BRAZILIAN PATTERNS

Here is a very comprehensive group of brazilian uniforms and patterns.

In Chronological order.

Brazilian 1st camouflage pattern - 1967


Spotted pattern 1st variant


Spotted pattern 2nd variant






1st Army Lizard pattern


Marines 1st pattern


Caatinga 1st camo pattern


Mountain Pattern



2nd Army lizard pattern


Marines red pattern - 2nd pattern


ARMY Current


Marines Current


Air Force Current


Caatinga Current




POLICE PATTERNS

CHOQUE - Riot Police


COE - Elite police unit Sao Paulo State


Police Grey Amoeba - Various States


Police Lizard - Bahia State


Forca Nacional - federal police 1st pattern - Black


Forca nacional Digital


BOPE - Rio de Janeiro State Elite Police

wow. Thats quite a collection. "Comprehensive" is right.
Nice display and thanks for sharing those Danilo.

cheers,
Ben.

Nice!!!

Great stuff mate! Some very cool looking pattern there.

The one that caught my eye was the Air Force pattern, it looks very much like the USAF ABU trial pattern, just with an extra layer of brown. I really like that

Here is an example of the ABU trial

The urban patterns are pretty cool.

Thanks guys,
hi misanthropic, yes i can see some resemblance with the brazilian air force, what is more impressive is that the pattern works really well in the jungle to.

here some pics of uniform in usage by air force commandos

and a few more pics...

My old pattern
Other pictures on my website: http://vonstuckcamouflage.free.fr/brazil.php
And a failed picture
Gilles

nice comparison shot gilles,

here is another sample

Top roll from left to right:
"Grey Variant", marines 1st pattern, army 1st pattern

Bottom roll left to right:
Mountain, Caatinga 1st pattern and marines red shade.

Brazilian special federal police task force "Força Nacional"


This pattern is used by multiple police forces around brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Goias, are just a few states that were this pattern. Was also issued to brazilian police units serving in East Timor.


Sao Paulo COE (comando de operações especiais) - Sao Paulo Elite police unit - this was a trial from the early 90's - it was soon replaced by the current "turquoise" lizard pattern.


Chilean "Rana" pattern poncho, made in brazil and issued to (brazilian) troops in form of ponchos, canteen covers, backpacks and helmet covers. I have the photo of the tag in my web album



Brazilian First camouflage pattern (develop in brazil) - Issued to officers only - I've seeing a dated picture from 1966 with this pattern - there's also a "roberto Carlos" short film, almost like a military propaganda (for those who knows portuguese, they know roberto carlos - With soldiers wearing both the spot and this pattern uniforms - i have the link somewhere.


Army 1st "jungle" pattern - was issued to soldiers serving in the amazon during the early to mid 80's - I heard an account by an ex army capitain that the brazilian marines training in the amazon liked so much the pattern that gave birth to the marines 1st pattern the "red shade" uniform - You can see pictures of the marines wearing both early patterns in a book called "Jungle Warriors"


This one is still a mystery. At first we thought this was a police uniform, due to the zippers in the arm. Also it's not meant to be worn on the reversible side and has the early pattern coloration with predominant brown. It's either a COE police early uniform, or a Special forces unit. (Regular troops wouldn't wear such a modified uniform)


close up of zipper detail


Reversible side


This one is just a different variation, a much more "dense" spot version, this is a later variation from around late 70's to mid 80's


Reversible side


full set

That new caatinga uniform gives the soldiers that badazz "cangaceiro" look



But i believe its a design that functions very well in the rough and arsh "Sertão" lands.

Question: the yellowish panels are made of leather or some synthetic material?

Best regards

.

Hi Albano!Its leather, and yes it was based on the Cangaceiro look since most of the troops from the Caatinga batallion are from the region I guess they wanted to keep the tradition. Usually soldiers from other states are for just TDY (temporary duty station)for the Caatinga school.

Albano, what movie is that still from?

Danilo,

I know this is rather an old thread, but I just want to say -- very nice. Can you provide captions for the photos in your second-to-last post? Also, can you help me identify these two patterns from my collection?

Thanks.

Hi Luis,
I believe your spot jacket is the last model with the "bright lime green" coloration, looks to be in very good shape with colors holding well.

The Second shirt is an early marines pattern, i called the 1st pattern - it defined the basic colors the marines have being wearing ever since, but the actual first marines pattern is the "red shade" used briefly in the early 80's - you can see both uniforms being worn at the same time in the book — Jungle Warriors: Defenders of the Amazon; Carlos Lorch (Author, Photographer)

Thanks, that's very helpful. If you know of any sources for these older patterns, I'd be interested in expanding my collection of Brazilian gear. Um abraço.

hi luis,

I can probably help with brazilian uniforms, but it seems you do have already a few versions of the lizard already... some of the items you're still missing are really hard to get, like the "1st army jungle pattern" (red shade with weird front pocket configuration) and also the marines red shade...

I was very lucky, a few years ago, while visiting brazil i went to a military shop. I was trying to buy regular uniforms, but i was very disappointed when they wouldn't sell it to me, since you needed a current military id to buy those... So while talking to the sales person, she said they had "surplus" from a manufacture who went out of business and they were all old uniforms that they could sell for me... So they took me to the back and there it was, a few piles of some obscured unknown patterns to me (at the time i didn't know of so many lizard variants). So i found the "caatinga", mountain, marines 1st pattern and some other items there... i bought as many as i could since i didn't know the next time i would see them again (good thing i did, since then the place closed out and i never saw them again). The ones you have came form me, i traded with santiago a long time ago. He did have some sweet spot uniforms and i see they also went to you...

I can look around and see what other brazilian items i have, i might be able to get some things you're still missing. it's just going to take a while... I do have a very nice spot set available... Also are you interested in Police uniforms? i do get some of them every once in a while - they come from the policer officers who trade uniforms with gear and equipment with my brother in brazil.
Also i have a few current issued patches and also the older cloth patches, in case you're interested we can also work something out.

cheers

Hi Luis, nice to ear from you again

That still it's from the movie "Faustão, o Cangaceiro"

Best regards

Abraço

.

Thanks. I'd never heard of the movie. I developed a fascination with the Cangaço after I read a book about Lampião many years ago. As you probably know, he led a band of violent outlaws in northeast Brazil in the 1920s and 30s, after the police killed his father. Eventually he was killed, along with his girlfriend Maria Bonita and several other Cangaceiros, by police. They were decapitated and their heads displayed in the city of Salvador...

Do you remember that soap that was on TV here in the 80's? The plot was that story precisely. Cant remember the name of the soap...

Best regards

.

Hi Luis,

Well i think you are right on your assertions. The confusion comes from me naming the "erdl" 1st brazilian pattern. What i mean by that is that, it was the first pattern originally developed in Brazil. The spot pattern pre-dates that uniform, but is an almost exact copy of the US pattern, so i don't consider to be an "original". I read in a army veterans blog once that they did sent troops to the suez in the late 50's and they were equipped with the spot uniform. I have a feeling those were probably US surplus. I can't verify that information but the blog seemed to be credible with list of unit, soldiers commanders and photos.

As for your spot uniform, is hard to say, set looks to new, yours have the light "lime" green colors on the other side and also i know people has a habit of adding patches to uniforms, so i'm not sure if the patch was just added to this uniform after... (the location of the patch is in the wrong arm) Both the patch and the uniform are original thou...

The oldest spot versions i ever seeing are different from your set, the colors are much lighter and the spots are less dense. I don't have them in my collection. One was a "marines" spot and the other was a single side airborne pants. The marines jacket was dated 1962 and the airborne pants was in a grouping of post ww2 stuff and the collector said it was from the 50's (i will look for photos of both items and try to post).

In any case I think the spot version pre-dates the "erdl" by about 8 years - 1966 for erdl - 1958 for spot... (not verified).

Ok, I get your reasoning.

On the correct placement of the FAIBRAS patch, the blurry photo below from the Brazilian army's FAIBRAS historical web page seems to show the patch on the right arm.

nice old photo, to bad we can't barely see the pattern... so the patch is correct, it means the postion was changed later i guess.

there's a couple of websites with good information regarding brazilian troops in the suez... unfortunately no images, so is hard to say if they were issued uniforms or not. I still think some units did, maybe not the very first ones, but they were there for almost 10 years, so i believe at some point they were issued them (it would make a lot of sense having the reversible set for soldiers there)

http://dspace.c3sl.ufpr.br/dspace/bitstream/handle/1884/5945/FABIANO_LUIS_BUENO_LOPES.pdf?sequence=1
http://www.batalhaosuez.com.br/OBrasileasMissoesdePaz.htm

also a bunch of old photos of brazilian troops in international peace missions.







and some other recent ones

These are great photos. Thanks for sharing them. What is the first photo? It almost looks like the Portuguese Legion (Legião Portuguesa), whose symbol was a cross of Aviz very similar to the one on the vehicle. The vehicle license plate is the same style as the older Portuguese plates. The rifle one of them is holding appears to be a Portuguese Vergueiro Mauser -- though i understand that Brazil also used some Vergueiros. And the street and the building's facade looks typically Portuguese. How intriguing.