WW2 russian infantry

[rommel58]

Hey fellas, what colors do you guys use for ww2 Russian uniforms.
i was thinking olive drab or khaki drab, but am not sure.

[dougeagle]

I have yet to get any WWII Soviets, but I've seen some pics in the past where they were painted almost Khaki...no Khaki drab...or you could go Khaki grey if you wanted. The helmets I would paint either Russian green or dark green...but that's just me.

[Baphomet69]

Of course there's always Vallejo Russian Uniform...

[pmskaar]

As with most nationalities during WWII there was a fair amount of variation in color in WWII Russian uniforms. Personally, I think Vallejo Russian uniform straight out of the bottle would be a bit dark for 1/285th scale and maybe a bit too olive as well.
Most pictures I have seen of the actual uniforms indicate that they tended more in the light brown to tan range with maybe just a hint of green but not usually not very strong. Some really well worn uniforms could be faded to a very light beige, almost white.

For my own WWII GHQ Russian infantry, I have settled on Humbrol #84 Middlestone as my color of choice for these guys. I lighten with a bit of white as well and it gives it that sort of very light brown ochre color that I have often seen in pictures. Feel free to experiment here and get something that looks right for your army. Try not to get it too dark and make sure you lighten the colors, especially if you do a wash.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

[dougeagle]

Troy Ritter has some colors that he recommends with Vallejo. Scroll down to where is says Russia.
http://www3.telus.net/Ritterkrieg/colors2.htm

[Mk 1]

Pete is right, there was a great variety of color/shading in Soviet uniforms in WW2.

The "official" color was indeed a fairly dark khaki, which had a large dose of green and brown together. This color is rather different from the color they used for their tanks, which was generally very much green.

But colors varied from one factory to another, and from one production lot to another, and from one season to another.

Winter uniforms were wool, and tended to hold their color much better. So winter uniforms should be darker with more green content. But overcoats had a large dose of gray in their khaki, and white coveralls were often put on over the dark khaki uniforms. So again a fair bit of variety.

Summer uniforms were cotton, and faded fairly quickly as the season progressed. They started the same dark khaki in the spring. The green seems to have faded out more quickly than the brown, so by early summer they looked more like chocolate or coffee, and by late summer more like toffee, while by fall they might be more like milk-tea. Soldiers often kept their wollen pants with their summer blouses, so on some of the troops the pants might be darker than their shirts, while the rolled-up overcoat would be darker and more of a gray-green then a brown-green.

So what's a micro-armor gamer to do? Well, if you like painting you can have a lot of fun. Or if you want the easy way out, try what I have done.

My WW2 Soviet infantry is base-coated with Polly-S "Soviet Khaki". This is a dark brown-green.

I dark-wash with a mix of Polly-S "Grimy Black" which is a gray-black, and Polly-S "German Uniform Gray" which is a gray-green. This gives some definition to the belts and the rolled-up greatcoats. Then I dry-brush with Polly-S "US Khaki", which is a fairly light tan. I am deliberately not very careful on the dry-brushing, so different figures get different amounts of the tan. It is pretty hard to get the pants when you dry-brush figures at this scale, and I don't even try, so their pants often wind up darker than their tops.

Then I detail. Boots are black. Flesh for hands and faces. Guns get brown for wood, and Tamiya "Gun Metal" for the metal. The rolled greatcoats get a touch-up with German Uniform Gray, or with Soviet Khaki, mixing some figures one way, some the other. For helmets I use Tamiya Acrylics "Khaki Drab". I find that the Tamiya Acrylics are not as flat as Polly-S when they dry, and I like a little bit of a sheen on metal objects like helmets.

All of that said, my Soviet infantry are not GHQ figures. They are Brand-X stuff that I acquired in the early 1990s. When I paint GHQ figures up these days I do a lot more detailing that what I've described above. But the Brand-X stuff doesn't have the detail in the moldings, so they don't get the details in the painting.

Hope that helps.

[jb]

I concur with Pmskaar and Mk1. lots of variations for different shades and even different earth tones. Also please include lend lease which shipped tons of clothing material to the USSR.
With this in mind my soviets use almost everyone's colors and paint manufacturers in this threads and most likely even more.