A look at the New Shaman ghillie concept from Oakmaster and Le Covert Sartorialist.

A couple of months ago, Le Covert Sartorialist shared some details about his latest creations and asked if I wanted something sent out to test. No details, no explanation of it or how it works. “I want you to discover and master” he said…

Oakmaster is a new company on the market – the website has only just gone live and the products are seeping out into the Airsoft community. Haloscreen was a revolution when it came onto the market a few years ago but rather than resting on it and producing Haloscreen 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 etc, LCS has something new in the pipeline – positive space greens in the form of Macronet and green Nanoscreen. In addition, he’s now releasing some suits to mount it all onto. As well as Cobra and Viper hoods, but I prefer an all-or-nothing approach to camouflage so I haven’t really looked at the half options.

So this isn’t just a base, it’s new materials and new methodology and I’ve always felt with LCS it’s the knowledge that’s more valuable than the materials – check out this video on YouTube. And he gives that information freely to us all to learn from.

Anyway, a box arrived and I genuinely had no idea what was coming. To review, I thought maybe a couple of pieces of the new materials to craft onto a boonie and have a play with. Instead, there was a full pre-crafted ghillie inside.

This is the Oakmaster Shaman NSBL-25 Mid-Density 3D Green Suit. As you can see, it consists of a jacket, trousers and a balaclava which have been pre-crafted with Macronet and Nanoscreen modules. One of the guys in the Discord noticed that it’s slightly different to the one on the website in that mine has fewer shades of green Macronet and green Nanoscreen, but has had a few pieces of brown Nanoscreen added instead (thanks Swifty). I don’t know why there’s a difference, but the suits is still the same. The first thing I noticed when taking it out of the box was a very strong smell of paint. I know it’s not a one-off creation; this company is mass producing suits and it surprised me. I opened the jacket out and thought “there’s absolutely no fucking way he’s hand painting these…”

But, yes he is. This isn’t some mass-printed factory pattern off the rollers in a repeated micro pattern. It doesn’t suffer from that weird white sheen that comes from printed materials. It’s caked in a nice flat, matte paint with a sprayed-on stencil-type pattern that you can see better here on the Early Summer suit :

And it’s on the inside too. If you look at the usual factory produced stuff, it has a white sheen and a different tone on the inside because they don’t care enough to print both sides.

As brilliant as it is nuts that they’re taking time to spray it all individually, and this is why I prefer handmade suits to the printed fabric ones. Now, doing what I do (airsoft events and sniper-specific weekends all these years) I get to see a lot of suits and ghillies. We take bunches for testing against each other as well, and I have to say that overall I still find crafted BDU’s the best solution, not only on price but also practicality and performance. They just work better at different distances and lighting conditions than leaf suits and string capes. The only thing I think we assessed as being close in recent years was the Mim&Tech S-RCS on the browner side. One of the advantages of having a group that has no affiliations is that we get to test out absolutely everything without getting paid for a particular view.

It’s not often I look at mesh suits like this because I’ve seen too many that disappoint. Coming into this review, I’ll hold my hands up (and I know there are a few manufacturers reading this) and say, I fucking hate most of these mesh products, especially leaf suits, and I apologise because I know you have a market for them and they’re “good enough” which is ok for many people and it makes you some coin. I don’t see the point in plain coloured hoods, capes and bases. because many of them have that awful paracord grid on them which gives too many unnatural straight lines and edges.

But…

It’s actually really good. And it’s the details that show that it’s a product that has been designed (finally) by someone who knows what they’re doing. Starting with the jacket, there’s a built-in backpack cover which sits like a turtle shell on your back. Obviously this is much better for camouflaging your daysack, but also without one it means the back of your suit isn’t just a flat shape. But it isn’t just extra fabric; you can see how well it’s been stitched in and shaped.

In addition to covering your load bearing, it also covers your load bearing. The sides of the jacket are cut to make it more like a poncho, much like the old Vietnam and Cold war gear, but without creating just a rectangle of fabric with a hood. It retain’s the wearability of a jacket and gives you sleeves to ensure your forearms are covered, where some of the recent leaf suit ponchos would leave forearms uncovered so that you’d need ghillied underneath – remember forearms, head and gun are the most visible parts of a sniper in a firing position. But these cuts, up to the armpit almost, allow you to access and work in your chest rig while keeping things covered, which solves that problem of hard shapes and outlines on chest rigs giving you away (radios, pistols, holsters, mags, square lines of pouches etc).

And on that note, a feature you don’t see on a lot of the more basic suits (go shopping and see) – the edges are NOT straight cut. This eliminates that hard outline of the waistline you see on all the other suits, and it’s extended up the sides of the jacket too to further break up that hard straight edge. I recall seeing British snipers in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s do it by cutting and sewing back up a jagged edge on their kit but to be frank, it’s a lot of work. This is a great solution.

Also, I note there are no veg loops anywhere on the suit. I get guys who are real world snipers emailing me (swearing) saying I don’t know what I’m talking about because natural vegetation is key, but I’m not a fan and I still don’t think it’s worth the time and effort in Airsoft to cut stuff up and add it to something to make it work; the suit should already work and if it doesn’t, change the suit. It’s interesting to note that snipers in the Ukraine don’t use natural vegetation, perhaps they’re fans of the blog (joking, but do get in touch if you are), though more likely modern camouflage systems have now equalled that natural look and traditional ghillie methods are now outdated. But I’ve argued that point in this previous article from early 2023.

The jacket is finished with some handy reinforced chest openings to get to your jacket underneath, and a zip and toggles for adjusting the head (and getting your head in). The zip has a sort of storm flap cover to hide it, which is again another nice addition. The trousers are nice and simple, with leg openings to access your trouser pockets and belt loops, which is a really simple touch but if there’s one annoyance with ghillie trousers down the years it’s the reliance on elastic, drawcords, or elasticated drawcords. You can get a proper belt on and not have to worry about losing your pants. Solid advice on a staff Christmas party too – belt up and stay safe. The legs are elasticated at the bottom so you don’t have to worry about stepping on loose fabric.

The final component is the balaclava, which is a nice simple design with a tie around the back of the head to pull the eye opening tight, and ensure that when you inevitably rotate your head the balaclava moves with it. It’s based on a model from Decathlon that I know LCS was a fan of (he encouraged me to buy a few), but I might add a toggle on the back to cinch it tight instead of trying to tie a cord in a pile of 3D elements. The front of the balaclava isn’t too long and “beardy” so it doesn’t hang loose and cause a shadow as it falls, but also we did some testing with long balaclavas and when you turn the head, it pulls on a much bigger surface of fabric which causes what is essentially your chest camo at that point to move as well. There’s enough to hide the chin shadow so it’s doing its job well. It’s all the intelligent little touches that make a difference. Like, and I know it’s a very small detail…there are no annoying labels on it. No advertising of the brand or anything. It’s just not necessary.

I want to do a separate article or two covering the Macronet and green Nanoscreen so I’ll split this Oakmaster review over a few blogs because I do think there’s a lot to unpack. It’s not just the suit base, because we have new modules and ideas as well. It’s a system. I will say of the new modules though that on this pre-crafted Shaman suit, each has been attached by hand with zip ties rather than some flat silk leaves that have been run through a sewing machine. That allows me to very easily change them around if I need to, and the new modules are much larger than the Haloscreen pieces (if you buy pre-cut), which means you can cover a large area very quickly making it much quicker in the long run to adapt your suit to different environments. They “hang” as well, which is something I like to see on a ghillie rather than flat, flappy little shapes. But that’s another article.

Overall, this suit has made me change my stance on pre-made ghillies and mesh bases. It’s just so well made and so well designed. It fixes a lot of faults that we’ve seen and continue to see on other brands. I do still think that if you’re just starting out, I’d take BDU’s every time to practice on and learn camouflage with. If you’re on a budget, BDU’s still outperform 99% of other bases as much as manufacturers and fanboys might argue otherwise – and that’s a conclusion from testing with multiple suits and getting lots of different feedback from different people, not retailer reviews and opinions.

However, there will come a point where you want or need that elite level of kit. Its tough, well thought out, and I’ll be using it for my next suit without a doubt. I don’t think I’ve seen anything on the market that would beat it, with the Mim&Tech S-RCS and KTN ACS suits a close second. As a product on its own, I think the Shaman is an excellent bit of kit and a very good base to work on, and it’s rare I’ve been able to say that about mesh base suits. Obviously Oakmaster is a new company, although an experienced head behind it, and although it’s not world famous just yet, it looks certain to deliver the goods. The methodology you can learn on YouTube, the 3D components you can add to anything you want, and the suits are the top of the tree; so it’ll all help you with your concealment regardless of what you get from them.

So really it does depend on your needs and your budget; the Shaman will appeal to a select group BUT I do think the camouflage modules will become the standard across all suits in the next few years and I do expect a few copies to appear soon enough. What does keep us moving forwards though is for people like LCS who don’t stop with their products and ideas; they keep looking for the next step and to set the standard even higher.

A massive thank you to Le Covert Sartorialist for sending this suit out. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to test it out. Although I’m half expecting a text shortly to say I’ve missed something out but I’ll update the article if he does…