you might find some ERDL pattern gear in surplus stores, which is what woodland was based on, and is a smaller print.)
Link to the full Wikipedia article on the history of M81 Woodland camo.
Image of a typical section of Woodland Camo:
This is probably a pretty familiar looking camo pattern, and is what a lot of people think of when someone says "camouflage" to them. Since is has been phased out of much of the military, it is relatively easy to find as surplus and can be had for fairly little money. We have seen woodland pattern BDU's at surplus stores ranging in price from 15 dollars to about 30 dollars each for the pants and shirt. Most BDU's are made of a poly cotton blend, and will last for many years of hard wear with just a quick wash now and then to maintain them. You may also be able to find woodland or a close variant at stores like WalMart in their clothing section, though these may not be as ruggedly made as army surplus gear tends to be.
For your tan loadout, "sand" tan or khaki tan work well. A number of companies make tactical pants in khaki that can be found at clothing stores or goodwill. If you want a camo pattern, you might want to look into surplus DCU's (the desert equivalent to woodland BDUs, DCU stands for Desert Combat Uniform, and is a three color pattern). There is also a lot of Desert Storm "chocolate chip" DBDU six color desert camo available on the surplus market these days, and it can be had for similar prices to woodland. For more info on the history of DBDU, see the Wikipedia article here.
Tan stands out somewhat in the woods, but not as badly as it might seem at first, as long as you use the methods we mentioned above to help hide yourself. In tall, dry grasses and areas of dead leaves, tan can blend in quite well. You may also find areas of semi bare ground where tan will blend nicely (like a gravel pit on the event site). If you are playing tan team, try to choose locations that you can best blend with to set up ambushes. In forest, stay low, still and in shadow as much as possible.
As you start looking at camo, you will find a bewildering array of other patterns. Many of these are older patterns or civilian, so be sure to do some research if you want to try to keep your gear close to MilSim standards. Also be aware of the overall color tone of the camo. A good example of "what side is this guy on?" is MultiCam (which is also called scorpion camo). This is the camo pattern that the US military is now switching to (replacing ACU with the Universal Camouflage Pattern or UCP). Multicam is designed to blend in with many environments, and as such it contains a fairly even mix of green and tan colors. For airsoft, this makes it hard to tell which team you are on. And that can lead to everyone on both teams shooting at you.
That said, Multicam works pretty well for many environments like the edges of forest areas, brush and tall grasses.
Image of Multicam:
As you can see in the image, it is hard to say for certain if a player wearing this camo is on the green or tan team. It is partly for that reason that the US military is moving to MultiCam; it blends in reasonably well with a lot of environments like the forest and desert (though perhaps not as effectively as theater specific camo does).
MultiCam is replacing the current Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP), and a lot of guys are using ACU's in UCP. (ACU stands for Army Combat Uniform by the way).
For your reference, here is an image of UCP:
The big problem that the army ran into with UCP was the slate grey base of the pattern; it does tend to stand out against a woodland environment, though it does work somewhat in the current theater of operations according to some accounts we have read. Obviously not well enough though, as it is being replaced. So, with UCP being phased out, it will be available as surplus soon and there will likely be a lot more of it on airsoft fields. It stands out as being neither green or tan.
Other folks prefer MARPAT, shown at left. This is the US marine digital camo in woodland colors, and it is quite effective in our local woods. MARPAT also has the advantage of being clearly on the green team in larger skirmishes.
There is also desert MARPAT, which is clearly on the tan side of things, and works very well in Autumn here as well as early spring.
This article should have given you a bit of an overview on different camouflages used in airsoft commonly, and hopefully has helped you in deciding on what will work for you and your playing fields.
In future articles, we will cover some of the less common camos, how to apply face-paint and more on concealment and movement. Til then, stay low!
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