Soviet/Russian colors Tactical Schemes 1960-2000 (Part I)

Forty years of one approach to camouflage

From the 1960s onward the view took hold with combat aircraft of eastern origin that a machine should be covered above all when seen from above, that is against the ground. Out of that came a family of patterns based on brown and green fields, which then held on with small changes for decades more. The types of machine, the radars and the armament changed, but the logic of the finish stayed remarkably stable, and that is why one palette takes in so long a period.

The make-up of the eight tones

Two browns are represented, a golden and a pale one, with them a darker brown tone with a period designation, a sandy beige for drier country, a light green for the fields over vegetation and a deep green as the darkest part of the pattern. A gray tone with a cool cast is used where the pattern passes into a neutral area, and the faded blue belongs to the underside of the airframe.

Building advice

On the older machines the areas tended to be larger and simpler than on the later divided patterns, so it is possible to work with a wider nozzle and more quickly. More important than the exactness of an outline is the gap between the depth of the individual fields. When two tones are too close to each other, the pattern merges into a single patch at a distance. It helps to look at the model from a way off before the last coat dries.

Where to use the palette

It suits fighters and reconnaissance machines, older bombers and transport equipment of the same period.

One more note on the undersurfaces. The faded blue is not meant to be deep or cold; its sense is to blend with the sky when seen from below, and the less it draws attention to itself, the better it fills its role on a model as well as on a real machine.