Combat Couture
"Splinter Night" by Mil-Tec
I have always been a fan of "different" camouflage patterns, working in the fashion industry I see a lot of people wearing either faded old surplus US M81, or Soldier95 DPM shirts with studs and badges applied. And the crime of all crimes, none issue or "made up" camouflage patterns, often in garish or definitely repeated patterns. When I wear camouflage in my day to day life I like to make sure it's an interesting and issued pattern. In this case however, I made an exception.
I was always a fan of the old German Splinter pattern, or "Splittertarn" which was an early attempt by the German forces to adopt a camouflage pattern. It was originally issued only on poncho's but by 1931 saw more common usage throughout the Wehrmacht.
Splittertarn is a series of zig zagged, angled polygonal shapes in greens and browns overlaid onto a subdued green/beige base. With "Rain drops" covering a lot of the surface area. It is a very iconic pattern and is responsible for the inspiration for a number of contemporary camouflage patterns including the Bulgarian Splittertarnmuster
And the venerable Swedish M90 and M90K patterns.
Without digressing too much on the history and legacy of the pattern let's move on to the meat of this post. Many years ago whilst browsing Flecktarn.co.uk for inspiration for a new loadout I spotted the Mil-Tec Splinter pattern BDU set.
The pattern looked amazing and I had never seen anyone else wearing it. (After all, airsoft is a fashion show, and there's nothing worse than turning up to the party and seeing someone in the same dress! right?) So I bought a set and wore it for a little while. Unfortunately I can't find any images of me wearing that BDU set. After a while I decided that the Medium size was way too big and sold it on.
Fast forward to last week. Whilst looking for Tropentarn and Arid-Fleck on Amazon I ended up browsing page after page of Mil-Tec BDU's. About 14 pages in I spotted fried gold.
A pair of BDU's in what Mil-Tec call "Splinter Night" from what I can gather is a none issue variant of Splittertarn. But hits all the right buttons. It's the "Multicam Black" of the "I'm not wearing what all the cool kids are wearing, but I kind of like that MCB stuff" which suits me to a tee.
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| worn here with Viper Tactical zipped hoodie in Titanium, Viper Tactical sneaker boots in Coyote and a PDW S23 tee
Here's the low down on the cut, fit and fabric. I bought them in size small, which is 27-32 inch waist and probably somewhere around 34 inch leg length. I normally wear a 28-30 waist and 32 leg at the most. So I knew I'd have to taper these in to make them fit. Which isn't an issue, every pair of Pentagon BDU 2.0 (aside from the first pair of Pentacamo I bought which where an amazing fit) and my three pairs of Viper Contractors pants and my MFH Vegetato Arid ACU's have all been tapered in on the legs, sometimes crotch and waist. These needed a lot of work. I altered them three times to get the right fit, eventually taking about 3 inches off the width of the leg giving them a much cleaner and more "skinny" looking fit.
I also modified the right cargo pocket to allow an Iphone cable to pass through the top of the flap to charge my phone. The fabric is very heavy duty, but not rip stop. Which I believe is standard for Mil-Tec BDU's.
  
Detail of the flap with "phone charge" port
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With these alterations the BDU's are a fantastic fit and look stylish and as they say "Operator AF" Definitely a pattern I'll be sporting in CQB and on the high street. The only downside is Mil-Tec don't make a shirt or UBACS in Splinter pattern. The closest they offer is either a waterproof anorak, a zip up hoodie or a tee. None of which are really the best option for wearing under a plate carrier. So I think eventually I'll have to pick up a second pair and put together a UBAC shirt... #challengeaccepted
For now, I'm pretty happy with these and I'll be running them at a game in the near future!
Click here for the Amazon link to buy yourself a pair!
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