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DESIGNED FOR THE LAW ENFORCEMENT WORLD, MULTICAM BLACK IS A MODIFIED VERSION OF THE EVER POPULAR MULTICAM CAMOUFLAGE

PATTERN AND THE NEWEST ADDITION TO CRYE PRECISION RANGE.Crye Precision informs us that MultiCam Black meets the particular demands of law

enforcement officers, providing them with efficient urban concealment during combat operations and professional appearances afterwards. The pattern is composed of large

black and dark green blotches, and smaller brown splotches spread throughout the dark grey background. With such a palette of colours, MultiCam Black compliments the

existing equipment utilised by special operations units and civilian law enforcement agencies across the world. Right now also Airsoft and paintball enthusiasts may enjoy

the qualities of the MultiCam Black camouflage featured in a wide range of tactical clothing, which includes, plate carriers, chest rigs and backpacks.

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G E A R U P W I T H U S A S W E T A K E T O T H E S K I R M I S H F I E L D - P A I N T E D B L A C KM U L T I C A M B L A C K

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■ ARIDArid is intended to blend better in rocky, dry areas with little green vegetation. As such much of the green toning has been replaced with sand and tan colours.

■ TROPICTropic is intended to blend better in verdant, green areas. The level of tan or brown colours has been greatly reduced and the overall balance is heavily towards the green end of the colour spectrum.

■ ALPINEAlpine is obviously intended to work in snowy, icy conditions. This pattern is predominantly white with a small amount of light grey tones sparsely intermingled.

■ BLACKBlack is intended to work in low light situations and to compliment uniformed officers. The basic colouration is black with some tan/green accents.

TUNDRAMULTICAM

DESERTMULTICAM

TEMPERATEMULTICAM

WOODLANDMULTICAM

JUNGLEMULTICAM

EFFE

CTI

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ESS

BEST

BETTER

GOOD

MULTICAMAs if it needs any sort of explanitory introduction, MultiCam is a pattern well known the world over, but just in case you didn't knopw; MultiCam is the result of extensive development and testing by both Crye and the Army. Designed to work in multiple environments (hence the name) – which include desert, woodland and urban. Although coming out as the top contender in the Army tests, the Army decided to go with the now obsolete ACU pattern, an ever-contentious choice.

MultiCam is comprised of six colours – a dark chocolate brown, flat earth brown, Khaki, a medium green, desert pink and a light grey. What makes MultiCam difficult to both describe and see is that some of these colours fade into each other in certain places. Another brilliant feature of MultiCam is that it does not consist of a uniformly tight pattern that is reproduced repetitively, with the medium shades of a colour alternating in a larger pattern, with areas changing colour throughout the pattern, for example one area may be full of grey and brown blotches but be completely absent in others. This combination of sections of tight pattern and larger colour changes enables MultiCam to work both close up and from a distance.

JUST FOR LOOKS THEN?We get that Crye Precision want to spread their MultiCam wings and launch many different takes on the ever popular original pattern but some make more sense than others. Multicam Black is one of those camouflage patterns that makes little to no sense at all, other than looking "Cool."

Wearing black as camouflage to stay hidden is actually a terrible idea. You may think that in the still of night that black is the ideal concealment, but you would be wrong as solid black is an unnatural colour and will stand out - even in the darkest of surroundings.

However you may be thinking at this point that Special Forces types are well documented to wearing dark clothing and you would be right, but the key word here is 'Dark.'

Black will actually show up more than say a dark green, blue or even grey, which is even more amplified in the darkness.

There are two parts to a good camouflage system: the first is to try and match the colour palette of your surroundings and the second is to try and disrupt your silhouette. The trick to disrupting your silhouette is to fool who may be looking for you. Although the observer may see you, they may not reconise your outline shape as another Human.

Black camouflage is exceptionally bad at this because of the shadow a black piece of clothing casts upon itself. For example, you have a man-shaped black shadow, but by adding some disruption and irregular spots of a different colour the entire shape slips into the background. Solid black it is not an effective form of camouflage for the battlefield, hence why Black Camo has never really been adopted by any military forces.

CRYE PRECISION HAVE BEEN SMART WITH THEIR TAKE ON WHAT ESSENTIALLY IS A BLACK CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN AND MOVED IT AWAY FROM THE MILITARY WORLD PLACING IT FIRMLY AT THE FEET OF THE US TACTICAL LAW ENFORCEMENT WORLD, WHERE CAMOUFLAGE ISN'T REALLY REQUIRED, BUT IS STILL USED WITHIN UNITS SUCH AS SWAT AND HRT. In a way Multicam Black has somewhat demilitarised what are essentially police officers and for the first time ever given their tactical teams their very own camouflage, but for ‘psychological’ reasons more than anything else, Because let's face it, guys dressed in black are terrifyingly scary and above all, in our world, look very cool.

TO SWAT OR NOT?The United States National Tactical Officers Association definition of SWAT is:

"SWAT: A designated law enforcement team whose members are recruited, selected, trained, equipped and assigned to resolve critical incidents involving a threat to public safety which would otherwise exceed the capabilities of traditional law enforcement first responders and/or investigative units."

SWAT or Special Weapons and Tactics teams were first seen on the streets of America in the 1960s to handle riot control. Since then the number of SWAT deployments steadily increased in the 1980s and 1990s during the War on Drugs and later in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to a staggering 50,000 times a year. Of these almost 80% of these were in the execution of high threat narcotic search warrants. Today SWAT team across the US are increasingly equipped with military-type

hardware and trained to deploy against threats of terrorism, for crowd control and hostage situations or for that matter any "high-risk" deployments.

The Philadelphia Police Department was the first PD to roll out a SWAT team in 1964, which was a direct response to an alarming increase in bank robberies. Known then as "Special Weapons Attack Team" the sole purpose of this unit was to react quickly and decisively to bank robberies while they were in progress, by utilising a large number of specially trained officers who had at their disposal a significant amount of firepower.

It wasn't until a few years later with the creation of LAPD's SWAT teams that the name was changed to Special Weapons and Tactics. After the LAPD's establishment of its own SWAT team, many law enforcement agencies across the United States established their own specialised units under various names.

While the public image of SWAT first became known through the LAPD, perhaps because of its proximity to the mass media and the size and professionalism of the Department itself, the first actual SWAT-type operations were conducted north of Los Angeles in the farming community of Delano, California. The Delano Police Department responded by forming ad-hoc SWAT-type units involving crowd and riot control, sniper skills and surveillance. Television news stations and print media carried live and delayed reports of these events across the United States. Personnel from the LAPD, having seen these broadcasts, contacted Delano and inquired about the program. One officer then obtained permission to observe the Delano Police Department's special weapons and tactics units in action, and afterwards, he took what he had learned back to Los Angeles, where his knowledge was used and expanded on to form the LAPD's own first SWAT unit.

MULTICAM PATTERNSAs we mentioned earlier, Crye’s family of patterns use the tried and tested geometry of MultiCam (that’s the shapes and gradients used to make up the pattern), and recolour them appropriately to the environments they are tailored towards. These patterns are specifically Arid, Tropic, Alpine and on topic here, Black. These patterns are not only effective in their specific environments but also undoubtedly very cool looking!

G E A R U P W I T H U S A S W E T A K E T O T H E S K I R M I S H F I E L D - P A I N T E D B L A C KB A C K I N B L A C K

MULTICAM MUTICAM TROPIC MULTICAM ARID MULTICAM ALPINE

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£85.28 EMERSON GEARADVANCED COMBAT UNIFORM

We have already seen Emerson Gear in full effect in the previous issue and can testify to the quality of their gear both in the studio and more importantly out on the skirmish field. Having been sent several Camouflage patterns and solid colours we soon realised the benefit to having many sets of clothing for the skirmish field, which is very achievable for everyone at the affordable price points that this manufacturer is able to offer us.

There is not much we can add to this review that we have not published in the past other than to say this Gen 3 Advanced Combat Uniform is manufactured in a cotton polyester mix and features ripstop material and coated with Teflon which protects against water and moisture increasing water resistance of the garment.

The Combat shirt is fashioned in that ever popular Gen 3 style of clothing that inhabits so many Safe Zones across the country and is explicitly designed to be worn under your tactical gear/plate carrier and made of a light and breathable textile. The shirt has moisture and heat wicking properties keeping you much dryer and cooler than conventional BDU's.

The pants have a lot of pockets, which quite frankly is an understatement, but never the less a good description. As you would expect from any Gen 3 clothing, the pants have multiple adjustment points, in all of the usual places including waist, calf and ankle, plus spandex flex areas to the back of the waist and around the knees.

The one thing you have to be careful of when ordering from Asian clothing manufacturers is the sizing. A good rule of thumb to follow is to simply upsize.

COMBAT SHIRT■ Torso blend of 20% polyester and 80% cotton with a Teflon coating. ■ The sleeves and collar polycotton ripstop blend fabric (35% polyester, 65% cotton)■ YKK zipper.

Small: 32-36"Medium: 34-38"Large: 36-40"XL: 38-42"XXL: 40-44"

COMBAT PANTS ■ Mixed Cotton/blended fabric with Teflon ■ Made from Ripstop Material■ YKK Zipper■ Includes removable knee pads (protectors)■ Height of knee pads are adjustable■ 8x pockets with Velcro, 2x hand pockets■ Padded waistband

Small: 29-31”Medium: 32-35”Large: 36-39”XL: 40-43”

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£33.00 EMERSON GEARFAST HELMET

Emerson Gear produce several styles of helmet, that come in several different thicknesses and weights. This is the Fast PJ version, which at £33.00 and a weight of 585g is the most expensive in the range, but to be fair, there are only very slight differences across the range. For instance the Fast MH version is an enclosed version, which is slightly heavier and cheaper, but virtually the same helmet, which can also be said about the third helmet in the range - the oddly named BJ Helmet, which is the lightest and most affordable of the range and is seen as their entry level helmet.

The most important feature of any helmet is not how it looks or what accessories it comes with but the comfort and protection it offers you. There are two different sizes of internal pads with the PJ version, which attach to the inside of the helmet in a predetermined position, that allow you to somewhat customise the fit, and it can be tightened or loosened with the OCC dial and chin strap. It really is a delicate balancing act to get this helmet to feel comfortable, we found ourselves removing some of the internal pads for the best fit results, but that also diminished the helmets ability to do its job. It's not the perfect situation, but this does depend on the size and shape of your head. The one thing to remember with all replica helmets is that they have no certification for any form of impact protection, but having some kind of head protection is better than having none at all, even if its simply to protect from BB strikes.

Both the PJ and BJ versions of the helmet have ventilation slots for breathability. However, the solid NH version will offer you better protection from the elements and keep your head dry.

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BASICS IN BLACKYou can’t build a load out without a uniform and we are very pleased with our choice from the vast selection available at www.taiwangun.com. The Emerson Combat Uniform set, clearly based on the Crye Precision Gen.3 style of uniform design really is great value for money. It's worth noting that you can choose from a number of patterns and block colours in this cut and design, but obviously our choice was MultiCam Black.

AT £85, THIS UNIFORM IS AN AMAZINGLY AFFORDABLE PRICE AND THE QUALITY OF SUCH “CLONE” ITEMS HAS REALLY BEEN ELEVATED SINCE WE LAST CHECKED THEM OUT, EVEN TO THE DEGREE OF USING TEFLON COATED MATERIALS TO PROVIDE WEATHER AND STAIN RESISTANCE SO YOUR KIT WILL STAY LOOKING SHARP EVEN AFTER HARD USE. The main materials used are of good quality with neat, solid stitching and very few of those tell-tale loose threads. Even the stretch panels are thick and robust feeling and the velcro tabs are hardwearing and will last. This is mirrored on both the pants and the combat shirt, both of which come supplied with colour co-ordinated pads, knee and elbow respectively.

G E A R U P W I T H U S A S W E T A K E T O T H E S K I R M I S H F I E L D - P A I N T E D B L A C KB A C K I N B L A C K

DESIGNED FOR LOW-LIGHT OR UNIFORM

USE, THE PATTERN IS STRIKING TO SAY THE LEAST. IT'S INTENDED

TO WORK IN LOW LIGHT SITUATIONS

AND TO COMPLIMENT UNIFORMED OFFICERS.

THE BASIC COLOURATION IS BLACK WITH SOME

TAN/GREEN ACCENTS.

£14.73 8FIELDS BUCKLE UP CHEST RIG

The 8Fields "Buckle up Chest rig" features a three mag pouch design, with a selection of utility pouches. This chest rig has a surprising amount of uses for such a low profile piece of kit, it's clear to see where the inspiration came from in its build and similarity to a very well known and expensive 'real-world' brand. Produced in 1000 D Polyester this rig will withstand the punishment of a skirmish field and bounce back asking for "More." Adjustable padded shoulder straps and an adjustable H-back harness allows this highly-adaptable rig to fit any sized frame and is compatible with all Buckle Up platforms in the 8Fields range.

£29.01 8FIELDS BUCKLE UP PLATE CARRIER

A low profile plate carrier that comes supplied with mock ballistic plate inserts! Awesome, now all you really need is a great price to entice you and that's what 8Fields deliver with their take on this popular design.

The interior of the plate pocket is manufactured from a breathable material which helps with wicking heat and moisture from your body.

The main panel can also be used as a single MOLLE platform, or swapped out to host several interchangeable "Buckle up" compatible chest rigs by 8fields.

£28.03 8FIELDS JUMPABLE PLATE CARRIER

The Jumpable Plate carrier is another example of a very affordable bit of kit that will finish any project your working on and not reflect the price you have paid, which is quite frankly ridiculously cheap.

Fitted with mock ballistic plates that provide rigidity and support that this plate carrier needs for protection from bb strikes.

The internal magazine pouches are secured by elastic bungees, keeping them where you need them to be. Covered with MOLLE, you can attach several external mission critical pouches and back panels.

The cummerbund elasticated sides make this rig very easy to fit and pull tight by yourself, and thanks to the low profile nature of the platform your arms have much more freedom of movement than some other rigs. The shoulders are fully adjustable, meaning you will be able to get the rig to sit comfortably regardless of your shape or size. The shoulders also have velcro retention loops that would be ideal for routing wires, hoses, or hydration lines. At the top front of the rig, there are several velcro fronted MOLLE loops that will allow you to attach patches or name slides etc. or attach more pouches if you need them.

£30.71 EMERSON GEARMODULAR TACTICAL BELT

Wearing the MTB as it was intended to be worn (running the inner belt through the loops of your trousers) gives the platform great stability over your hips. You can, if you chose to, wear the MTB as a standard battle belt, which gives you the option of wearing the belt over multiple layers. The MOLLE rows help spread the weight, and you get the feeling of a much bigger belt than what is essentially a high-speed low-drag platform.

The MTB is in our opinion more comfortable than many padded belts we have tried and a much needed upgrade to a standard riggers belt. It sits proudly in-between both, but it's not a minimalist belt by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there's more than enough MOLLE to overload yourself.

The one thing to consider above all is the type of holster that you are running, more importantly how you are going to fix it to the belt. MOLLE attachments work, but you may struggle with duty belt loops.

There are so many different options on how to dress your belt order, we could fill an entire magazine with suggestions! We'll leave this part blank and let you choose your ultimate set up, just remember it's got to be functional, with no clutter and easy to use.

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8FIELDSAs quality improves and prices stabilise, brands that were very much left of centre are becoming very much in demand in our cost-conscious community. One brand which we have watched develop over the years is 8Fields. Pretty much a mass market entry level manufacture, who have "upped their game" to become a firm favourite here at AI HQ, but have retained their entry-level price point.

There was a time in high street fashion where you simply didn't do "double denim", but according to the more style conscious here at AIHQ its now perfectible acceptable, which can also be said about camo choices you'll find on the skirmish field.

The first example of "Doubling up" is this great selection of kit from 8fields.

G E A R U P W I T H U S A S W E T A K E T O T H E S K I R M I S H F I E L D - P A I N T E D B L A C KB A C K I N B L A C K

GET YOUR MULTICAM BLACK KIT FROM

THE KITTaiwangun.com is a one-stop-shop for all things airsoft and you can buy absolutely everything you need for your load out in one go. We picked up this entire load out in one fell swoop! Since they are based in Krakow, shipping to the UK is reasonable in both cost and timing and there’s no additional import tax applied. Orders have reached us within a week of placing them and the email update system keeps you abreast of the status of your shipment. You even get a tracking number as standard. We highly recommend that you take a look at their range of tactical kit on offer.

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MULTICAM BLACK USES THE SAME SHAPES AND PATTERN AS IT’S PREDECESSOR, BUT REPLACES THE COLOURS WITH A MUCH DARKER PALETTE. THE GREENS THAT SHOW THROUGH GIVE IT AN ALMOST OILY LOOK.SIMPLE, SLEEK, EFFECTIVE AND A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT. MULTICAM BLACK STANDS OUT BUT SHOULD STILL LET YOU MELT INTO THE SHADOWS