Woodland and "RDF" camo colours

Hello guys, I am looking for the EXACT colours of the US M81 Woodland camouflage. I and another collector are doing a post on the US transitional camo aka RDF and maybe later woodland, and we do not have the right colour. According to several US army reports, the color of the Woodland and "RDF" are the same as the 1948 four colours pattern (green ERDL) and the brown ERDL does not even exist.

The colours that I have for the woodland are :

Yellow green army shade 354
Dark green shade 355
Brown army shade 356
Black army shade 357

but they are the same as the first version of the ERDL...

Thanks

I just found an 80 dated top today at a garage sale. Unfortunately the seller told me he wore the pants out. Not uncommon. I will get a picture up for you and do some color comparisons to the SF Vietnam ERDL sets I own.

Thanks for your help

Interesting topic Mate, sadly I do not know a great deal about this to help you out, but hope someone here can, I will check back to see what's what

Alright took me a few days. I think the main difference in RDF and ERDL is the colors. No S**T right? What I mean is that RDF is more pronounced and very often there is overprint somewhere. The USMC RDF I will post has significant overprint to the sleeves. The shade of green on RDF patterns has much more blue in it.

Up first is a 1980 dated white label RDF worn by a guy named Martinez who was in the 25th. I have his patches he removed for this when he put it in the garage sale. Sometimes you just have to ask.

Here is the USMC 1981 dated top. This one is interesting too because it only has one label in the neck versus the standard size label in collar area and another wash instruction label on the right side near the hem as worn.

Hopefully you can see the large amount of overprint to the sleeves.

Another thing setting RDF apart is the pattern is sharper. ERDL tended to have a blurred appearance.

Here is a 69 dated ERDL 'Clown' top. The sleeves are Brown Dominant while the body and sleeve cuffs are Green Dominant.

Here is Brown Dominant ERDL top. Notice the shapes. They are more amoeba shaped, less sharp and tend to blend. RDF is sharp. Concise.

One of the things guys in my unit, C Co 5/14 Inf 25th ID, did in Hawaii was actually look for Brown Dominant BDUs. Especially patrol caps which invariably were never the summer weight ones. So I have lots of brown dominant BDUs which if you take into account the whole Vietnam green vs brown dominant issue for highland or lowland, the Army having no information on a difference existing that would point to one thing, manufacturer differences in patterns. So DA orders an ERDL, RDF or BDU pattern and different manufacturers produce either a more green or more brown pattern. Or you get a pattern like that Clown top where they run out of one roll of fabric and switch to another mid production.

Another thing, ERDL tends to have Loam in it versus tan with the exception of Brown Dominant ERDL. LOAM was completely removed from RDF. So its, green, black, dark brown, light brown. Confused yet?

The ERDL camo is more complicated that it seems. The US army makes no difference between green or brown dominant ERDL.

For the RDF color, I got the same as yours, but in this army report they are the same as the first version of the ERDL.



Now Woodland..



The color stay the same but the dyes change. Even if the colors are different they stay the same for the army. That makes no sense.



Thanks for your help