Ugly Gun Sunday
When I saw the first sand colored HK pistol, I had one thought..... Damn that plastic looks cheap. Of course many if not all of those Desert HK pistols never went to the sandbox. 
The recent trend to camouflage a firearm that will ride in a holster is nothing short of tacticool fashion however.
The digital overlay that even includes the designer's brand on top of a gun is just a little too much for me. Chances are it is carried by the guy who goes to the range in full camo with a boonie hat. Not that there is anything wrong with boonie hats, but if you hung out at the comic book section in the supermarket before the range opened, your camo wasn't necessary. If you want your pistol to look like a snake eater's gear, there is one answer....... Spray paint it. Then use it. A lot.
On another note, can anyone tell me why we have the latest trend towards pixelated camouflage? I'm thinking that spy satellites have digital cameras, or something like that. Wearing it duck hunting doesn't make sense.
The recent trend to camouflage a firearm that will ride in a holster is nothing short of tacticool fashion however. The digital overlay that even includes the designer's brand on top of a gun is just a little too much for me. Chances are it is carried by the guy who goes to the range in full camo with a boonie hat. Not that there is anything wrong with boonie hats, but if you hung out at the comic book section in the supermarket before the range opened, your camo wasn't necessary. If you want your pistol to look like a snake eater's gear, there is one answer....... Spray paint it. Then use it. A lot.
On another note, can anyone tell me why we have the latest trend towards pixelated camouflage? I'm thinking that spy satellites have digital cameras, or something like that. Wearing it duck hunting doesn't make sense.
Labels: Ugly Guns
posted by Xavier at 6:55 AM
14 Comments:
The Marines pioneered digital camouflage early in the decade. It is in use simply because it works. The random pixelation breaks up an outline much more effectively than the old tri-color patterns in more varieties of environments.
Does it work better for a duck hunter who can get camouflage that is specific to his area? Probably not, but for a force that has to try and blend in in areas around the world, it is a good base to start from.
On the other hand, you have the Army who decided they needed digital camo as well...then colored it blue...supposedly to blend into ALL backgrounds with one color. Guess the military wins some and brain farts some.
The digital design supposedly disappears when viewed with night vision equipment, 3rd gen plus...
Military camouflage is designed to break up the shape human form against a backdrop when looked at by other humans, and the digital works well for that. A duck's vision doesn't work like a man's. It was never tested (to my knowledge) to be less visible to non-human animals.
Regardless, painting it on your gun is just a fashion statement. You call it an "Ugly Gun", but I can't imagine there's much even a bad paint job could do to make Glock more ugly.
You think the camouflage is unnecessary? How about engraving flames on a glock's trigger? I can't believe some of the stuff I've seen on here.
http://www.rockyourglock.com/
Actually, I do believe the Spetznaz had pixelated camo WAY before the Marines did.
The Army pixelated camo is NOT blue. You're thinking of the Air Force, bub.
The digital camo was originally designed around the idea of a fractal - a pattern that looks similar no matter how large or how small it is. For instance, the crystal structure of silicon dioxide. Under a microscope, a grain of sand looks just like a giant mountain.
Standard camo looks like large splotches up close, and a single color from far away. Neither is good. A fractal, however, would look "confusing" to the eye when up close, and when farther away the patterns would converge not into a single blurred color, but a larger-scale pattern that is also "confusing" to the eye.
How well the fractals were implemented is the question.
Evan, you have given me a whole new source!
JAFO,
You are right that the Russians used Berezka patterns since the 1980s. I should have said revolutionized instead of pioneered.
As for the Army ACU, yes I know that the colors are slate gray, desert sand and foliage green, but I see them every day and they look like they have a blueish tint, regardless of what the official name of the color is. I am also not alone in that as I have heard that same color used by quite a few people when describing ACU.
I agree the gun has one ugly camo pattern, but it's just a continuation of a marketing gimmick that seems to work quite well. Everything is camo, whether it need to be or not. Another gimmick that has a lot of traction is the word "tactical." Combine the two and you'll have the perfect storm of marketing B.S.
I hate marketing people, I really do.
Look, don't get me started.
Mike
You hear all kinds of reasons for the "digital" camo look, but I suspect its popular for two reason. First, ease of design and manufacture. Second, once it gets adopted one a large scale people think its cool.
"Evan, you have given me a whole new source!"
Glad I could help. :) Actually, there are one or two designs on there that I like. I wouldn't mind having "Si vis pacem, para bellum" written on one part of my Glock's barrel. What do you call the large, blocky part of the glock barrel that's exposed when the slide is closed?
It's a Glock, so I don't really see how doing anything makes it any more ugly. Different ugly, yes, but *more* ugly? They aren't known for their asthetics by any means.
MARPAT/ACUPAT is just for fun for us non-soldiers. What's wrong with that?
Now that the kids are gone and I have extra rooms, I've actually been looking for ACUPAT wallpaper for one wall of a little "gun room" I'm kinda planning.
Nothin' but a good time. To each his own, eh?
-T.
Can't speak for ducks but there is sound research suggesting fractal works with deer better than woodland works with deer. To the extent that I recall anything close to correct deer, unlike birds, are partially but not completely color blind - having cones sensitive to some colors but not to others so that the color emphasis is wasted but the fractal effect works.
Post a Comment
<< Home