My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Tools and equipment to get the job done.
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cobalt
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My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by cobalt » Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:51 pm

Hi there, folks of NONET! I would love to hear your opinion on my DIY-BDU :)
Pictures are down below.
How I did them myself:

Short Version/tldr:
-I dyed a pair of pants and a hoodie black,
used airbrush for the camo & made some modifications to the clothes

Detailled Version:
-Obtained a grey cotton sweatpants from my collection of old clothes
and a grey kind-of hoodie from a popular retail store

-Dyed both pieces of Garment with black dye, the results were a
dark but rather blueish tone and, by accident, the subtle tye-dye like pattern visible
on the closeups

-Proceeded to apply the camouflage by airbrushing.I tried to achieve a rather soft look
without really harsh contrasts, The A-Tacs LE Camo already discussed
here inspired me a lot.
In the Thread Xanathos mentioned that he would like it even better
"with a bit of brown thrown in", so I tried to add some occasional blips of brown besides
the blacks and whites.
I also focussed on a smooth transition between the front- and backside to
break up the outline of the clothes,and therefore the operative,
which seems to be kind of an important function of camos.
With the clothes flat in front of you, you really have to always keep the later,
non 2-Dimensional use in mind, a mannequin who wears the clothes for you
while painting them might help with this.

-After achieving the kind of foggy pattern and less blue tone I was looking for and with
the paint having dried, I took the BDU out on their and my first "op".
As a result of this testrun, I undertook the following changes:

-I removed the really loose band the sweatpants had built in as a belt and sewed
it back on after cutting it in pieces to work as belt loops.
Now I was able to attach a good Belt to the pants that I can also mount my gear to.

-I removed the string the hoodie had in its turtleneck-like collar that u were supposed
to knot together, and I replaced it with a rubber strap.
With the rubber strap you can put the collar either over your nose to mask your face or
just around your neck normally and it stays in its place AND you don't have
the two ends of the silly band jumping around in front of your face all the time :)

-I coated the BDU and especially the pants with a water-repellant spray so
the ~70% cotton doesn't get all soaked up while sneaking through the nocturnal dew ;)

Thats all I can think of right now, if the following pictures evoke any further questions,
and/or you want to discuss the camo I "created", obvious flaws of my BDU or whatever else,
please ask/respond.

Pictures
01.jpg
Left: Hoodie, folded Right: Pants, folded
02.jpg
Frontside of the BDU-pants
03.jpg
Closeup of the Beltloops
04.jpg
Frontside of the hoodie
05.jpg
Closeup of the hoodies big front pocket
06.jpg
Camocloseup #1, left shoulder
07.jpg
Closeup of "Turtleneck"
08.jpg
Camocloseup #2, back of the hoodie
Greets
27
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Lynx
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Lynx » Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:19 pm

Well, this is beautiful. Kudos to your spraypainting skills. This is actually super close to atacs. What environment are you opping in? Can you take a picture to show us how it looks in pitch black?

On the other side, the white spots seem to be just a little to bright for an LE pattern, but with all the rolling on the ground, I suppose they'll fade after a while.
Don't take it too seriously, you're not coming out of it alive.

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cobalt
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by cobalt » Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:22 pm

Thank you Lynx, now you made me blush ;) I live and op in a rather suburban-area with a variety of industrial bulidings on the one hand
and pretty spacious rural-looking fields on the other,(the fields being great highways to travel unseen easily btw).
I think in pitch black my clothes would look like, well pitch black ;) But i am indeed planning on completing some dareops in the near future,
so you might see them live and in action soon :)
Yes, I definitely see this as an issue too, sometimes your artsy side takes over and tells you that there need to be some highlights as well...
I considered giving the bdu a second paintjob to add a little bit more plain black and to darken the bright spots,
but the water-repellant finish I applied so rashly might pose a problem there :roll:
To be fair though I have to say that in reality the spots that are bright on the pictures are a bit more an the grey side in reality :)
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Lynx
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Lynx » Sat Feb 21, 2015 10:37 pm

You're in pretty much the same environment as me :wink:
Can you wash it without the colors going off, or are you not planning on washing it? Because after a night of crawling in crop fields, I looked like an enlightened mudman.
Don't take it too seriously, you're not coming out of it alive.

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cobalt
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by cobalt » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:01 pm

Thats good to know.I didnt wash them so far because im still a bloody noob whose ops can be counted with one hand,
so my bdus are still quite clean.
Also, I didnt have to crawl through crop fields like you so far (although this seems to be bulletproof way to obtain a "natural" camo ;) ),
and I generally try to touch the ground with my hands and feet only while keeping the rest of my body a little bit elevated when crawling.
I guess on my "ops" there just wasnt the need to go full stealth by crawling with full contact to the ground in a snake manner...
I did use an additive that should make the colors water- and washingproof.
Im certain though that the darks in my camo will "gray out" after machine washing them, so if I have to wash my clothes at some point I might just
handwash them very carefully, using a very mild detergent.
A big thank you for the feedback so far!
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Xanatos » Tue Feb 24, 2015 8:51 pm

This looks fucking awesome! I suggested doing some sort of home-made A-TACS LE but didn't think anyone would actually go through with it.

You seem to have all variables covered, and it'd be nice to see some pics of it up against concrete or some other environment outside so we can appreciate its effectiveness. The modifications you did to the clothing itself (belt loops, built-in neck gaiter, etc) are certainly a nice touch. If the pattern needs to be darkened then the water-resistant treatment may interfere with any future dyeing process, but this looks like a successful test run nonetheless.

No need to worry about the dye fading out in the wash; if you did it properly, that shit's permanent. And I never wash my opping gear unless I happen to crawl literally through shit. Just make sure your gear is dry before putting it away.
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cobalt
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by cobalt » Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:57 pm

Wow, thanks Xanathos! You can be sure that I wouldnt have gone through with this without the inspiration by you either.
I don't worry about the dye itself, but the spraypaint I used to apply the camo on the already black clothes, as i have some experience
with them fading in their colour depth with or without the textile additive, however, we'll see...
I read about you dealing with your bdus like that some time ago in the forums and so far I adapted this procedure.
I will definitely take some pics of my clothes out in the wild and post them here in this thread, stay tuned ;)
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Eden » Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:15 pm

I think this is actually really intriguing. There tends to be a huge deficit of lady opping clothes in the world. What a surprise (said no one. ever.) Who knows, if I can convince Ghost to try this (or know ahead of time if a number of other people are going to) I may be able to get something that actually fits and is custom. Right now choosing between black skinny jeans and Ghosts BDU pants has been more than a bit awkward.

Actually Ghost was talking about trying to mod some of his ABU's. Which is something I am really excited to see. Too bad they don't fit me!!

In the meantime keep up the good work.
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Xanatos » Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:18 pm

cobalt wrote:I don't worry about the dye itself, but the spraypaint I used to apply the camo on the already black clothes, as i have some experience
with them fading in their colour depth with or without the textile additive, however, we'll see...
The spray paint I applied to mine has survived in the wash and hasn't started to flake off yet despite its heavy use. I wouldn't worry about it.
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Psychlonic » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:03 am

In a similar vein, I've been planning to dye some old ACUs using simple RIT dye. This can be used to turn an otherwise useless camo pattern into a more night oriented pattern or something similar to CADPAT. I imagine the same idea could apply to many other light patterns out there for those of you who have them laying around but never use them. I'll report the success when I get around to doing it, but it's good to see other options coming up - I think your work here looks completely effective.
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Re: My sweet little first DIY-BDU

Post by Rex » Fri Mar 20, 2015 7:46 am

The slight tie-dye effect, although accidental, might actually help you to blend in better.
I would like to be able to duplicate those patterns.

Great Job! especially for the first time.
I've dye darkened gear numerous times in the past, but have never achieved results that good.
Let's face it. We aren't getting any younger, and nighttime ops never gets old.

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