Posted: 7/19/2008 12:55:07 AM EDT
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We're wondering how a shipping container would be cammo'd if sited in a woods area with mostly evergreen trees and brush. What kind of paint, latex or oil. how to prep container surface, any tricks or special techniques? Would stencils have to made, if so how? |
I don't know about painting it or anything but I would imagine if you grew trees/bushes/vines around the shipping container it would provide ample camo. No matter how you painted the shipping container its still just a painted box in the end because of the seasons/changing lighting conditions. EDIT: Maybe a large camo net thrown over it with branches and vegitation thrown into the mix would provide excellent camo? |
We need to know how to paint the container. |
Oil based, such as Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel. Hit any rust spots or areas of bubbled paint with a wire brush or grinder. Spray a rust-protective primer over the bare metal. Wash the entire area to be painted and let dry to do away with dirt grease. You could roller or brush paint it as well if you don't have access to a spray rig. As for a camo pattern, a scheme similar to this would work. Make any adaptations for your environment. 
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Unlike the camo vehicles above, which is mobile, get your colors to match the environment it is in. A few evergreens nearby could cover parts of it, but without completely surrounding it, you may never make it dissapear. Please take pics during this project so we can see your work. Bill |
We use to hide four ground launch cruise missle launchers and two launch control ceters[think semi trailers], with camo nets. You need a large enough camo net and the spreaders to break up the outline of the shape of the container. We would get overflights of recon planes and they couldn't find us.   
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Research WWII building camo. Many techniques were used. chicken wire on a frame, with vegetation allowed to grow would help. Shape - alter the straight lines Shine - a good flat finish paint that matches a predominant color or colors that is found year round. silhouette - Sight it in a depression or any area where it isnt on a high point and can be observed. look at it from 360 degrees ( which should be done in any camo job ) shadow - In the area under oaks or thick evergreens. Also limit Access to the conex. One trail to it and avoid trampling the vegetaion around it. Minimize damage when it is placed Who are you trying to hide it from? You have to consider the assets of the opposition. If its the goverment, that a whole 'nother game. Thermal and I.R. signature comes into play. |
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Google Earth and other services have me considering the camo nets when I start the BOL project. I would hate to time the fly over during construction of anything I didn't want viewable from space. If i'm digging a basement, a stash point, or anything, be sure to camo above the work site during the dig, or it will be noted somewhere. My grandfather had his property tax adjuster visit because a building is no longer where it was on the last Satelite pictures (he took it down). |
| you might want to check out steel soldiers paint section they seem to have a lot on painting and prep work in regards to cammo |
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I'd paint it flat brown. My house used to be brown (stained) There's in place between the trees where you can see it from about 900 feet away. When it was brown you couldn't tell it was there in any season, even winter. it blended really well with the trees and such. Now it's a yellowish color and stands out like crazy from the same spot. It sold me on flat brown as camo. |
Do like an 80s Cheech and CHong movie where they had a tarp that looked like a swimming pool over their pot plants. If it was me, Id paint the top of the container to look like a swimming pool, complete with painted diving board and floating things in the pool. LoL.. Personally Id grow trees around it and paint the same colors as the surrounds. LIke others stated, get the rust off with sander and prime those spots and maybe lightly scuff the rest. Id get a cheapo air compressor and spray gun and go to town on it. |
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I went Fri night/Sat morn to mine to do a little "painting". I'm in the desert so this thing gets pretty hot during the day, not scorching hot but hot enough. I rolled on Henry's Solarflex on the roof, it is supposed to reflect 85% of the suns heat. I'm going to paint the rest of the container in Sept/Oct when it is cooler and it will just be a plain old desert tan. Prepping Fri night....   This was no "one use" container, it has been through hell and back..if it could only tell of its travels.      Cleaned out the inside and was trying to use insulation boards but I don't like how it came out I may tear it all out. Looks like a bad imitation of Space Mountain.     
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Nice! How are you going to install infrastructure inside on the walls ceiling w/out penetrating the container walls with screws? Shouldn't you design the interior the way you want it to attach beds, shelves, bathroom facilities and then hang the insulation after the attachment brackets are installed? |
| If it was mine, which it isn't. I'd probably go the same route that I do with our duck blinds. The surrounding terrain has a lot to do with what you use. That wide open desert in the last few pics is going to make hiding it by any means short of burying it very difficult. Back to the duck blind thing. nets work well but they aren't very friendly with the weather and after a few years will fade, turn, and rot. What works well for us on a more permanent basis is to take rolls of concrete reinforcing wire or wire hog lot panels and fasten them to the outside of the blind then work native brush into the panels to provide concealment. Some individuals, who shall remain nameless, did this with their blind. They took buckets of topsoil and transplanted kudzu "taters" in each bucket and placed the buckets on the top of their blind. Kudzu doing what kudzu naturally does spread like crazy along the top of their blind, weaving itself through the brush on the outside of the blind and in a few years, two seasons I think, it pretty much swallowed the blind. Each year requires a little work with a machete to open shooting holes and the entrance to the boat shed. It looks good but is invasive as heck to everything surrounding it. You pointed out evergreens, around here red and box cedars grow like crazy requiring often spraying to prevent them from choking out powerline right of ways and the sides of the road. Something like that planted around the container in different stages would quickly grow and hide your container giving the initial impression of a small cedar thicket. |
This container is just for storage so there is no infrastructure. The reason for the insulation is if I decide to store ammo I want it to be in mild temps all year long. The next container or two will be for fun. 
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It has been said many times before that shipping containers CANNOT be buried. The walls will not hold up and they will collapse. This is because the containers are made to stack, so the corners are reinforced to bear loads, but the walls aren't. |
You could excavate and build a retaining wall or pour concrete around the containers in 1 to 3 foot lifts. |
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The key to camoflauging something of that size is to break up the shape. Color is a no-brianer, use a mix of brown and field drab (looks like a light OD) in most areas an you will be good to go. That siad, no matter what if you don't have a net or something else to break up the outline and shape, color only goes so far. |
+1.. the best way to hide something like this would be to plant trees, couple mounds of dirt strategically placed near the containers, etc etc. |
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You can get netting thru places like Cheaper than dirt or sportsmans guide fairly cheap. Actually now that I think about it, Id probably plant some of those VINES that take over ppls fences and walls, It grows on its own and would hide that thing pretty quickly I would imagine. I think they are called CLimbing vines, something like that. |
You don't need to cover the entire thing. You just need enough to break up the outline of the box, especially the top and ends. Here is my crude MS paint rendering of how you can break up the shape without covering the entire container. Note that the net keeps going up higher than the container, and out past the edges, in spots. Just laying it on top doesn't do anything becase then the net makes the same lines.  Yeah, net is expensive. But it is far cheaper than replacing everything in the container I bet. |
Dude. You got some over-spray on your chick... 
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Thats not spray...thats net. I asked her to wear just net, she wasn't feeling sporty... |
| you can paint it all you want--if you don't break up the outline--you're done. What exactly are you camo'ing it from----it aint gonna be a sniper box in a ghillie suit that an enemy soldier will walk 10 feet from and not see, but at a distance a plane or vehicle will miss it if properly camo'd and placed. Where you put it is also very importnant. You don't want it standing out against a ridgeline or being a big dark square in a lighter background. Dense trees woods and brush are your friends here. An area with lots of thorns, swampy surrounding or poison ivy are good too-0-0discourages people from wandering in there |
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is creating a few small to medium size berms around the container out of the question? those with kudzu , I would think would be advantageous or possibly some pinion trees which spread out and are kind of scrubby looking...hell you could probably find some out there to transplant with a few varieties of cacti to blend in |
Kudzu, coupled with some trees close on either side, would be a perfect natural camo net. It would also provide a great natural sunshade to keep things from getting too hot. Hell, if you leave for a month you would be chopping your way back in! |
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I just remembered how a buddy of mine did his and made it cooler and broke up the outline. It was a travel trailer, but same principle applies. He got a couple of heavy duty canvas tarps from me (he was too impatient to wait for a custom size so he just overlapped them) and built a wooden frame over the top of the camper. He peaked the frame in three spots at odd angles and differing heights, and laced the tarps over and secured them. The OD canvas was a perfect color to hide it, and it broke up the outline very, very well. Imagine a tent with three peaks at random heights. He was primarily after something to keep the water off and insulate the top from the hot sun, but by doing it that way he also made it very hard to spot. |
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