PAINTING GUIDE:

TM

SOVIET ARMY
Even before Germany launched Operation
Barbarossa in 1941, the Red Army had been
fighting for years - in the East against Japan
and in the West against Finland. Recent purges
of the armys leadership by Stalin before the
German invasion had, however, left it floundering
and initially unable to deal with the modern
organization, strategies, and tactics of the
Blitzkrieg style of warfare. Without strong and
creative leaders, the Soviet army could only rely
on three things to slow, and eventually stop, the
advancing Germans: the vast size of Russia, the
massive amount of weapons and ammunition
the Russians could produce, and the incredible
size of the Russian population - millions of whom
held a rifle in defence of their Motherland.

This Painting Guide will provide you with a step-

by-step guide to painting the basic rifleman of
the Soviet Red Army and perhaps one of the
most innovativly designed tanks of the war - the
T-34. In most circumstances, the colour schemes
presented here were used by the standard
infantry from 1941 through to the end of the war
in 1945. This scheme can also give you a good
starting point for many of the other specialist
infantry units the Soviets deployed.

Following the step-by-step painting guides, youll

find a collection of other units from the Soviet
forces that display the wide variety of painting
possibilities when collecting these models.

There are many paint ranges available for painting

up your miniatures, and it doesnt really matter which
paints you use. Thats completely up to you. We used
a variety of paints in preparing this guide, and named
them with abbreviations.
These can be deciphered below:
w:
VMC = Vallejo Model Color
AP = Army Painter

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 Painting your Soviet Infantry
1 2

The first step is always to prepare your models for painting. After The next step includes painting the basecoats over the largest
assembling a squad of five models, we applied a layer of fine areas. We started with VMC Khaki Grey over the uniform tunic and
basing grit, and let the glue dry. trousers. This was followed by VMC Russian Green for the helmet.
We then painted the face and hands with AP Tanned Flesh, a good
Many people undercoat their models with black or white sprays.
base colour for Caucasian skin.
We chose to spray each model with AP Uniform Grey spray
as sometimes a black undercoat can mean you have to apply
multiple coats of your other paints, and white can leave the
colours a bit too bright for the muted uniform colours of WWII.

3 4

We painted the webbing and pouches with VMC Khaki, and We followed up Step 3 by painting a layer of AP Strong Tone Wash
the bag on his back with VMC Tan Earth (bedrolls use the same over the entire model and let it dry thoroughly.
base color). Then we moved on to the wooden stock of the rifle,
If you are painting a lot of models at once and chose to paint
painting it with VMC Beige Brown.
the black and silver areas before the wash, you could finish your
If you are painting a lot of models at once and are on a tight painting here, although your models would like quite dark and
timeframe, you might also choose to paint the black and silver not quite as nice as they could if you decided to push on.
areas (covered in Steps 8 & 9).

5 6

While the wash adds great shadows to your model, to make In order to help it stand out a little more from the equipment, the
it really pop you need to go back and add some highlights. uniform was highlighted again with a 70/30 mix of VMC Khaki
We started by highlighting the uniform with VMC Khaki Grey, then Grey/VMC Pale Sand. The webbing and pouches were highlighted
the helmet with VMC Russian Green. The hands and face were with VMC Khaki and the bag was highlighted with VMC Tan Earth.
highlighted with AP Tanned Flesh. Finally, the skin was highlighted with a 50/50 mix of AP Tanned
Flesh/VMC Basic Skintone.

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 7 8

The next step was to paint the boots, helmet strap, and metal Then we highlighted the areas with a 50/50 mix of AP Matt Black/
areas with AP Matt Black. Not only does this create a great base for AP Gun Metal. Some areas, such as the rim of the helmet and the
any metallics you will use, but it also helps to tidy up the model. tip of the rifle barrel, were given a little dab of AP Gun Metal. At
this point we painted the eyes and gave the boots and helmet
strap a quick highlight with VMC German Grey.

Paed uniforms Loaders

Quite a few of the models on the Soviet Infantry sprues are There are quite a few squads in the Soviet army list that can field
wearing the telogreika - the quilted jacket and trousers worn light machine guns, along with their loaders. Dont forget to make
by many Russian soldiers. They paint up in the same way as the sure that for each DP-28 LMG in your squads you have a rifleman
uniform in this guide, and the quilted ribs will stand out as great with the oversized pouch to carry the ammo drum. These pouches
places for your highlighting. can be painted just like the rest of the webbing.

Basing

Basing is the thing that really helps tie your army together. with VMC German Camo Brown-Black, drybrushed the grit and
There are many, many ways you can do you basing, depending on painted the edge with VMC Beige Brown, drybrushed again with
where you want your troops to be fighting, and what your gaming VMC Dark Sand, and then glued down different flocking materials
table looks like. For our purposes, we painted the base completely to give a variety of colours and textures.

The Completed Light Machine gun Squad

This completed Soviet

Light Machine Gun Squad
(using the squad listing on
page 24 of Armies of the
Soviet Union), has the
minimum five men, including
an NCO with a submachine
gun and a soldier with a
light machine gun.

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 VariAnts of Soviet Uniforms
These models are part of a Soviet command group and
they are primarily uniformed much like our infantryman.
The sniper on the right, however, is wearing a two tone, dark
green camouflage coverall.

The only thing these Soviet engineers have in common

with our infantryman, uniform-wise, are the helmets and
boots. Trained to get up close to destroy enemy fortifications,
these engineers are wearing camouflage coveralls and steel
body armour, painted in the same green as their helmets.

This Scout squad is very lightly-equipped and

ready to blend in to their surroundings in these
camouflage coveralls. It seems that these
forerunners to the Spetznatz had a bit of
freedom in choosing their uniforms.

As the German army advanced into Russia, the

Soviet fleets were trapped in various harbours. This
freed up many Red Navy sailors to fight on land.
Their distinctive black/dark blue uniforms and caps
helped them stand out from the rest of the Red Army,
earning them the nickname of the black death.

Throughout Eastern Europe, behind German

frontlines, partisans supported by the Soviet Army
kept German security battalions on their toes. This
partisans unit exemplifies the rag-tag look that a lack
of uniformity brings.

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 Painting your Soviet Tanks
We assembled the T-34/85 as per
1 the instructions. Much like the
infantry, once everything was ready, we
undercoated it with AP Uniform Grey. Once
the undercoat was dry, we used a large
brush to apply the basecoat - VMC Russian
Green. We thinned the paint a little to
ensure it went on smoothly, so we had to
apply two coats for a solid coverage.
If you have an airbrush and are painting
quite a few vehicles, you could certainly
spray on your basecoat.

Once the second coat was dry, we

2 applied AP Strong Tone wash over the
whole tank with a very large brush, paying
particular attention to where the shadows
would fall.

We let the wash dry thoroughly and

3then drybrushed the entire tank
with VMC Russian Green.

We then followed up with a light drybrush of

4 a 50/50 mix of VMC Russian Green/VMC Dark
Sand, concentrating on picking up all the edges.

Many people wait until the end of

5 painting their tanks to apply the
decals, but we chose to do it at this stage
in order to ensure that any shading and
weathering we applied later would be
applied to the decals too.
Once the decals has dried and were fully
secured in place, we applied a coat of
VMC Satin Varnish over them, to cut back
the glossy appearance.
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 The next step was to apply a bit of chipping - areas
6 where the paint has been scratched or worn off
and reveals the original primer coat underneath. For this
we simply sponged on VMC German Camo Brown-Black
using a folded piece of sponge from a Warlord Games
blister pack. Be careful to apply the chipping in areas
that would see the most wear and tear.
Of course, if you want your tanks to be factory-fresh,
you can skip Steps 6-7.

Almost there! We then painted everything that

7 wasnt going to remain in the camouflague colours
with AP Matt Black. This included the tracks, the rubber
edges of the road wheels, some of the tools on the deck
and so on.

Any metallic areas were highlighted with a 50/50

8 mix of AP Matt Black/AP Gun Metal. In several of
the chipped areas we added some small dabs of AP Gun
Metal, to simulate additional wear. The rubber on the
road wheels was highlighted with VMC German Grey.
We then went over the tanks with some thinned VMC
Red Leather, painting thinned streaks here and there,
as well as giving the tow cables a wash, all to add to the
weathered feel.

We wanted to go for a Spring look, with much of

9 the Winter camouflage washed or worn off, so we
applied thin washes of VMC Pale Grey to the appropriate
areas towards the bottom of the armour panels and on
the underside of the turret, fuel tanks and so on.

The Completed Soviet T-3

T-34/85
34/8

And finally...
To give it the slogging around
Europe, seeing lots of action
look we drybrushed a mixture
of browns onto the tracks and
undercarriage of the tank,
simulating a coating of mud.

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 VariAnts of Soviet vehicles
This massive KV-2 tank has been given a thorough
whitewash for fighting in snowy conditions. With such a
large, blocky turret, the tank would certainly benefit from
blending into the winters sky, or snow-covered fields.

This IS-2 has a fairly standard paintjob, with the exception

of the large aerial recognition cross on top of the turret and
the broad white band around the side of the turret.

Heres a T-34/85 like the one we paintedted for this

guide, but still in its winter whitewash. As was quite
ngs and patriotic
typical for Soviet tanks, the tank markings
slogans are not whitewashed over.

The Soviet Army made great use of Lend Lease vehicles

from the U.S. (a modified M17 haltrack shown left) and
Britain (a repainted Universal Carrier shown right) and
unless they were forced into combat early, the Soviets
would repaint the vehicles. Many crews also took the time
to adorn their new vehicles with patriotic slogans.

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