French lizard camo uniforms

Hey all ,

3 lovely lizards that were in my collection.

Sadly, I gave the 2 TAP 47/56 to a friend long ago, and sadly he is not among us anymore.

 R.I. P. Claude...



I still have the Toute Armes uniform, and have acquired a very large TAP 447/56 smock , and trousers recently.

Still working on finding more lizard....

rip....

My new TAP 47/56



Just love these classic lizards....

rip....

impossible not to love these classic lizards, congratulations!

Thanks, t 72,

Who does not love this pattern ?  One of the most important and seminal patterns !!!!

I have a few more lizard that I will post eventually.  I am short on Portuguese lizard,and will have to work on that soon.
'Know you like olive uniforms; have you seen my French olive uniforms post  ??    Just acquired 2 beauties, both unissued..

rip....

Yes, of course.
This is my TAP 56:

I know that I am out of topic but talking about Portuguese lizard, this is one of mine

A timeless design and pattern.

I have a decent set, as well.

Quite a few posts of this fine uniform on this  fine forum.

Be sure to check out reiska's Portuguese paratrooper jacket post, and please post your Portuguese Para Jacket as well, if you'd like.

The more, the better....Let's post those TAPs and other lizards, folks....

rip....

very well thank you

Beautiful examples guys  

I want one of these bad!

My latest, and perhaps greatest TAP 47/56.

A better photo of another TAP 47/57

Very,very,very nice additions rip, I am very impressed !!!!!!!!


What's the history behind the what I assume is a Vietnam issued one???

Love it mate!

Another TAP Lizard..**



** I am pretty certain it is a  47/54

http://vonstuckcamouflage.free.fr/france.php
You can downloaded a power point from my website with explain for the garment cut and camouflage pattern
For the Israeli jacket, you have find as this or you have added rank and patch?
Gilles

Hello Gilles,

The Israeli lizard uniform came with the insignia.

(from a reputable fellow collector who shall remain incognito)

Thanks for the extensive information on your website. I have studied it time and time again. Great info.

Rip... are the trousers pictured with the Israeli smock also Israeli stamped?  If so then that's the first one I've seen and it adds a lot of credibility to your smock's badging if you got the two as a set.

Steve

Hey Steve,

The trousers are extensively marked, but have no Israeli markings, only French markings.
They did come with the smock.

Hmm. Well, never having seen IDF trousers I can't say what they should look like, but I'd be surprised if they didn't get IDF ink stamps on them. Not saying that means it didn't originally come from the same officer, just that stamps would have made it a slam dunk. Now there's room for doubt unless there's more info about the trousers.

Non-the-less... awesome pieces.

Steve

ripcord wrote:Another TAP Lizard..**


** I am pretty certain it is a  47/54

TAP53, A2 pattern

Thanks Gilles,

I have not examined this smock in a long time and was uncertain of what it is because it was modified , perhaps by a former owner.

It appears to be unissued, but the side adjustment buckles have been removed.

 Also, it has the snaps in the front for a tail piece, but the tail piece is absent, as are the 2 snaps that should  hold the tail piece in place (at the rear of the smock).

 In fact it seems as though the 2 rear snaps were never there. The sides appear to have been take in by a competent tailor.

After looking at a few different TAPs, I am still confused, but do believe it is a TAP 53. I would love to know what the different configurations of this smock are ( A1-A2, etc.).

Thanks again for your invaluable input,    Sal..

Cod piece snaps are absent in the back of smock, but present on the front. Seems a cod piece was never a part of the smock.
There is evidence of tailoring at the sides of the smock, and no vent hole grommets. The adjustment buckles have been removed,
perhaps because no longer needed after tailoring. The smock appears unused.

Gilles for sure can speak better about these issues, but here's my 2 cents:

From my experience it seems that modification of the smocks is common. Some of the pieces I've had were just crudely "pinched and stitched" to reduce the size, others have very good professional grade resizing work done to them. Vietnamese tailors are well known for their quality work at prices any soldier could afford, so it doesn't surprise me to see this sort of modifications.

When Gilles mentions "A2" he is speaking about the camouflage pattern, not the cut of the item. As far as I know there are no variations other than the familiar basic types (47/53, 47/54, etc). Though different weights/styles cloth can be found within a single type. At least I've found that to be true for 47/56, not sure about the earlier pieces as I've had only 1 of each in my hands except for 47/56.

Visit Gilles' excellent documentation on this here:

http://vonstuckcamouflage.free.fr/france.php

Get the PowerPoint document that's linked to the very top of the page. That will answer more questions than you thought you had

Steve

Hello Steve
Thank you for the compliments
Hello ripcord
It is curious that the jacket have not the snaps in rear
About French TAP garment, when they are not news, they are often modified
Gilles

Hello Gilles,

Thanks for your comments,

The reason I was uncertain about the TAP 53 is because of the absence of snaps on the rear of the smock.

Would be impossible to modify the smock from having snaps to not having snaps without evidence of some sort of modification...

Still a very nice example, but a bit of a strange variation...