"1980's Finnish" Topic

Hi,

I am trying to find out what colour to paint 1980's Finnish Tanks and infantry uniforms. Also what was the infantry uniform like in the 1980's.

I am collecting the army in 1/300th scale.

Many Thanks

Rich.

Not sure about vehicles, but infantry would be wearing "maastopuku m62" which has a three colour camo scheme (light green, dark green, reddish brown) on one side for summer use. The other side is off-white colour so the uniform can be reversed for winter use.

Based on my personal experience, the exact shades of the camo pattern could vary significantly between different trousers and jackets, so I would not be too picky about trying to match any exact colours. Besides, in 1/300 scale you might have difficulties painting detailed camo patterns anyway.

Here is a picture of one uniform:

And here is another being worn with webbing gear – pay attention to the different shades for pants and jacket. But please notice that the helmet and helmet cover are models that were not in use in the 1980's. Not sure whether the flak vest shown was in use in the 1980's, but probably would not have been a common sight for infantrymen at the time. Anti-tank mine shown is practice version (no explosive inside), thus painted yellow. Not sure where those gloves are from.

Griefbringer nails it what comes into m62 cammies.
The colour greatly varied, and they were mixedly use without shame.

But about the later picture: Its a bit satiric finnish surplus stores advert picture, and its portraying quite well finnish conscripts personal equipment from late 1990s or even 2000s, but not 80s.

The composite helmet (in shape quite similiar to PASGT one) was introduced in early 1990s (IIRC, official models are m/91, m/92 and m/96) and didnt arrive to all garrisons until mid 2000s – fex. sappers in kainuu still had to do with old steel helmets in 2004!
Also, the flakvest carried in the picture is standard issue flakvest m/91, dating to early 1990s, tho again, like with the helmet, didnt archieve most of the troops till 2000s.

IIRC, in 1980s Finnish personel in UN duties wore plain dark-green US model(sometimes in UN-blue covers) 3/4 flak vests, no idea were those issue or personal investments. Both are possible options – still, no general issue flak vests were available before m/91.
But helmets: The m/62 steel helmet is propably the most common one for 1980s. Not sure how long those WW2-era "kraut" helmets served (okay, to be excat, the interiors were upgraded in 1955 resulting new type, m/55), but at least till the 1970s. To be noted, m62 helmet cover was also produced for it!

But the webbing – its model 1985 (taisteluvyö m/85). Highly similiar to US ALICE, but not nearly as good. Most of the paddings are inadequate, and the "fast clip" system is way too stiff to be used fast. Im not going to give full list, but even when its in standard load, its quite horrbile to carry. And like with the protection listed above, these didnt make their way to the most of the troops till 1990s. The webbing used from 1960s to (in some god forsaken hellholes of lapland) early 2000s was M/60 – mostly replaced in mid-90s. I was not able to find pictures of it (`cos like the chernobyl, some things are just better after 6 feets of concrete..), but IIRC, it was extremely simplified thin-strapped canvas system, colour ranging from nature white flax to light green.

Other stuff in the pictures: Boots are m91 standard issue (not sure about this – they might be early production m05) but anyway, the only real difference in gaming scale are the speed laces. And in 1/300 scale, well… :D Also, the gloves are 1990s (m91 or m96, cant be sure) issue, known as "noukkarit" from words no-can-do. Well. Yeah. Cos you just cant with them.

But yeah, about vehicles:

It depends. The three-tone sharp edged camo was officially adopted in early 80s (again, cant call excatly, 81 or 83) but like allways, it took hell of a time to reach 100% of units. This didnt even happen to all vehicles where it should have, fex. tracked tractors (AT-S and IIRC, ATS-59 too) were pushed into long term storaging (war time storaging, mostly this mean "being scrapped in coming 15 years due to budget cuts)") before most of them received that paint. The camo included following colours:
Dark green, light khaki green and black – some exceptions can be found, but not from 1980s. IIRC, the official variation allowed also usage of brown, but as far as I know, it was never used. Scheme is still in service, so a quick google will help you too. One note too – nowadays the "light" equipment like trucks and utility cars arent painted to that scheme, but in 1980s they were. Everything from UAZ-469 to D-30 howitzer and XA-180.

Finnish scale model site – 1980s era BTR-60PB
Same site, MT-LBv -though not alrgely used in 1980s

But a word about the cammies – in 1980s, finnish army was still fighting against itself, and in case of war, Im quite sure that at least 1/4 of the troops would have had to go without their cammies. So to be noted, the orginal name of m62 (IIRC) is "naamiopuku, kesä, m62" (literally: camouflage suit, summer, m62) and like a snowsuit before (and after it), it was meant to be wielded with standard woollen(/Sarka) field suit (m/65, or in some less-fortunate positions, m/36 – both plain greenish gray) under it.

Hope this helped.

Thanks for the info.

I have found this. The tank at 1:42 I guess is in the colurs above Dark green, light khaki green and black been colour blind dont help.

YouTube link

cheers again

Rich.

Here's a site with some information on the colours used on Finnish AFVs.

link

Check out the Painting and markings section, about two thirds of the way down the page.

Here's some pics of the M/60 webbing.
I used it while I served in 88/89 with the only exception being in the school for officers in reserve where they had the funky new M/85 available.

swat.fi/sa-tst-vyo-m-60

Some pics of the old rucksack too:
link

link

richinq:

Yup, it is.

Lonkka1Actual:

Thx for the pics!

My bad about the webbing, I had not realised that model shown on the picture was a rare sight in the 80's. Luckily I have never had an encounter with the older M60 webbing myself.

As regards footwear, perhaps I should mention that black knee lenght rubber boots (maybe produced by Nokia rubber factory) might be an entirely possible sight on the field for the infantrymen.

I totally forgot the boot section!

But yeah, rubber boots were (and still are) part of general issue, and due to finnish nature, mostly those are employed by the dedicated infantry units.

But still one thing – black leather boots, knows as "jatsarit", were still in issue during 1980s in (at least) some garrisons (friend of mine, who served in the coastal artillery as a explosive specialist in 1986-7, had still one pair to be used in the cross-country excercises in cold weather).

In Savon prikati on 88/89 we had leather boots, two sets of rubber boots (summer pair and larger ones for winter), combat boots as well as shoes.

Interesting – were the leather boots for what purpose, or were they dedicated at all?