okay I find myself in need of accurate camo patterns for fabric. Specifically the American woodland camo (ERDL) , as well as others in common military usage. (marpat, lime erdl, winter, 2 color desert, 6 color desert, urban, etc) Please no 'civilian' camo, thanks .. have plenty of that including some truly eye searing pink stuff only good for hiding in the Barbie section at the toystore SPECIFICALLY I need a full pattern repeat.. that is to say a complete swatch of the fabric to where the blobs repeat themselves, both horizonatally and vertically. This is so I can make seamless texture of these patterns. I've found bits and pieces of the camo, but not enough to get a full repeat. I can fake it with most things, but amusingly enough the camo pattern is so distinct that one error is noticable... funny becasue your not supposed to notice camo ..but there you are. I'm tired of having the military uniform nuts complain that I use the wrong camo pattern .. so heres your chance to get me the right stuff to use :) I will of course release these final seamless textures as freebies for other people to use. thanks! Lyrra

i remember the software "Gimp" has a special filter/fu script for making camo patterns... maybe you can try this ? or you are lookign for EXACT/real reference of actual IRL used camo ?

Attached Link: http://www.v-d-l.com/adrenaline_camouflage.html

There is a plugin for photoshop, and thus GIMP. It can be found at this link: http://www.v-d-l.com/adrenaline_camouflage.html

nope .. the plugin does not make accurate patterns as far as I've been told by military image creators. At length. Repeatedly. I'm looking for EXACT real use references of the fabric that actual soldiers actually wear clothing made of

well then, im afraid im not sure where to look, id say google it, but i assume you already have.

I have issue fatiques, BDU, in the woodland pattern -- I wore them in 1983-1986 so they are accurate to the US Army of that period. The pattern is very large with no simple repeat, but I will see what I can do with some digital pics if you are interested. The latest issue stuff -- I don't know how common it is yet -- is that strange stuff that looks like a low-rez digital pic.

Here's a pic of my combat's, not sure if it'll help, gut it's worth a shot.

I'm begginging to think that I've going to have to patch the tile together out of as many samples as I can lay my hands on. oh boy. Like a picture puzzle with no edges and a lot of guns... nomuse - well send whatever you've got to lyrra@renderosity.com and the new stuff is called "MARPAT" and is digitally created. (I've found some reference sites that tell me what stuff is called) bobcat - yup that will help some .. nice big piece there thanks!

Lyrra, maybe one of the scale figure sculptors and painters who post at missing-lynx.com can help you with reference material.
Heres a direkt link to the figures forum:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47212?it=1

stahlratte

Lyrra, I am also busy putting together a free resource pack for uniform makers, mine is WWII based for the D-Day Project. I found all the textures I need, but I am missing these two. If you do come accross them during your searching, please let me know. The left one is German Paratrooper Eastern Front Winter 1944-45 and the right hand side is German Special Forces 1944-45. I don't have many modern textures in my collection, but I agree with Stahlratte, the best place to search is the forums for modellers who make plastic scale models. They have loads of resource material and are often fanatical about accuracy. I have some textures, but they are mostly African. So I can supply you with South African, Angolan, Mozambican, Russian Tropical, etc. I have an American combat pants from 1984 that I got in Angola that I will photograph and paste tommorow.

Cool. But do you have that camo pattern I saw once in an issue of Soldier of Fortune, from some African country, that has little pink elephants?

Attached Link: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/acu.htm

Above is what the Army is using now for woodland eviroments, which will soon change to a digital pattern composed of mostly two shades of green and desert tan, which will replace all patters, in use today and it will be a multi-enviroment uniform (see link). Sorry I can't post a sample of the patten, but it isn't being issued until April of this year *sob*. Can't wait to get mine issued, and soon I hope.

Sent you scans of my old tunics, lyrra. Nice look at how the camo fabric fades, but maybe not what you needed. The pic just above is definately it -- after living in the stuff for four years plus it's just far, far too familiar to mistake.

I know what you mean nomuse. I was in the ARMY for 6 years (1996-2002) and got called back into the Reserves about 6 months ago. I got lucky and, was placed in a newly formed unit, so as an NCO I gotta train all of the new soldiers in my platoon, it's a hard job, but it's fun.

No, I haven't got the pink elephant camo, lol. And I don't suppose I have to photograph the combats I have because it is the above texture. And mine are very faded.

Heh. That call-up came too late for me...I was already out of the IRR. More than a decade behind you. According to that link about they figure to have the whole Army in the new pattern by 2007. The present BDU's will be with us a while, I'm sure. Heh. I'm remembering the last day of a Reserve summer drill; everything we had taken to the field was in the laundry. HQ platoon, all vets of regular army; me in the ripstop nylon jungle fatigues and soft-side jungle boots, the platoon sergeant in OG-107's, baseball cap and all, motor sgt in -- of all things -- Vietnam era tiger stripe and tennis shoes. Top didn't say a word. He was wearing BDU trousers and a white dress t-shirt.

I'm tired of having the military uniform nuts complain that I use the wrong camo pattern I can't imagine what their complaint would be unless you just used the wrong 'color combination' as there is no "pattern" per say that is used. When we painted the tanks (real ones at Fort Benning and Germany) we just had particular colors and no 'pattern', just start swabbing it on. However I think I do remember something in the manual about what color 'goes on top' and what color 'goes on bottom'. Sorry I don't have those manuals and can't remember exactly how it went (20 years ago now for me...). Oh how easy it was when the Army just gave us Olive Drabs, but Noooooo, that had to get fancey and go to camo.....at least those suede jungle boots failed the field test! After wearing those suede boots for about a month they made us turn them back in, however they didn't have to be shined which was good...

Well there is a certain pattern and colors for vehicle camouflage. The uniform camouflage pattern was designed to mimic European and North American wilderness, that was suposed to be the battlefield incase the Ruskies got froggy. But the suede boots are back (no more shining YAY)with the new Army ACU,(see link about 5 messages back), I think the new ACU looks pretty cool.

Only a matter of time before the sergeants mess it up, tho. The whole concept of the BDUs was bulky, rough surface to confuse radar and vision (and there was something there about IR, too). Special fabric that was harmed by ironing, and of course dark boots. So peacetime army gets them, starts wearing them around post, and complaints come that it doesn't look "strac." That's when you went into not only ironing but starching the BDU's into knife-edge creases. And spit-shine isn't bad for leather -- but the barracks beau brummels were pouring Future floor wax on them, or, unofficial but strict base policy at Benning, dipping them in tar for two bucks a pair. I can imagine what the Army will do with these things once they get them home.

"pouring Future floor wax on them, or, unofficial but strict base policy at Benning, dipping them in tar for two bucks a pair" Never heard of those methods, we had to use the old elbow grease and can-O-polish, there were some spray on stuff but they forbidden and they made the boot crack anyway. You could defiantly tell a properly shined boot vs one who tried one of those gimmicks. We had to iron the old OD Greens but were not allowed to use starch. But when the cammos came along we were told no more ironing, only for the Dress Greens. Oddly every time we got a 'cost of living' pay increase all the boot polish and brasso in the PX doubled :?

You actually have the Canadians to thank for the new duds. The US Army gave up on digital camouflage almost 30 years back and no one was really considering it again until the Canadian Forces adopted the CADPAT digital camouflage in 1997-1998, the US Marines lifted it and changed it slightly to MARPAT (although they denied it was a copy) in 2000. Since it was cool, now everyone is starting to use it.

Heh, I would suggest contacting DoD but... Might have gotten you a hefty packet of photos or even samples in the old days but today, I'd worry that such a request would get you a knock on the door by the MIB. :-)

yeah and I dont think the feds would accept 'I just want to make realistic digital camo pants' as an answer :) I found this site which is very educational: http://www.henrikc.dk/camouflage/ but alas doesnt have large samples vehicle camo is less of a worry ..get the right colors in the more or less the right percentages and youre good. its the textiles that have unmistakeable patterns. I' think I have enough of the woodland sampled right now to get a good repeat on it .. still need more marpat and canpat and other stuff :) "why wear green in the jungle? if youre going to fight, clash!" Robin Williams, Good Morning Viet Nam

One lucky thing is that the fabrics may come out of the factory as huge rolls, pattern repeating every twenty feet, or whatever, but the actual uniform isn't one huge piece. As long as your textures are big enough, you can assemble a texture with discontinuities along the seams. Imagine pinstripe fabric, as for a suit, and how it might come out if the stripes on the texturemap all went the same way.

True on both counts. Although there were, here and there, mimeo'd guidelines to where the patches went on the vehicles, in practice they got something similar to the three woodland colors in something similar to the uniform pattern. Depending on the artistic skill of the camofluer, of course; I remember some strikingly bad vehicles (light green with tan spots and little magic-marker like tracks of black, for instance). There are handy seams all over the BDUs to interrupt the pattern -- it is a peculiar set of seams, though. As I recall the pants leg is doubled over the knee with a seam on top, but the back of the leg is a single piece. Anyone on this thread finding good samples of the 1980's - early 2000's "Desert," "Arctic/Tundra" and "Urban?" That Woodland stuff gets boring.

Attached Link: http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/05/stuff_eng_vaiano_chieftain.htm

I think that "Urban" was a civilian copy of the standard pattern, using different colours. Though the Berlin Brigade of the British Army did use a special urban cammo scheme on the vehicles. (See link for a model Chieftain.)

Attached Link: http://www.special-warfare.net/

I just ran across this page today, It's one of these Japanese military fansites (they love the US Army by the way)and it has oodles of reference images of uniforms and military personal field gear.

"they love the US Army by the way" Because the Army Rocks!!!

"The Army is there to hold the objective after the Marines take it" :-)