Camouflaging

Camouflaging is the art of hiding in plain sight by blending in with your surroundings.

Urban Camouflage 

Plainclothes police officers, undercoger investigators, military special forces and guerilla fighters wear civilian clothing to blend into urban environments. Things that give them away to trained eyes are called "billboarding".

Disguise can go beyond clothes to include changes in hair using wigs or other disguise materials. 

Outdoor Camouflage Patterns

There are a great many different camouflage patterns to suit different natural environments.

Recommended Patterns: 

• CADPAT TW: Canadian digital camo for green woodland environments.
• MARPAT: Marines digital camo for brown and green woodland environments.
• Multicam: CryePrecision camo for light grassy environments.
• Flecktarn: German spotted camo for woodland environments.
• Desert Digital and CADPAT AR: Desert camo.
  

Patterns To Avoid

• Woodland: Obsolete US Army color blob camo. MARPAT is better.
  
• ACU: Too green for desert, too white for woods, why the Army chose this instead of MARPAT is a mystery. Multicam and desert digital are better.

Ghillie

Camouflage patterns can only do so much to blend into the natural environemnt. To achieve perfect camouflage, a ghillie suit is required.

2D camouflage methods like patterned BDUs and camo tape simply apply color patterns to surfaces, leaving recognizable shapes.

3D ghillie attaches additional material on top of you, to break up your familiar shape. In theory, someone looking at you may be unable to spot your shape or will take longer to recognise you unless you move and give yourself away.

Constructing Ghillie

Start with a pre-bought ghillie mesh suit or make your own by starting with a camo BDU set and sewing netting onto it. The netting provides a matrix of attachment points for ghillie materials.

There are a number of materials that can be combined for effective ghillie concealment: 

• Jute thread: This looks like grass and comes in colors ranging from light dry grass to fresh greens.
• Chameleon leaves: These synthetic mesh leaves are breathable.
  
• Plastic plants available at many crafts stores are a long-lasting and authentic touch to add to your ghillie.
• Fresh local vegetation inserted into your mesh is the ultimate finishing touch to match the plantlife where you are operating. It takes time and effort to apply, so give yourself plenty of extra time to prepare in advance of beginning operations.

Camouflaging Equipment

Carried equipment like bows, rifles and paintball markers should be camouflaged as well to match your clothing.

Take care not to obstruct operational controls like triggers and cocking levers or to obscure optics like scopes and sights. Ghillie your slings as well.