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Old 02-23-2011, 09:29 PM
HorseSoldier HorseSoldier is offline
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Location: Anchorage, AK
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I don't think that cotton grows particularly well (if at all) in most of Europe. So, would wool be the primary material in post-TDM manufactured uniforms? I imagine that making camouflage cloth would be more difficult than making monochrome cloth. I supose you could tie-die green fabric to create some sort of cammo but it would be more simple than the complex, multicolor patterns common in the mid-'90s and beyond, IRL.
Probably rather than tie-dye, people would do something along the lines of the WW2 Denison smocks the Brits used -- solid base color with dye hand painted on (at least that was how originals were done). This would even have the added plus that you could do it regionally and make a camouflage optimized for the local environment.



My take in the US is that both MilGov and CivGov are doing this circa 2000, with MilGov pushing for a new standard of a woodland-ish pattern dyed on khaki (or butternut) base, while CivGov is pushing for OD green as a base and camo just applied to the jacket. (And neither side getting universal adherence or fully replacing legacy woodland BDUs. I also have MilGov's Colorado cantonment having a large stockpile of not-entirely-practical five color desert DCUs that they've been partially redyeing with OD or similar green tones to make a sort of poor man's Multicam.)

I could see both sides also sorting out some sort of arm band system as well for IFF, especially for guys like militia and local police who aren't going to be high on the list for kit. The complication being that both would probably want to use some very similar take on red-white-blue.

In Europe, I've taken the view that most armies would draw the line at getting all their personnel into at least the appropriate shirt or jacket sporting their national camouflage pattern. Pants, boots, nice accessories like sweaters and thermal stuff -- all that by 2000 would be catch as catch can for the most part, and be anything from surviving uniform stuff to scavenged enemy uniform components to civilian stuff acquired along the way.
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