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Camo netting workshop

2K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  plonker 
#1 ·
I was interested in buying some military style camo netting to cover up my 12x24 workshop. Not really worried about hiding it from someone since I live in the far country and you would see it anyways.

Has anyone done this to a small building/shop before? How did you attach it and how did it hold up? It gets somewhat windy here in Northern Az but not much rain except for a couple months a year. I just like the idea/looks and maybe help keep the interior cooler.
 
#2 ·
Grow honey suckle and trumpet vines, morning glories even eating grape vines, on out side...
seal all exterior openings against plant growth or it will tare the building apart in the future.
Cover with chicken wire top to bottom.....
You can cover with cheep camo will hold you over till then.
It will be covered in good shade, strong wind resistant, will smell good like my dog use to be chicken pin.
Will disappear in the distance horizon.

Get all plants started at each corner and around, fertilize.......less than a year your camo!

When I was a youth 6 grade I was hired by this very old lady to do yard work at times.
Well this one time she wanted me to retrieve some papers in her husbands garage office safe. She hadn't been in sense the very late 30's I believe?
The entire tin roofed garage had been covered in trumpet vines with over 30 years of growth....
Rotten the floor was caving in....safe on one slanting coner....
I tried but floor wobbled with my small weight.
She came up with a plan to get the safe down instead.
Backed her old car out .....
Got me an ax told me to cut every thick rooted vine into....around structure.
She pored a mixture of kersoine salt on all the cuttings vines hanging above ground.

Three days to week the whole structure imploded all the way to the ground.

Contacted me: I had to clear a path to the safe and open it getting out papers dating to 1916 mod. T and drivers permit other papers of more interest...mineral rights to her property.
What I wanted was the short wave setting in the same dry corner....it didn't make it.
That structure was completly invisible even after it fell it was a mess of dying vines....till it was covered again years! later

Might as well get you a SW put up,antenna to track emerency and weather reports Shtf news!><> Dan
 
#3 ·
I worked for a guy that owned a house on the ocean just north of Lighthouse Point (Hillsborough Inlet). He wanted to add on to the north side his house but was told he couldn't because of the proximity to the side property line. He hired some guys to do it anyway. To be as quiet as possible, they used hand saws, screw guns, hand mixed concrete, kept talking to a minimum. He sent me to the local surplus store to buy up all the camo netting they had so he could hide it from the air. I bought the latest and greatest 'radar scattering' camo netting to hide the project under. We strung it up over the surrounding sea grape trees, fastened it to the privacy fence between he and the neighbor and fastened it to the existing roof. The project was completed but I don't know if he ever got caught because I soon moved to MN. I'm sure they would have nailed him with the aerial photos that they tended to take to prevent this type of thing...
 
#5 ·
You said you are not worried about hiding the structure--if you were, I'd suggest breaking up the outline. There are no straight lines in nature, and anything with right angles stands out. You said you are interested in keeping it cool--for that I would consider something that casts a solid shadow and creates an air space between the building and the sun. What initially comes to mind is a surplus parachute--OD, of course, since I gather ambiance is a factor.

Something to be said for the landscaping suggested by previous posters is that conventional military camouflage methods, including nets, etc, don't lend themselves to permanent installation. Eventually they deteriorate from the elements--in your case, probably the sun--and as you mention, are continually blowing down.
 
#6 ·
Foliage would keep it cool, break up patterns, and have little mataining to be worried about in winter or summer.
my dog pin smells of honey suckle, morning glories....not dog poo!
providing a wind breaker, sun stopper yet letting breezes flow through protecting shelter from elements.
Nebors. Honey bees only working flowers.
 
#7 ·
To use military camouflage netting the best thing is using the actual pole and spreaders, if you can't get them they I would look at what you could do to make a pole and spreaders. if you are not going to be too tall, a 2"x4"x8' would work with a light flexible board nailed in a manner to give you three arms, to hold in place. Do this times the amount of Camo you have. a set consist of one diamond and one hex piece. Generally you need two sets to put up anything of size to cover a vehicle. One set won't really cover a Humvee to give you a size relationship. Piecing them together is simple if the clips haven't broken off. There is a cord with a bunch of plastic pins on them. You match the male and female connectors together and slide a clip the through and do that every foot or so till you reach the end. For two sets you would need 4 connectors.

Before you buy, inspect, inspect, inspect. That stuff is either low usage or worn the snot out of it. Open it up and check to make sure you have a Hex, a Diamond, a repair kit, and the connector ropes. a Pole bag, should have a decent amount of poles (poles may be either Aluminum or fiber (I am not going to say carbon fiber, but fiber), Spreaders: Spreaders have three arms, open them up and see if the a) the spreader will loosen up, b) the spreader will tighten to the point where it will hold the spreaders where you want them (should look like a Mercedes three point star). Poles: Poles should not be oval shaped, if they are anything other than perfectly round they won't work. See if they connect to each other. if they don't walk away. Repair kit, may have a few small pieces of camo in them, if you use them match the pattern to the correct side. Many people don't know that Mil issue camo has two sides spring/summer and fall/winter. Often a repair can be spotted by the wrong side of a repair sticking out.

It is not uncommon to see dry rot, mold, rips, tears, missing sections, huge holes, all in the same section of camo, so be selective when looking the stuff over.

Lastly, after staking everything to the ground or tying it off to something else, then open up your doorway along one of the connected seems. Don't wear shirts with buttons when going in or out, never have your muzzle up in and around camo, grabs both you and your shirt, and or rifle every damn time. Lastly exposed fishing lures, forget just don't.

Layout, when laying camo out, we always had it rolled and on top, so we rolled it off the long ends of a vehicle first, then unrolled the sides, when rolling up do the opposite. Poles go in when the sides are unrolled. If using Mil spreaders, you may find it easier to use a one section one spreader and then push out and put the second pole section into the first, then the third even a fourth, depending on how much camo is there. As a rule we always wanted 6-12 inches on the ground, but that was so satellite imagery would have a harder time, for you not so much of an issue.

I hoped that help, and yes I have put it up...a lot more than I care to admit.

Sorry it was kind of out of order at the end.

For a 12 x 24 building I am thinking a minimum of 3 sets, most likely 4 would be ideal.


Here is a link with an image of them being together and how to cover a vehicle.

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/20-3/appc.htm
 
#8 · (Edited)
I can tell you the easiest way to camouflage your shed, paint it woodland camouflage. that's what they did to the guard house and operation hut at the NATO hard site we were tasked to guard, then they put a small white picket fence around the building and planted flowers. when I say "they" I mean the guard force :) .

you can't go anywhere on a military installation and not see some structure painted camouflage.

everybody and their brother in the town of Fürth knew what was kept at a NATO hard site, so did the powers that be on the other side of the Fulda gap so they didn't try to hide it, they painted it camouflaged because............well, that what the Army does :laugh:

you want to camouflage your shed to make it look "kewl", paint will do that nicely :). you just need 3 colors forest green, brown and black. if you want to go "old school woodland" then a 4th color is needed; sand

I went "old school woodland" when I painted my range cart :laugh:

 
#9 ·
The Army has actually dropped black as a camo color, said it really doesn't exist as a woodland color (I don't agree, but look at what they spent on that God Awful camo only to replace with something else a few years later).

When I think about it shade material is what I want to use now a days.
 
#11 ·
Do it the easy way, buy a couple of those time-expired camo cargo parachutes & tie them up into trees & so on to make an airy canopy. They come with shroud lines but cut short. It should be easy to rig something to them. The center has the drogue connection so that should be easy as well.
 
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