Thanks Raf! I have been reading it this is like my sixth time. I had a stroke a few years ago and getting it into my mind for long term use is a challenge at times. But it will get there. If I remember correctly I think liquid is more concentrated than the powder. Meaning liquid is stronger and takes less.

I was also thinking of cutting a pouch up that has a strap that needs to be sewed back together (seems are busted) and testing out a few dye mixes and see what happens.

One my recipes that I want to try is four parts Apple dye and two parts dark green. Kind of try and get that lighter and brighter green to darken up a bit.

I was also thinking with the Taupe of doing four parts and one part black. I love the one chest panel you used tan and black together. I think tan has a pinkish tint to it that stands out so taupe would be a better choice.

I will play around with these dyes and see what I come up with. I'll write everything that I do down. I want a dark green that doesn't have a bluish tint to it. I think straight dark green does the bluish tint. Not sure if adding a bit of black into the mix would take that tint out or add to it.

I did not know you had suffered a stroke, and so had some legitimate issues.  Had I known that, I would have posted very differently.  I made the mistake of thinking you lazy--due to my ignorance of your condition.  Did not know you were suffering from a disability.  My sincere regrets for my ignorance.

Now that I know better, will try to help you out better than before.

Yes, there is a difference between liquid and powdered forms of Rit dye, which I don't recall, but which is explained in my thread, and on the Rit site, as well.  I'll try to look it up again tomorrow.

As for the colors you propose to use, I don't have specific experience with some of the combinations. You will need to experiment.  It's likely you will find some very good combinations/recipes.  DO take notes!

Again, I apologize for my ignorance.

Hey Raf, now worries my friend. I didn't take it that way at all. I have been reading and reading your writes ups and other forums as well. I think you've done the most testing out of anyone who is trying this. I appreciate the help and anything that you post and find is great to me and to all of us as well.

I read somewhere, not sure if it was in this thread or another thread, that black kind of turned things blue or maybe a purple tint to it. But again, I think they were using brown and you've said brown is the root to the problems. Taupe seemed to be the best to use in the brown family. I think the one chest panel you did with tan and black is great looking but a pinkish tint to it. If that tint was taken out it would be spot on for a coyote color.

If I could tone down that bluish tint in the "Dark Green" I think that would be a winner for a woodland environment. I'm going to play around with it. Add the Apple Green, Dark Green (maybe add more Dark Green) and a little black. Maybe even a bit of Taupe to the mix.

Reading your post I understand this pattern more. The darker areas are only going to darken and I like that. The lighter areas will take on the color of the dye. So, finding the right mix to get that lighter area to the color I want is the challenge.

Sandstone is interesting too. It seems to blend in with fall foliage better. I watched a video and I can't remember how long the guy kept it in the dye bath. It looked great. I think that Sandstone might have a gold tint to it so it would be something that I would think you wouldn't want to leave in to long.

Once I get in some dye's I will write things down as I do them. I think cutting this one pouch up and taking the material and doing small batches might be the best way to figure out a few things. I have 9 pouches and I'm wanting to get at least four of them to a color I can use.

Thanks Raf for any and all help you send my way and post on the board.

I also wish my dad was more at himself. His dementia has taken away a lot of good years that shouldn't have been taken away. He used to paint cars and would custom mix colors for hot rods (back before computers could do it). I was thinking an orange, taupe and then another darker color might get into the brown family.

More to come as I get some dye and get this going.

From Rit:  "As a guideline, one bottle of liquid dye is equivalent to two boxes of powder dye."

@OlympicArmsFan

Interesting. Thanks for that bit of information. I would have thought the powder was a more concentrate solution than that of the liquid. But I kind of remember that it wasn't from I believe this thread and another thread that I've read.

I will keep everyone posted on what formula I use when I go to dying these pouches.

I wonder if soaking the gear in a water and vinegar bath before dying (plus the vinegar needed) would help take the dye? That might be something I try as well.

I just tried out a lot of the directions here, dying a MOLLE medium ruck using really hot water (almost boiling), 2 bottles of graphite, about an ounce of dark green I had leftover since I was concerned about the purplish stories about black dye, and a quart of vinegar. Soaked the pack and used a large plastic tub so it could lay flat rather than be twisted up. Let it soak almost an hour, then a rinse in cold water. Came out pretty well you can still see the pattern in bright light but otherwise appears nearly black. This pack had previously been dyed trying to get a solid OD sort of green that didn't work very well. I am pleased with the color and look, not as black as black pouches, in some ways much better.

Thanks raf and others for all the pre-work trying to figure this out!

I've been following these Rit Dye threads for a while now and have been intrigued, to say the least.
Any advice for a guy who wants to turn Wolf Grey into Mas Grey?
Any hints on what colors to try out?

OR would there be a better color material to start out with?

Other than the universal statement that it is always possible to dye darker, but NEVER possible to dye lighter, I have nothing to add to your question.

Has anyone considered using yellow?

Some of the color recipes on Rit Site use yellow and other colors.  AFAIK, most, possibly all, of such recipes are intended for white, cotton cloth, and not intended for nylon.  Possible some might work, but possibly not.  Given that tactical nylon already has some sort of base color, the results might differ widely from what is desired.

Are things dyed with Rit Dyemore colorfast, if they get wet will they lose color or dye my cloths I wear under them?

Does the dying process hurt the rubberized coating that's on the inside of US pouches and packs?

Anyone looked at dyed gear with NV, what does it look like?

Standard Rit Dye is colorfast, and the only type of dye I've used; rinse thoroughly, of course.  Apparently, the folks at the NV forum have tested Standard Rit dye, and there are no negative effects when seen using typical NV items.  I've never observed negative effects from dyeing on the polyurethane "water-proof" coating.  I did destroy a German Bundeswehr all-flexible-plastic 7.62 mag pouch with hot water, though. Typical fastex buckles and so forth are unharmed.

thanks.

Anyone try to dye Multicam to make it more dry condition friendly? Arid Multicam works great for my AO but I have a bunch of regular Multicam gear.

You can maybe experiment with some Rit Taupe-colored dye.  This will likely change any white spots to light brown, and give an overall "Browner" cast to the items.  Be advised that nylon gear uses different dying technique than clothing, which usually contains some amount of cotton.

Be careful in not using too much dye, or letting it set-in too long, lest you over-dye the items, and lose the camo pattern.

Thank You!

I am looking to dye some abu and acu chest rig and mag pouchs. I read this thread RAF and excellent info! I would like a dark brown fde coyote shade. Do you have any magpul MCT or fde parts/pmags or multicam non dyed gear to compare to this pic you posted of the acu pouches dyed  2 parts tan to 1 part black in center?
Thank you Attached File

I think that nowadays I would use straight Rit Taupe dye instead of the 2:1 Tan/Black solution.

When applied over USGI desert pattern camo, this gives an almost perfect Coyote Brown shade.

Taupe should give an overall browner cast to the UCP/ABU items, especially in the lighter-colored areas, but there will always be a certain amount of grey in the pattern, which you don't want to lose. Hence my comments on not over-dying so much that the camo pattern is lost.
Sorry no pix of the items you're asking about.

Sounds great thank you for the quick reply!
If I did a chest rig and a couple tripple mag pouch how much water,dye and vinegar should I use? I plan on doing in my garage in a 5 gal bucket

The trick is to get the water pretty hot, as in just off a boil.  I'd add a couple of cups of white vinegar to 5 gal of water, and a couple packets of dye.   Wet-down the items ahead of time.   Clean the items if dirty, and rinse well.  Remember to submerge and agitate the items so the dye will take evenly to all surfaces.   Use tongs or the like, and be careful of splashing/Stains. What you see is what you get with dyeing nylon field gear, maybe just a tiinch darker when wet than when dry.

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the far right seems the best close to ranger green

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The middle one is 2 parts dark brown 1 part dark green rit dye close to od green

I like it. I have done the dark brown to a couple of items because I had it available. The mix looks better. I may try that some day.

So you soaked them in the dye for 15 minutes?

The reason why I prefer Rit Apple Green and Taupe dyes is that such dyes do not lend themselves to obscuring the original camo pattern.

Just enough to dye the light pixels of tha camo pattern, but not enough to obscure original camo pattern.

Apple Green for greenish camo, and Taupe for brownish camo.

My previous suggestions for Rit dyes were modified by my later dyeing experiences.  Please read my thread to the end; I learned much during my dyeing experience, and no longer suggest Dk Brown or Dk green Rit dyes..

ACU pouches dyed with Rit Apple Green can be seen here: https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/On-Dyeing-with-Rit-Dye-Many-Pix-/10-429475/

Scroll down  bit, and read the pic headings.

Note the contrast between original camo pattern, and the dyed camo pattern. Often, contrast is desired.

With the dye soluton right off a boil, and with clear vinegar added, the dyeing process ought not to take more than a couple of minutes.

Most often folks don't heat up the dye solution sufficiently, and so the dyeing process takes a LOT longer.

Yes I kept checking color and took Rafs advice on going slow and redye if needed. Yes I boild to roaring boil and transfered to bucket

Does anyone have good pictures taupe on UCP TA50 seen ones from ar15.com along time ago not so good quality

Half bottle of taupe and and some dark green  about 10:1 ratio on the harness.its pretty much ranger od green the mag pouch were rattle canned before. I'm going to order some ranger green mag pouch, the GI ones are about shot. I really the rig though reminded of old army Alice harness rig I was first issued 22 years ago Attached File

Looking at where the UCP blue/grey shade is on a color wheel, I decided to try a bright yellow to subtract from the blue, and it worked pretty well.

I used fabric paint markers to round the corners of the patter and outline some of the splotches.

Well, that's definitely cool, looks like the fake russian pattern designed for the movie Red Dawn. I love it.

Interesting approach and looks OK.  Will be interesting to see how durable it is, time will tell.

I'm playing around with different colors and combinations on the pattern. Sometimes I add outlines to some of the blotches, or try different shades on the open areas.

I think a lot of the earlier approaches were trying to "superimpose" green or brown over the blue/grey shades, and the colors used were too close to each other on the color wheel, or as in the case with brown, too dark to bring up the pattern and contrast.
Yellows and yellow-greens are further away, and tend to "subtract" to something closer to a primary green shade. I'm trying to get rid of the yellow cast that results and get closer to a green dominant overall hue, but haven't found the right color combination yet. I'm getting close, though.

I've heard that you can "set" fabric markers with a hot saltwater bath, so I'm going to give that a shot, then send the stuff to a buddy of mine who does rural surveillance for an informal "trial period" to see how it works and holds up under use.

Will be interesting to see how things work out for you.  All best wishes!

It might be informative to see how such "markers" do with respect to NV observation.  Rit dye is apparently not reactive to IR/UV light.  Let's test the "markers" and see what happens.

Thank got for this thread I miss ordered some stuff and got some desert kryptek nomad tan color mag pouches plus I had a single multi cam that was almost all tan. I ordered kelly green and tan for "light sage" thankfully I searched and found this thread and also ordered dark green and dark brown.

Esstac is REALLY hard to dye evidently. 3 gallons mix of sage turned into + 4oz dark green and dark brown then into a pot to pound the heat. Then 4 more oz of dark green and brown before it really started to work!

After 60 min in dryer.
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Working on different patterns with different shades of yellow and green, and the results are closer to what I'm shooting for.

ACU Gerber pouch before and after:

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Before
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After

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Comparison with Alice

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This may sound crazy, but it might be worth attempting subtraction instead of addition when it comes to dying these pieces.

Green and blue are close to each other on the color wheel, while yellow and blue are near opposites. I went with that in mind by using dayglo yellow and yellow/green markers to subtract from the blue in the UCP and bring it up to a green color, with results as seen above.

I wonder how a similar experiment with a bright yellow or yellow/green Rit Dye might work?

A lot of us use highlighters to “salvage” UCP colored shoulder sleeve insignia and it works pretty well, producing a yellowish green that passes muster decently well.

Gonna try some yellow/green Rit colors and see what happens. I have mountains of this gear, and I think it would be neat to get it closer to some useable colors instead of tossing it.

We shall see how much I fucking hate autocorrect.

Please take notes on what color/how much dye you used and report back.

Interesting idea.

In my experience, dying with straight Rit "Apple Green" gives results similar to what I believe is your goal, without the time-consuming effort required by using a sharpie.  No offense, but I'm not sure about the "yellow" in the pouch; seems a bit un-natural to me, but that's just my personal preference.

I'd call that a success as compared to the original UCP.

My personal preference in color is either a bit "Greener", or a bit "Browner" than what is depicted above, depending on the intended Use/AO/Season.

Again, that's just my, personal preference, and others will have different preferences.   NOT criticizing the results above at all.  Miles better than the original UCP.

Will do!

I have some thought to trying bright yellow Rit before the marker idea, but I had tons of time and a bunch of markers on hand, so I gave it a shot. The yellow is something I anticipated, and I’m planning to find colors that will tame it down some.

That being said, it’s wouldn’t be the first time a US equipment item had a yellowish cast to it:


The contrast between this 1964 dated “center seam” poncho liner and the UCP TAP rig is pretty sharp:

Apple green gives good results

Suggest you very carefully look through my thread and take a close look at the various results.  Might be something useful there.

Some US camo patterns were more effective than others.  Not trying to start an argument, nor to diminish other posts/posters.

Everyone has their own goals, and not my place to tell anyone what to do.  

OTOH, my suggestions might be worth heeding.

True dat.  OTOH, Rit Taupe dye applied over USGI Nylon desert gear gives "Coyote Brown" color if done right.  Given a little "green" dye added, can reproduce modern "Khaki: which is fundamental color of Multicam.

I no longer suggest dying USGI "desert camo" as such was produced in limited quantities, and unmolested items will soon fetch "collector" prices.   Far easier to find CB and Khaki items nowadays.

Aside from that, Desert Camo is almost as good in some winter terrains as is the much-despised UCP.

So, I'm suggesting that some folks refrain from dying their UCP items if they live in areas in which such camo might be useful in winter.

OK Hive Mind, need ideas. Grabbed this from a post where a guy found LBX stuff at a surplus store for about $50. It's an Asian 'Terrapin" pattern. I want to add some shade of green, via RIT DyeMore. Was thinking one of the greens from the Multicam palate. I've seen the "Recipe" chart on RIT.com, but there are sooooooo many. What color are you guys happy with as far as Mixed Deciduous / Pine (plus a crap ton of invasive weed/bushes in Summer).

Thanks.

Here are some pouches I dyed OD Green. The chest rig behind it is a Condor brand rig in OD Green.

Here is a pic of two dyed pouches and one original pouch.

A couple more pics.

A few more of the ACU pouches.

A bunch of pictures. Some of when I first started and didn’t have the right formula.

I will try and find my formula for the pouches. I posted it to Reddit a few weeks ago.

Link to the formula that I came up with.

Just a quick thanks for all you guys experimenting and posting ratios and results. I've come across pics of dyed ucp but never found this thread.

Local surplus store has an endless supply of ucp gear for dirt cheap so I've acquired a fair bit of it, and actually it's not terrible for my area above treeline (think lichen splotched granite) or in the winter, but ucp just isn't larp-chic enough, and I hate when the neighbors laugh at me for using outdated camo.

Some of the earlier really dark stuff posted here reminds me of multicam black, I may go that route just for the hell of it.

Alternately,  can ucp be lightened with bleach? More snow oriented? Or does it just look light blue? Anyone try?