Yowie suits

[XSHERRIFF]

Yes I do remember that Mr Kerr. But it would have been easy to se me if I were walking along. So the idea of the yowie is not a tool for offence or defence but for surveillance.

Here are the definitions of Reconnaissance & Surveillance

Surveillance.
Surveillance is the systematic observation of
aerospace, surface or sub-surface areas, places, persons or
things, by visual, aural, electronic, photographic or other
means.

Reconnaissance.
Reconnaissance is any task undertaken
to obtain, by visual or other detection methods, information
about the activities and resources of an enemy or potential
enemy; or to secure data concerning the meteorological,
hydrographic or geographic characteristics of a particular
area.

[CWOFF D.C Parry]

Well done CSGT Parry it looks good and its good to see a cadet out there who actually puts in effort. now you just have to get a biv structured towards recon and surveillance and you would have no problem in blending. When I use mine I can be about 5 meters away from my objective and be concealed.

again top notch.

Thanks LAC it was good fun to make, gave me something to do with my holidays. I cant wait for a chance to use it, our next biv unfortunately is before exams though and my parents wont let me go, so i have to wait till probably August.

Once again Thanks LAC

[Yowie]

Hmm yowie suits...

I have currently 3 yowie suits, 2 made from shredded cams and one made from cam net and hessian type material. Im thinking about making a burlap yowie suits, just for the hell of it. Something to do I guess.

I've found that the one piece yowie suits (the LAC's design) aren't the way to go. Think about it. If you want access to your webbing where (if your in the ADF) you keep your amuniton, you cant get to it coz you have this giant zip in the middle. But I guess each to there own. Whats right for some, isn't always right for all.

My first yowie suit I made straight after recruit course back in 03. I went overseas to Europe and bought some cam net 7m x 7m for about $30 (cheap ay? got some other things over there cheap like NVG and high power binos) I got myself and old shirt and then sewed the cam net over the shirt. I then cut up strips over auscam and american woodlands. To cover the head, I used a hat with cam net over it hanging further down at the neck. This was my first yowie and is, well, kinda dodgy to say the least.

My second, was thrown together for a mate to use on a biv. Basically, it was a hat, shirt and pair of pants. To this I sewed strips of auscam material and old school greens (think about it, what colour are gum tree leaves? green! not auscam) Not many strips of greens just a few here and there. It was effective but not quite there yet.

Now, on to my pride and joy. My MkIII.

This is a hat/shirt/pants style yowie suit. First off, with the shirt, I cut off the front pockets and the collar (hemmed back so that it wont fray). I then cut off the side pockets of the cam pants and sewwed them onto the bottom front of the shirt to use a drag pads (drag pads are whats on the front of yowie suits so that when you crawl/drag along the ground, it doesn't tear through the shirt) I then got 3 fastex clips and some webbing along the front of the yowie suit so that I can fasten it onto my body, while wearing webbing underneath my yowie suit (chest rig or H harness webbing fits under it no problem). After this is done, I then cut off the back bum pockets on auscam pants and sewwed them to the ends of the sleaves to cover the hands. To lock them into place when your wearing the yowie suit, i sewwed webbing to the bottom of the hand covers so that when wearing, they run along the palm of your hand. After all this tinkering was down to the shirt, I then sewed (in random places) bits of auscam scrim. This is done so that you can tie hessian onto them (also you can wedge natural foliage into it but you can just tie it on with the auscam strips). After the scrim is sewn on, you then sew on torn piece of auscam and greens material. I have found that the way that you tear and ultimately sew on the material determines how the over look of the yowie suit will be. If you cut the strips, it doesn't fray and looks too neat. simply cut into a little bit of material and tear it the rest of the way. Then, when you sew it, if you sew it from the top of the strip it hangs straight down and only shows one side of the auscam strip (if you notice with auscam, it has two sides, one side is the out, more defined side of auscam, the other, a more dull colour, utilise both). To combat this problem, sew the strip in the middle. either horizontally of vertically. Mix it up a bit.

Now, when you get to the shoulders and the hand covers, I used very small strips, about 5cm-10cm long strips, again, sewn in the middle, very close together, so that they flare up and look like a bush. Make sure that you sew you strips close together otherwise, all the strips will just hang down.

The pants have no side pockets on them and have drag pads on the thighs and knees. At the leg of the pants, I used the elastic from auscam pants, so that when you wear the pants, the elastic straps catch on the shank of your boot and wont ride up. Also, along the waist line, I used a large fastex belt buckle with webbing so that you don't have to use the zipper and the button. The material was sewn on much the same as the shirt.

The hat. I used a short brim hat, with auscam material sewn on the back to drape down my neck much like a legionnaire hat. I then sewed on some material onto the front, connecting to the legionnaire flap so that in covered my whole face, much like a balaclava. I then sewed scrim net over the gap between the material and the brim of the hat, so that it covered my eyes, but I could still see through it. I then did the same thing to the hat as I did to shirt and pants (covered with patches of scrim, sewn on auscam and greens material).

All in all, it is a quite effective design, giving me the freedom to only use the shirt or pants or hat if I wish to do so. Also it is very good because I can wear my webbing underneath it.

I've used it on a few bivs and it was unbileveably effective. In one instance, I managed to dig a small indent into the ground where I knew the cadets were going to walk through. The section walked right over me in a open file formation and I simply popped up in the middle of the formation and grabbed there seco and ran off!

Yowie suits are such fun!

Cheers

[CWOFF B.J Southwell]

dont even think about making 1, there a complete waste of time and energy

[Yowie]

what do you mean? Don't bother making a burlap yowie?

Hmm... Nahh I think I will! Nothing better to do at the moment!

[Jimboturbo]

I enjoy going out in the field and just a few weeks ago thought about making a yowie suit, but soon thought about the facts. it takes up a fair bit of room in your pack, it takes a fair while to make, and even if your going on 2-3 Biv's a year your not going to use it half the time on the biv anyway...

1) because its likely that at least one of those biv's its going to be too hot to wear it
2) because more than half of the activities you do on a biv, it would be more of a hinderance rather than a help eg. Navigation, Survival
3) The rest of the time you either spend cooking & eating, getting briefed, setting up Hoochies or sleeping.

sure they look fantastic, and are useful for cam & concealment and possibly lantern stalking, but in my opinion a little impractical for AAFC cadets

[hartleymartin]

An Army cadet unit I used to frequent had a couple yowie jackets in the Q store (some old DPCU shirts with bits of scrim, old asucam, old JG, hessian, etc stitched on). A nice thing to have in the winter because they certainly do keep you warm!

It might be an idea to make a couple of yowie jackets and keep them in a unit's store. Would be good for senior cadets to go around and play pran.. uh, test field observation... on the cadets.

If a cadet wants to try then why not let them, as long as they are not destroying government-issued uniforms (IE GET THE STUFF FROM A DISPOSALS STORE)

Although these days if I wanted something to keep me extra warm on a camp, I would probably take my 1966 vintage army great coat with me. I was shocked when I managed to get one big enough to fit me, new with tags too!

[CdtCET]

after reading all this is brought back my old dream of making a ghille suit.. ill have to ask next parade night how much of ourBivs are based on cover and concealment. If i get an answer like 2 of 4, ill get cracking into one this holidays. though ive decided i'd make a ghille coat more so than a suit(ppants and shirt)

If i can manage to get my hands on some old un-issuable DCPU shirts ill try get one or two, take the back off the second one and stich it to the bottom of the first(to make a trench coat style one... pants would require much more material), then simply shred up the leftovers and stich that on along with some of the new style scrim net. If not ill look into the wonderful world of Ebay to try get some discounted uniforms to rip up, then if/when i leave cadets i can donate it to the Sqn, as it was their un-issuable equipment i used


Also, just out of curiosity, how many metres/ sets of old DCPUs did it take you to adeqately cover your suit for those who have made one, and also how did you go about face concealment, did you fashhion a hood for the suit?

[XSHERRIFF]

I used 6 sets of DPCU's and about 4m of scrim (also if available use hessian).

As for the hood i used an old helmet cover.

If you want in depth ideas look back a couple of pages in this topic and you will find some.

[Echo419]

All (excusing rank)

This is for people scanning through that are curious as well.

I know this topic has been up for a while but I'm pretty sure he asked HOW not should he. It doesn't matter about purpose, we are cadets, not soldiers. I say go for it, i made one and it was fun to make and when you get to test its even funner. You have a few options;

1. First you need to decide if you are going to put your netting on first, the netting is good if you are making a jute/burlap suit and will give your suit allot more bulkiness which is good.

2. Once you decide if you want netting or not you can make them a few different ways. You can do what the ADF does and use strips of auscam material with burlap/scrim etc. Or you can make it entirely out of Burlap or jute. Both are effective but the auscam and scrim idea can get quite expensive.

My suit is made of scrim and auscam strips, but when it comes down to it, its up to you. Be creative and have fun!


Here are some tips that i wish i knew when i made mine.

* Hot glue / shoe goo can be just as effective as sewing.

* When you cut your strips don't make them single, have a wide part then divide it into 3s or 4s with the part at the top holding it together. Then when you sew / glue them on you will have allot of thickness.

* Making a hood isn't always good, My suit has one and its quite annoying. Use a Giggle hat and drape scrim down the sides then sew / glue your material on. This will give you a wider field of view and will help to break up your shoulders and head.

* A scrim veil at the front can be quite handy. Real snipers would have them to drape over there optics and cover their face at the same time.

* Don't cover the front with material. Some people might tell you to but i suggest not to. That's were the snagging problem comes in. Instead go down to your breast pockets with material on the front and sew knee and elbow reinforcements on with unscented dental floss and/or shoe goo. Not covering the front also allows for wearing something like a chest rig if you really want to.

There are lots of other tips and tricks that can be used. If you want more google it and check out some of the other sites.

[TRAVIS GOLDIE]

Ghillie Suits are quite practical - if you're a designated marksman or a Scout/Sniper,

These are both American terms, The ARA equivalent is Recon or Snipers in support coy of an infantry battalion. one of the ADG's can give you the RAAF terms.

[wheresthecorporal]

I too are making a new ghillie suit, not sure if I'll take one to a biv or not but heres what I'm doing.

First of all, buy another set of cams, easy enough aussie disposals or anywhere who can set you up, make sure its a long sleeve one though, then find some netting you can put around your cams, some fairly large spaced net will work good, an old net ball net from school was what I used ( I did ask of course ).
Sew the netting onto the cams into the shape of the long sleeve shirt, this hay it's more comfortable, you don't have your vegetation rubbing against your skin etc.

Ok after this comes the fun part find your self some of this

It's a hessan or jute type material as far as I know, I have a good friend whose dad makes it for a living so I got it pretty cheap, Also any scrim netting in DPCUs and any materials you could us that have the same colors of our land scape ( It's important to do your homework first) shredded up DPCUs.
Tie, attach etc all this to the netting.
Remember padding on the in sides of your suit, if your lying "static" for a while it'll make things a bit more comfortable,

Depending on the type of suit you're making you may need to do both sides or just one side, If you plan on having what I like to call a "static" ghillie suit then you only need to do one side because you'll be lying down most of the time, if you want to do the classical what I call the "walking bush" style suit then you'll need to do both.
Heres a pic of how I did it (note this ones not mine, you can tell because it's in BDU not DPCU )


On this one the netting is sewn to the back of the trousers, If you plan on doing day light attacks/ ambushes/ contact runs what ever you want to call them make sure you search a bit about heat proofing your suit, they can get awfully hot in summer time ,
Most of all be patient they may take alot of your time and money, keep in mind to keep it simple, there designed to break up the shape of the human body so don't deck it out too much, if you plan on using one for a lattern stalk, learn how to move in them quietly to preventing being heard in the first 3 steps, it does take some practice so don't think you can just chuck on the suit and become a walking bush, because bushes don't make noises usually, go through cam and concealment basic and find all the Ss (surface etc) and put them into the context of your suit, find a landscape were you and your parents can go and ask them to try find you ( they may even learn something ) I'm lucky enough to have my backyard as a huge bush (rural victoria is awesome) if you want I'll post some pictures of my new one in progress,
Any questions you have feel free to chuck me a PM,
Have fun!

Regards

[cm610890]

LCDT,

how did i know this thread wouldn't stay inactive for long

seems like a good idea of all the yowie suits i have seen 99% were made of strips of auscam pants glued onto old cams/flight suits like the one shown by the CPL on the previous page the other 1% was a mix of Hessian and old cams.

it doesn't have to have alot of different (or expensive) materials to work well you may even find old cams would work better due to the amount of dirt and grime that have dulled them compared to new material because it may have a slight shine to it.

don't forget they ussaly weigh a fair bit and are hot due to the layers so it may not be the best idea to take it on a biv especialy if your not instructing i don't mean to discourage you just think necessity, practicality, weight and compactness before you pack.

[wheresthecorporal]

LCDT

Well almost all cadets love the yowie suits

You made note of how 1% jute/hessan and 99% old cams,
Unfortunately I have to disagree, I believe using jute and hessan is the better way to go, old cams and flight suit pieces work well mixed in with the jute, I don't have any disagreement with the use of it at all, but jute makes your suit look like what I refereed to as the "Walking Bush" and if you try comparing a "Walking Bush" to the shredded cams technique, you're "Walking Bush" looks somewhat more natural, and we can argue they both do the same job (breaking up the human shape) but once we get past that and turning to the technique side of a suit, you want it to look natural (or better yet make you look natural) so that the "opposition/enemy/ other cadets" mistake you for a pice of grass or piece of the land, that way you can steal there food so when a walking bush walks off with there sausages there quite stunned .
Although saying that I have to say that making a yowie suit is a preference thing, I could agree that the shredded cams suit would be good, perhaps as a first suit, but if you can make it work, it's probably just as good as a "jute suit" as I heard my dad call it the other day, like I said before, it should be kept simple, I don't want it to sound sentimental like the "Heart of the Ghillie Suit"
But you should make them as they work for you.
Yes the things get bloody hot 'N' heavy especially in the bush in a full suit, but I did see a good idea the other day, it was like a "Ghillie Blanket" you rapped your self inside it and it looked just as good as a suit, I think it was the marines that were using them, that should've aloud some more room to breath inside it, but my mother helped me with mine by putting some breathable fabrics in it, it still gets hot, but my other one is much hotter in comparison, weight wise though theres not much you can do, but thats the price you pay of trying to be invisible

Regards

[cm610890]

LCDT,

sorry in the previous post i meant that out of nearly all the suits i have seen all of them are made of old cams and i have only seen 1 suit made with jute and Hessian.

and yes i have seen the "ghille blanket" they do seem like a good idea and they would be lighter to carry when not in use.