OK... Well, you asked for it... crash-course on camouflage inbound :hehe:
Camouflage is using some trick to make an object or person harder/slower to detect. There are several kinds of camouflage. The three most common ones you'll see are:
-Disruptive camouflage, which is the most common one. You give an object a certain pattern of colours that make it look like the background the object is in, which reduces the contrast and thus makes the object harder to detect. Most BDU's and stuff you'll use for airsoft fall into this category.
-Outline disruption, which changes the outline of an object to something that is harder to recognize for the human eye. A very common example of this is the ghillie suit, which is effective partially because of outline disruption. A boonie hat also tends to do this, it makes the distinctive shoulders-neck-head shape less recognisable.
-Mimicry, which essentially doesn't aim to conceal something, but to make it look like something else, which is not interesting. The ghillie suit with vegetation falls into this category. Patterns such as realtree also fall in this category. 3D leaf suits are another example. The goal is not to hide the object, but to make the object look like a bush or a pile of leaves or something like that.
There are several other kinds, such as dazzle camouflage (which doesn't conceal the object but makes it hard to determine the shape and direction of it, used in naval warfare in the past), or countershading (seen on many animals, to make up for the brightness difference caused by the animal's own shadow), for example. Those aren't really applicable to airsoft use though, and you'll never see them (pun intended) :hehe:
Now, some kinds of camouflage are better for certain situations (durrr). One really big factor is movement:
Disruptive camouflage works by making the object's outline hard to see. The colours blend in with the background. If you move an outline that's hard to see, it's still hard to see. Disruptive camouflage still works fairly well when moving.
Outline disruption and mimicry on the other hand, do not make the object itself hard to see. They simply make it not recognisable as a human, or rifle, or whatever it is. But when it moves, it'll be very much visible.
Outline disruption and mimicry tends to be an extremely effective combination. When not moving, it looks exactly like the surroundings, so it's not going to be spotted easily. However, when moving, it becomes far less effective. A moving bush is not very convincing, even if it still looks like a perfect bush.
Disruptive camouflage works less well because it does not make the object look the same as the surroundings, it merely looks similar to the background. It is easier to see than outline disruption and mimicry. However... When moving, it still looks similar to the background and still has a reduced amount of contrast, so the camouflage still works while moving. Whereas the effectiveness of outline disruption and mimicry is heavily penalized when you start to move.
So it goes something like this from best to worst:
Outline disruption/mimicry (not moving) -> disruptive camouflage (not moving) -> disruptive camouflage (moving) -> outline disruption/mimicry (moving).
OK, long story short, the best camouflage type depends on what you're going to be doing... :hehe:
As for actual patterns... It also depends. The patterns you listed are all disruptive camouflage, but some will work better than others and some will work in surroundings where others won't work at all.
Some of the best patterns right now in my opinion for woodland scenarios are flectkarn, marpat and good old DPM can also work in the right situations. For more desert-like surroundings, the desert patterns will start to work better, but I have little experience with that myself since we don't have any of those in western Europe :hehe:
Multicam is a jack of all trades, but master of none. It'll work everywhere like it's supposed to but it'll lose to a more specialized pattern pretty much always.
So, it depends. Where are you going to be playing? What will your surroundings be like? What will your playstyle be like? If you're going to be concealed somewhere in thick woods and wait for victims all day, then marpat or flecktarn with a ghillie suit over it would be the best bet. Are you going to be running around in the same woods, go with marpat or flecktarn without the ghillie suit. You get the point. Pick something that matches your playstyle and your surroundings.
Oh, and also very important, camouflage your face. Wear gloves. If you don't wear gloves put face paint over your hands as well. Those things will make the difference between people seeing you from a 100 feet away and people stepping over you because they didn't see you at all. Trust me, I've had people almost bump into me while I didn't even wear a ghillie suit. I've "bang"-ed people from less than 10 feet away and they didn't see where I was, even after shouting "bang". Again without a ghillie suit. But you have to wear the right pattern in the right situation. And also very important: don't move. Movement is the biggest giveaway. If you don't move people are going to have a hard time to spot you, even if you're not wearing any fancy camouflage. If you have to move, move slowly and preferably when no-one's looking. And stay in the shadows, that also helps a lot.
I play with flecktarn myself, it is an extremely good disruptive pattern that works exceptionally well in the European woods. If you stay in the shadows, have your face and rifle and everything camouflaged, and don't move when there's people looking in your direction, you're going to be near impossible to spot. I'd recommend that stuff.
Another option, especially with autumn coming up, is the 3D leaf camouflage you see on ebay and stuff nowadays. It works exceptionally well if your terrain is littered with fallen leaves, and is very much worth considering :tup:
Camouflage is a very effective tool, and with the right stalking skills, camouflage can make a sniper really seem like a ghost. Stealth is the most important and powerful weapon an airsoft sniper has at its disposal. Just make sure you understand that camouflage alone does not do the trick. Stalking skills themselves are also very important and a good stalker with bad camo will perform just as well as a poor stalker with excellent camo.
Either way, long story. I hope you learned something out of it, and I hope you'll be able to make the right choice :tup:
