Hyde Definition, the digital camouflage and concealment company I run, has finally finished revamping its website. Well actually, not quite, as there are still one or two things that need adding and tidying, but to all intents and purposes it is done. Come on over and take a look!
I will be attending this year’s Internationale Waffen Ausstellung (IWA) – an annual trade-show for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry taking place in Nuremberg, Germany, from the 12th to the 15th of March 2010.
IWA is the second largest trade-show of its type, after SHOT in the United States.
I will be visiting companies in the outdoor clothing sector to promote Hyde Definition’s innovative PenCott Multi-Environment Camouflage™ and to reveal additional new colour-ways addressing arid, mountain, urban, snow and low-light operational needs.
This show is a fantastic chance to show the industry what we’ve been developing, but I’ve got a lot of leg work to do – the venue is huge and I’m meeting companies from one end to the other across the weekend!
If you would like to meet with me at the show to discuss the exciting opportunities offered by Hyde Definition’s ground-breaking concealment solutions, give me a call on +44 208 123 0302 or +44 7764842047, or email me at dom@hydedefinition.com
9 of the available PenCott colour-ways
Two recent posts on the Strike-Hold! website resonate with me. The first concerns the International Special Training Centre (ISTC) Sniper Course at Grafenwoehr, Germany. The article itself is a worthwhile read, but most striking is this picture:
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Eric Ludan, an instructor for the International Special Training Centre's (ISTC) Sniper Course provides feedback to two Special Forces Soldiers following a live-fire exercise July 24 at the Grafenwoehr Training Area. The Sniper Course is an intense five-week course that teaches NATO Special Operations Forces (SOF) in basic sniper fundamentals. The students spent the night stalking and observing their targets during the evaluated exercise. The facilities at the Joint Multinational Training Command allow the SOF throughout NATO to train to standard. (U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Gina Vaile-Nelson, 133rd MPAD)
If ever a more succinct illustration were needed of the benefits of selecting your personal concealment with the terrain of your operational area in mind, surely this is it. See how the US Army’s ‘Universal’ Camouflage Pattern (UCP) stands out like a glowing grey ghost against the lightly wooded background, and even the khaki-looking Multicam worn by the spotter in the middle of the picture appears out of place. In a real operation, the spotter would no doubt have customised his garb with dirt, scrim and fresh foliage to render it less visible, or even worn a ghillie like the German sniper in the foreground, but I have reservations about the utility of such techniques when used to attempt to compensate for UCP’s ineffectiveness. A pig wearing lipstick is still a pig.
The other Strike-Hold! story that I found particularly interesting tells of how some British soldiers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province are dyeing their desert camouflaged under-armour combat shirts (UBACS) a curious greeny-blue. You can read it here. UK readers may have seen about this in the Daily Mail or the Sun (where a disengenuous, hysterical spin was put on the issue to make more of the story than meets the eye), but the original source of the pictures, and a hint as to the explanation why, is found in Michael Yon’s excellent blog, penned from the frontline in Afghanistan.
Into the Green Zone
I can’t help wondering how something like this might work, out in the green zone…
PenCott multi-environment camouflage pattern
PenCott multi-environment camouflage pattern
A rumour came to my attention today. The rumour has it that James Cameron, director of classics such as The Terminator and Terminator 2, Aliens and the Abyss, as well as True Lies and Titanic, has been wearing my company’s PenCott digital fractal camouflage on the set of his latest film project: Avatar. The rumour appears to have grown from a photograph in the latest edition of Empire magazine, showing Cameron demonstrating how to man the door-gun of a troop transporter, wearing a pair of trousers in an unusual digital camouflage.
NOT gunning for PenCott. Copyright: Empire magazine
Much as I would love one of my movie idols to be wearing PenCott in association with a futuristic film, sadly he is not. His lower half seems to be clad in a commercial camo (note the bigger, more obvious pixels and the black areas). Should James Cameron like some genuine Hyde Definition trousers in our cutting-edge PenCott pattern, he is welcome to get in touch and I will happily furnish him with a pair or two, plus shirts and hats to boot. Someone pass the message to him, eh?
I thought this was someone’s idea of a joke when I first saw it. But, no – the demonstrator in the video below is deadly earnest (not Deadly Ernest, the comic pro-wrestler from Manchester, UK, but instead, a very, very serious company man ).
Cornershot camo
Now, the Israeli Cornershot system is a useful ‘force multiplier’ for dismounted urban operations, but I guess that to those being observed through its barrel mounted video system it is still obvious that a gun barrel is pointing at them from round the edge of a wall. Until someone came up with this unconventional idea…
Thanks to F Gruenert/ICUS for the tip.
Thought you’d seen it all with my last entry about weird and wonderful camo applications? Think again! Here is the German take on ‘blending’ – in a supermarket!
See that pile of yellow carrier bags? It’s actually a bag-lady. There’s other bizarre disguises on the website, which appears to exist for the sole purpose of showcasing this (student?) project.
Thanks to Troels for the tip.
Optical illusion meets student humour in some of the projects catalogued over on WebUrbanist.
It’s not all impractical, tax-payer funded flights of fantasy though: I particularly liked the idea of kamo kilts (for camo’d Celts?) – watch out for one of those in a neighbourhood near you!
Desert Marpat kilt
Predator Fall Brown kilt
This is the Lotus Elise Tiger. Yeah, it’s old, but I like it. And it’s camo… of a kind.
Grrrrrr!
Thanks to Strange Vehicles for the pic, and to allfastcars.com for the ones below:
Ouch!
The Gundoctor really knows a thing or two about guns`n`camo: you really won`t believe the quality and effectiveness of his DuraCoat camouflage schemes. This savage looking sniper rifle is fitted with a sound suppressor, so as well as not seeing it, you won`t hear it either. I wonder if it`s named “Whispering Death” or something?
The Camo Side of Dominic Hyde 