Anyone ever tried to Cammo a black suit??

[flying_spanner]

I was woundering if anyone out there has ever tried to cammo up a black wetsuit.

Why don't you just buy a cammo wetsuit? I hear you exclaim.

1) Well a nice new Picasso cammo suit would be nice but I don't have a spare NZ$700 at the moment (I am a student living on a pitince). I have $600 to cover my whole kit, the budget is tight to say the least.:head

2) The water here ranges in temp from 8deg C to 12deg C, I don't think a 5mm suit is going to cut the mustard.

3) I bought a near new 7mm "Off Shore" (that's the brandname I swear!) dive suit for $200. The previous owner bought a complete, brand new set of dive gear and on completion of his openwater SCUBA course decided diving wasn't for him. I've made off with his wetsuit, according to his logbook it's only seen 5 dives in total!!!

I've decided to give DIY cammo a go. Here's the metheod I plan to use.

I've got my old stuffed 2mm wetsuit and I plan to try a few different spray paints, dyes etc on as a test to see what works. And importantly to find out if any of the paints eat into the neoprene BEFORE I have a go at attacking my latest purchase.

Anyone tried this before?

Do any of you DB'ers out there have any trade knowledge of neoprene and/or paints?

Which chemicals will react badly with the neoprene?

If no one out there can answer my questions that's ok as I plan to experiment a bit for myself (as that's half of the fun!!) to discover hopefully what works & maybe what doesn't.

I'll let you know how I get on soon, (hopefully with pics, just need to steal my girlfreinds digi camera for a bit).

 

[Pastor]

Use the paint that is designed to be sprayed onto tee shirts, it works well

 

[foxfish]

This might help
http://forums.deeperblue.net/wetsuits/73171-camo-rashguard.html

 

[Andy.R]

Ask Magpie Look in the Guernsey thread for about this time last year (I think)

 

[Fondueset]

Omers got a couple of very nice camo pattern lycra thingies designed to go over your suit in the 2008 catalog.

 

[foxfish]

Ask Magpie Look in the Guernsey thread for about this time last year (I think)

Andy do you mean the sperm suit? rofl

 

[Andy.R]

"Andy do you mean the sperm suit?"
Absolutely.

I never got to see it, but the photos were hilarious rofl

The shapes were meant to be crescent shapes of the little wavelets in the sunlight (or something like that), but they didn't look like that.

 

[foxfish]

"Andy do you mean the sperm suit?"
Absolutely.

I never got to see it, but the photos were hilarious rofl

The shapes were meant to be crescent shapes of the little wavelets in the sunlight (or something like that), but they didn't look like that.

But I cant find the relevant post :head

 

[flying_spanner]

Thanks for the suggestions,

I'll have a go with the teeshirt paints. I plan to make up a few stencills and spray the shapes in 2 or 3 colours onto the suit.

The lycra suits although they look the business, not really what I'm after.

I've just purchased a bit more kit today (booties, gloves, dive flag, Foam Filled float line). Also my girlfreind and I are about to go for a drive to have a look in the Picton dive shop about 20mins drive from here.

So I'll keep you all posted

 

[marceloplanchar]

Spanner,

Please let us know how it went with the T-Shirt Paints...... i have a black beuchat competition,.

m

 

[sciencemike]

My orca wetsuit is smoothskin outside and i just used Krylon Spraypaint that is made for plastic. It seems to work just fine. No damage to the suit. The suit seems just a bit stiff at first till you stretch it out and the paint can relax a bit. (Note its not the neoprene that is stiff its the paint. I tested it by removing the paint off a sample piece and seeing that the neoprene is normal under it) I used 5 colors for the cammo. Tan, Dark olive green, light green, medium green, and sky blue. I made stencils that fit together nicely. I wanted my belly to be light blue under the cammo and my back to be darker black under the cammo. So i put a layer of light blue/dark blue and tan on the belly and left the back black. Then i laid on the stencils and painted away. Ill post pics tonight when i get home. I have no durability tests yet, but i will in a few weeks.

 

[marceloplanchar]

Cant wait to see the pics.

 

[sciencemike]

Hey here is a print of the pattern/stencil i made for the colors. Note here the colors i tested it with are just random colors. The second picture is my wetsuit. Sorry for the reflections it takes away a bit from the cammo effect.

 

[harpune1]

I would try these , theire made for wetsuits:
Bluegreen
cheers

 

[aussiebowhunter]

as i was in the australian army cadets if you are going to cammo your wetsuite go ta g millitary or camping or maby a gun store and ask for millitary scrim-net sow it on lightly dont glue it needle and thred and sow it on verry tightly so it isnt lose on the edge also on the back front if you want to go for a 3d look sow on strands of scrin-net on to the suite every 5-10 cm appart about 10 cm long looks good i use this idea when bowhunting here in aus scrim-net is verry cheap buy approx1m wide 3m wide bye 2 long in lengh then cut to lenth ahter sow on the strands! [left overs]

 

[settingsteel]

Hey here is a print of the pattern/stencil i made for the colors. Note here the colors i tested it with are just random colors. The second picture is my wetsuit. Sorry for the reflections it takes away a bit from the cammo effect.

That came out excellent sciencemike, have you tried it out???

 

[sciencemike]

I have tried it out on 3 different days (yesterday we dove from 10 am till 4pm). The colors unfortunately are coming off just a little bit in some high wear areas. But the suit works very very well. I feel much more hidden in the kelp paddies. A harbor seal just couldnt leave me alone yesterday. Between my cammo and the Ice fins, which it couldnt stop biting, i seemed to be irresistable. All in all im happy with it. My dive buddies seem to love it as well. If i were any of you guys i would try out the other paints before trying this method, as it does seem to slightly come off after a lot of wear.

 

[settingsteel]

thx for the 411 science

 

[flying_spanner]

I've decided to flag the idea of cammo after a dive the other day.

I was diving with two mates, one in a 7mm black scuba suit (cos he is a scuba diver so that's what he had), another guy who is a dedicated spearo in a Picasso cammo suit, and me in my Wildblue 5mm Green wetsuit.

While swimming on the surface I noticed that the guy in the black scuba suit had no trouble spearing fish. The fish seemed to swim up to him and take a closer look as he lay on the bottom. As soon as a fish a descent size took a closer look wack!

The other guy I was with (picasso cammo) did get more fish than the both of is not wearing cammo suits but I think this was more due to expereince.

Carl seemed to have all the time as he lay on the bottom where as the other two of us are unfit buggers and took the first shot that presented itself instead of waiting for a better shot to come along.

but I'm not totally sure that cammo is necessary.

I don't mean to dismay anyone who will argue that cammo is necessary and it works. this is only my opinion.

 

[foxfish]

Spanner dont be surprised, who said camo patten works for catching fish?