"Early war Soviets and Hungarians Vallejo colours" Topic

Hello

I am a complete WW2 novice. My military knowledge pretty much ends at 1871. I have, however, taken the plunge and bought GHQ Microarmour early war Soviet and Hungarian forces.

I would be grateful if anyone can suggest appropriate Vallejo colours to paint the infantry and vehicles for the each army. If there is anything else that I should know about colours for other stuff, like weapons and artillery, I would be grateful for comments. I have bought some reference books, but I still don't feel much the wiser as to what Vallejo paint will work for Soviet khaki (for example).

Thank you

This is what I have used for Hungary:

Trousers, tunic, side cap 921 English Uniform
Helmet 887 Brown Violet
Boots, belts, ammo pouches 984 Flat Brown
Bread Bag, SMG pouch 914 Green Ochre
Bayonet Scabbard Black
Collar tabs:
Inf Grass Green 850 Medium olive
Armored & Cav Cornflower Blue 901 Pastel Blue
Artillery Red
Engineers blue green/steel green 50/50 mixture 925 Blue and 850 Medium Olive

Vehicles 890 Reflective Green

Flames of War has an article on painting Hungarian infantry based on their "new" colors that come in the "bullet" bottles: link

My list is based on their old painting guide using their regular paints. I did do some substitutes I thought matched better. For example instead of 984 Flat Brown they used 872 Chocolate Brown. Instead of 914 Green Ochre they used 988 Khaki.

Thank you Marc. That is very helpful, although you would have to be a lot better painter than me to paint collar tabs in 1-285 scale!

So true. But figure might help folks doing larger scales so threw it in :)

Good thinking and considerate.

For the Russians…

I used Polly-S when I painted my 6mm Russians. But alas, they are no longer available. So here is the list I have compiled, but not yet used, with Vallejo Paints. There are options for several of the items … as said, I have compiled by not yet used the list, so I am collecting possibilities but have not yet chosen. That, and, with Soviet Russian uniforms it makes sense to have a bit of variety in shading. Not only did uniforms differ from one factory to the next, but they also faded over the summer and were notably closer to green or brown in the spring, and to tan in the fall.

SUMMER UNIFORM:

Tunic & Breeches
V924 Russian Uniform
V912 Tan Yellow
V824
****(best)V880 Khaki Grey

Belt
V822 German Black Brown

Sidecap
V924 Russian Uniform
V912 Deck Tan

Officer's Visor Cap
V924 Russian Uniform
V912 Deck Tan
Band (on the cap)
Infantry Branch: V817 Scarlet
Cavalry: V925 Blue
Artillery: V909 Vermillion

Steel Helmet
V894 Russian Green

Greatcoat
V880 Khaki Grey
V921 English Uniform

Boots
V822 German Black Brown

Packs, carriers, bags, capes/shelter halves
V924 Russian Uniform
V916 Sand
V821 German Camo Beige
V912 Deck Tan
V847 Dark Sand

Cloth Webbing
V881 Yellow Green
V978 Dark Yellow

And as to whether I do that level of painting with my 6mm figures … well I try to.

Here is an example from one of my more recent forces, my Romanians.

Don't always go to full details .. sometimes paint up one or two stands as a test case to see how much detail I really like before I go in whole hog on a full unit.

My Russians were all painted originally in the early/mid 1990s, when I basically just painted them a uniform color (Polly-S Russian Uniform Khaki) and put on different colored bases (grass green). They were then touched up / re-detailed first in the late 1990s (adding flesh tone faces and hands), and then again about 10 years ago (adding helmets, guns and boots). If for some reason I wanted to replace or repaint the whole force, well I'd have to give it some real thought. I have, after all, a full Rifle Battalion, two SMG companies, an engineering platoon, a two platoon cavalry company, and a whole bunch of gun crews, so I don't know how much detail I'd do if I painted them today.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Thank you Mark 1. My apologies for not responding sooner, but I have not checked this thread for a while.

As noted by Mark 1 colors will fade including those on vehicles. While this picture is of a scrapyard with modern Russian vehicles it does show the variation in color