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D.I.Y Camo

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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scottwilson

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Aug 3, 2006
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Ok heres a thought thats been rolling around in my head for a while.


Last seasons wetsuit has now been replaced and so sits in the shed collecting dust.

Its a spetton fishman in black.

Is it not possible to bleach out a pattern and then Dye in a green ( or what ever) colour making the wetsuit "camo" or maybe even paint on a pattern

The problem I see is the bleach I use to remove the black might remove any other colour I try and put over it or make the Nylon covering the neoprene weak and tear.

As ts an old suit I dont mind experimenting and who knows It might even turn out quite good.
 
I tried various paints on my fin blades and the best by far, so far, have been oil based exterior paints. Take ages to dry though. I wonder if oil-based artist's paints might work well too. Neoprene is supposed to be quite oil resistant/tolerant, it is used to make protective shoes soles and oil-resisting washers for that reason.

A former architect told me lead-based paints were much better than modern paints. Obviously oil & lead based paints aren't the greenest option.
 
not yet mate I cant decide on a pattern.
Any thoughts?

I was thinking about wavey streeks of green in different shades, sort of like the elios pattern
 
why dont you try doing one sleeve first to see what paint works the best and then do the entire suit after a few dives
 
Aloha Scott,

I was thinking about the same thing.







Sample: A 4 year-old, 2mm RipCurl Elastomax (nylon outer lining).

Colors used:
Leaf Green 8 oz. US$2.22 (Apple Barrel ® Colors - Leaf Green, 8 oz. by Plaid)
Brilliant Ultramarine Blue US$1.35 (FolkArt ® Artists Pigments™ - Brilliant Ultramarine, 2 oz. by Plaid)

Procedure: No pre-bleaching was performed. 90% leaf green + 10% brilliant ultramarine blue was mixed then applied, by hand, to the nylon outer lining, and the smoothskin (imagine a kindergarten-level session of finger painting). Suit left to dry for 24 hours in a shady part of my place. Procedure repeated for each side.

Test: Spent a few hours in the water with it today. Shore dive. Sunny day, 12m vis, water temp 23.3ºC.

Results: The suit was initially a little stiff to put on. Upon immersion, it returned to the feel it had before the paint job: soft, elastic, stretchy. However, colors on the smoothskin rubbed off. Stretching at the thighs, chest, and shoulders produced narrow 'cracks' (less than 0.5mm) in the paint. Rubbing these areas did not remove paint from the outer lining (not even faintly). The narrow cracking did not occur in all places of the suit. In all other places I observed, the paint stretched.

Overall: Recommended.

It was fun, fast, inexpensive, and easy. Before the mods, it was a great suit. Now, I love it even more - and plan to use it this summer (instead of my 3mm Yazbeck Thermoflex) on the hotter days.

Caveats: I can't recommend a surfing wetsuit (used in this post) for freediving chilly-er parts of the world. ie. Mainland Pacific, Baltic, or the Mediterranean. brrr.
 
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Reactions: scottwilson
Impressive result pelcami. I found artist's acrylics didn't last that long on my fins, perhaps the rougher surface of a wetsuit suits them better.
 
Pelcami thats an awesome job you've done there mate, I like the pattern so might have to steal it

Ive decided on Brown and dark green to match my local ( and most visited) dive spot ,just need to pester the girlfriend to raid the Schools Art supplies roflroflrofl
 
scottwilson said:
not yet mate I cant decide on a pattern.
Any thoughts?

I was thinking about wavey streeks of green in different shades, sort of like the elios pattern
Click to expand...

I'd make a simple stencil and go for the Elios Camo look - I'd do it in Kelpy browns and green but it depends on where you fish.

Do a coat in light brown, cover say 30% of the suit, leave to dry, do another 30% in a dark brown leave to dry, do another 30% in dark green - leave 10% black.

Sounds good to me!

Maybe ending up something like:

 
Heres my first test with acrylic paint.......... the patteren is shocking but as its covered by the top half of the suit I didnt really spend too much time on it:hmm






Im kind of aiming for a patteren similair to the guy on the left of this picture ( Spearo Dave?)

 
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Try using 50/50 glue (Bostik 2402 or similiar) and thinners with artists pigment added
It needs to be fairly thin so it brushes (or sponges) on easily, then being a rubber based glue it remains flexible once dry. This is what Elios use for their brushed on smoothskin camo shown in the photo
Do each colour as a separate layer, allowing them to dry in between. It will take a bit of experimentation to get the colours you want, as painting them onto black darkens them a lot. Make sure the glue is completely dry before you fold the suit up, as otherwise it will stick to itself

cheers
dave
Spearguns by Spearo uk ltd finest supplier of speargun, monofins, speargun and freediving equipment
 
Reactions: Mr. X
Broseidon said:
Lol - not quite what I expected - looks like you let toddlers with crayons loose on it! roflroflroflrofl
Click to expand...


roflroflrofl its crap I know. Im going to have a go at some camo patterns over the weekend to hopfully comeup with a usable pattern.:head

Spearo Dave that is great info there mate, in a couple weeks I should have a finished suit to post a pic of
 
ive been thinking about painting my bodyglove freedive 5MM suit...

Image for Body Glove 5mm EX3 Free-Dive Super-Stretch Jumpsuit Mens Small

as you can see it already has a camo look to it but once it gets wet its more or less all grey... i feel like i look way too similar to the grey harbor seals that follow me around.

so i was thinking of putting some sort of darker design on it to break it up. any ideas?

also i dont see a clear solution as to what paint works best yet. id like to spray the design on with an aerosol can. it seems that acrylic aerosol paint should work from what info ive gathered from everyone?
 
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