"Russian WW2 Armour Colours" Topic

Hi all

Was the standard Russian Green universally used for Russian tanks and vehicles in WW2? There is a wide variation in uniform colours for the Russians due to dyes, battle use etc and I was wondering if there was a similar effect on vehicle colour schemes or even if other base colours were used besides the Dark Green?

Regards
Andrew

And how about Ukrainian tanks?

Allen

From what I understand there were two base colors (dye lots notwithstanding) – a darker green and a lighter green. Some are of the opinion that the darker green was used on heavies (and some T-34s apparently) and the lighter green on the lights. I could have that backwards. Not sure totally what the basis of this assumption is but it's one train of thought at least.

Hi Andrew.

I asked similar to this a while back. from what I can gather there was a lot of variation in the green due to weathering and factories seem to have applied deffering shades too.

I also believe through some research early war vehicles tended to be a lighter shade.

certain tanks even left the factory with no green applied if going straight into battle, ie Stalingrad.

And how about Ukrainian tanks?

Well, if the huns had played their cards right: dunkelgelb plus two colours.

Andrew

The soviets only had one standard green paint and it was 4B0. It's an olive drab/green virtually indistinguishable from US olive drab or british SCC-15. 4B0 was applied to all manner of military equipment – tanks, vehicles, helmets, artillery, and aircraft. Was there some variation between paint lots? Yes, of course there was, but it wasn't drastic. The same variation occurred with US OD. Different manufacturers, different lots, variable quality control.

The light green (a yellowish pea green) that modelers are so enamoured of was commonly found on older vehicles encountered in 1941. They had been built before the war and in some cases were 5+ years old. Paint exposed to the elements for that long will fade/bleach extensively. At the other extreme is the very dark green (but distictly olive) seen on well cared for museum vehicles (stored out of the elements). This is because soviet wartime produced 4B0 was chemically unstable. As the paint aged it got progressively darker – but that takes years/decades. Most soviet equipment didn't last that long in service. 4B0 is still the standard base colour of russian military equipment. The paint is of higher quality but the colour is still the same.

T34s in 1941

T34 and Sherman, Austria, spring 1945

T34 recent museum dispay

Modern 4B0 base colour

T34 and T90 colour comparison

cheers

Killer – fantastic!

So, just to be clear, painting my Russian tanks the same color as my US tanks would be closer than the dark Russian Green?

vogless – I'd stick with the Russian Green.

So, just to be clear, painting my Russian tanks the same color as my US tanks would be closer than the dark Russian Green?

It depends on what colour you're using for your US tanks, but basically yes. I'm using Tamiya Olive Drab 2 in the rattle can (10 frikken bucks for something not much bigger than a binaca!!!) which is very similar to the paint Tim used. I have found that choosing different primers (white,gray, or black) will give a subtlely different OD. Add filters of various colours (brown, green, gray) and the end result will be different still. The real (ie full size) colours of US OD, SCC-15, and 4B0 are slightly different from one another, especially noticeable in a museum setting where the vehicles may be parked next to each other. However, we are painting miniatures not the real things, and after accounting for scale effect and weathering the colours all look pretty much the same – certainly (IMHO) not worth paying for three different paint colours.

cheers

Thanks for all the answers and pics – most useful!

Regards
Andrew

I recently made a swatch from the Akan 4BO, being that it's from an eastern source, it's worth mentioning & I've always been curious. It's a very interesting color & unlike any color I've seen in paint ranges we are used to. When it dried & I looked at it, it produced that Ah-Ha feeling. It explains why it has been so difficult to describe by people. Very Soviet looking. I ran it through the instrument to get the L*a*b*, and the data does illustrate what this color is and why it is such a 'confused' color…it's not sure what it wants to be. It really is at the border of OD/olive green. It's not a true olive green-it has strong aspects of OD to it. The Tamiya TS-28 OD2 does very well capture the high chroma, which is a feature rarely found western camo colors, but the TS-28 would represent a batch that went greener off standard. It's much closer to US OD (towards brown) than SCC15, which is more like a Forest Green.

Datawise, it is ridiculously close to the OD color I mentioned on the other thread wrt to the Vallejo mix. Same reflectance & but a step higher in chroma, and a step over towards green. Some weekend I'll take a stab at making a Vallejo mix. Will be an interesting project