You see it in movies all the time, actors who don’t have a clue, trying to put cam paint on their faces, and ending up looking very silly indeed. I will try to explain how to put your cam paint on properly and why it should be done like that.
Firstly you must understand why things are seen, they all begin with S or M, (except one) so remember that and it shouldn’t be that hard. They are:
Shine
Shape
Shadow
Sound
Movement
And Colour
By putting on cam paint, you are trying to stop some of these things being noticed. To a human, one of the most recognisable things that you can possibly see is another human, or a human face. So it is very important that you make your face as unrecognisable as possible, this does not mean that you put one strip of paint under each eyes, nor does it mean that you paint your face so green that you look like a serious case of facial gangrene.
So, the first thing to do is to make sure you have the right type of cam paint. To begin with it has to be
waterproof, otherwise you’d have to re-apply it after every time it rained. Second, you have to make sure you have the right colours. Black is no good at all (unless you are applying Urban cam), as it does not occur naturally in the wild. The two colours you will need for the majority of the time are brown and green.
The
British cam paint comes in a little box with brown, light and dark green, and a nice mirror (helpful when you are trying to put stuff all over your face). The
American cam is in a stick and has a brown and only one green (
NB Roninspoon says: You've neglected the most important and first task in application, at least for americans. The paint stick must be
warmed. It's very hard and has to be rubbed into the plam of your hand or left in the sun for several hours before it can applied. Those that attempt to apply striaght from the stick, often end up with irritating
rug burn and poorly applied paint.-and that's something I didn't know). Once you have your cam paint, here’s what you do.
Firstly you need to eliminate shine. The way you do this is with a thin layer of brown all over you face, neck (don’t forget the back) and ears. Get some of the brown and put it in your palm, in order to make a thinner layer you must then spit on the paint in your palm. After spitting on start to apply it to your face, not too thickly, it should be a nice even layer of light brown. Don’t forget to do your eyelids, and rub some into your eyebrows and the beginning of your hairline as well. When done properly this completely eliminates the natural shine produced by your face.
Now to get rid of the shape of your face. The most distinguishable features on your face are your mouth, your eyes and your nose. You want to break these shapes up, so do not put circles around your eyes, a line down your nose, and a line along your mouth, not only will you be more obvious you will also look like a sick panda. Draw lines with your fingers in the different greens and a few in brown. They need to cut down the eyes vertically or diagonally, across the nose horizontally or diagonally and down the mouth vertically or horizontally, this is so the shape of your face is broken up.
Do one or two lines on each of your ears, and a couple going down and across your neck. Do three or four on each cheek going downwards. Make all of the stripes small, you don’t want massive tiger stripes going right down your face, though it looks quite cool, it can make you quite obvious. (Hamsterman says you only use stripes in coniferous forests. In deciduous forests, a series of blobs is used to the same effect.- But I think stripes look cooler).
The only time you can do anything about shadow is by adjusting the amount or the darkness of cam on your face according to how much shadow is around.
Sound and Movement don’t really apply here, and colour is pretty obvious (lots of green and brown).
Follow those steps and you’ll start looking like a proper soldier who knows what they’re doing, not like a muppet.
NotFabio told me this- The newer US Navy stuff comes in a small plastic tin, much like its British counterpart. Also, I'd like to emphasize that it doesn't come with a mirror, which means you need a partner to do a really proper job. Of course, let us not forget the marital benefits of applying makeup to one another before an insertion. Chicks dig putting makeup on their partners, right?