[RonSwanson]

When I first started I bought a cheap leaf suit from Amazon or eBay (can't remember which but was about £16).
First use was in winter and honestly the green was too light for the time if year. After a good game day and wash the greens became muted and the colour blended a bit more and was serviceable to blend for something so cheap.

Than one game day me and a load of other players walked past an AEG user wearing mainly olive green just hid in a bush (who held down the area well than waited and shot as once he team had been pushed back), that's when I realised that honestly standard camo clothes (dpm ideally) work well enough if you know where to position and how to move (or not to move in some cases)

Ghillies have the disadvantage of increasing your silhouette and making reaching carried equipment potentially more awkward.

 

[Doctor Jest]

There's a picture of a backpack somewhere.......I did make a slight error with that one but it's pretty good - and looking at it, I also caught the edge of my jacket (bottom left corner).


To elaborate, look at the garnish (that's a catch-all phrase that is a little ambiguous and contextual. Sometimes it means natural, sometimes it means artificial - confusing!) which they've employed. It's somewhat similar to grass but doesn't have the rigidity to stand upright as most grasses do, the colours are a little drab (but could be altered) and there is a little differentiation in texture and pattern control, but not ideal. Go look at some grasses in nature and you'll see what I mean - it's also on the long side. I don't think it would be a ghillie without any practical application as I could see it working in Autumn/Winter grasslands and probably heathland too but if you don't live and play in those areas it could stand out quite substantially. I used something very similar for Autumn and Winter but had to change my approach in other seasons.

Caveat: Obviously, any ghillie will appear different in real life, and without viewing them on a colour-calibrated monitor it's difficult to tell precisely how they would interact with a natural environment.

Two things to bear in mind - a lot of airsofters simply don't pay close attention to their surroundings so you don't need a ghillie suit to stay concealed, and if you do have a ghillie suit it doesn't necessarily have to be perfectly constructed for your environment and natural foliage is far better than any artificial base. Carlos Hathcock rarely utilised a ghillie suit in Vietnam and when he did, it was simply a case of making holes in his BDUs to stick grass into.......worked for him clearly! Sniping in and of itself has a cult of personality attached (and has done for many years) and coupled with a little bit of self-insertion and wish-fulfillment the appeal is frequently neutered by the reality of hit-taking, crawling round in the mud, and getting WTFBBQd by a rental with an MP5.......

Ghillies have the disadvantage of increasing your silhouette and making reaching carried equipment potentially more awkward.

Very much a double-edged sword - you want to break up the human silhouette, but avoid looking like Chewbacca. As far as the equipment I do completely agree! All mins is altered to some extent to allow me to carry backups or magazines etc in a position that I can reach from prone without movement or as much as possible at least.

Front and back of my winter ghillie. I certainly needed to trim it down but for the heathland/grassland you can see in the background it worked perfectly. This is my rifle rag base that a friend made for me:

What you can't see there is the huge amount of foliage loops that suit had added. It bears mentioning that after those photos, I took out quite a bit of the artificial garnish (even if it was wonderfully warm!) and relied far more on the natural grasses I found on site for the very reasons that I mentioned to you.

 

[SiliconeSword]

I feel that it may be possible that in airsoft your camo may have to be BETTER than irl due to there rarely being very long ranges and things being more fast paced and densely packed, with maybe unrealistic amounts of players. Also as has been said by various people, the average playa is kinda stupid and may not recognize a tiger stripe pair of sweatpants on snow or whatever, so I'm not completely decided on camo requirements being higher or not. I do wonder if a medium to well seasoned player has a better or worse eye than the average and top notch soldier when it comes to picking out silhouettes, off colors, and anything used in spotting a ghillie guy.
But, at least there's trial and error and personal stuff that can be done to improve these things, where if you fail irl you probably won't get a second shot at it.

 

[Rb19]

Thanks guys!

 

[RonSwanson]

The average Airsoft player in the UK has the same ability to spot tar

IAlso as has been said by various people, the average playa is kinda stupid and may not recognize a tiger stripe pair of sweatpants on snow or whatever, so I'm not completely decided on camo requirements being higher or not. If you fail irl you probably won't get a second shot at it.

I've got more used to moving and getting into different cover when I hear a single BB hit near me than a burst, yet the average player ignores the single obvious single aimed shot it seems and stands still. Bursts tend to be random spray's designed to see if someone reacts or they get lucky with a hit.

The amount of times I've missed a shot by a small amount and the person just stands still looking around making the follow up easier.