WW2 Soviet AFV paint set

The green that lasted for decades

Modelers know Soviet vehicles above all in a single color, but that single color had several forms and rarer camouflage shades went with it. The six bottles therefore offer not only two generations of the protective green but also a brown and a sand for vehicles with a multicolor pattern and a white for a winter overcoat.

Overview of the contents

• Dark Moss Green matches the ZB AU shade, which was the official base finish from 1937 to 1939 and later served as the base protective coat.
• 4BO Protective Green took over the role of base color for all Soviet military equipment from 1939 and lasted well into the 1950s.
• ZO Protective Green was an alternative to 4BO, often as the base of camouflaged vehicles and as the finish of support equipment.
• Dark Brown 6K and Sand 7K went over the green base in both two-color and three-color patterns.
• Washable white closes the selection and serves for improvised winter camouflage.

What is interesting is that the same shade could drop within a few years from the role of an overall finish to that of a mere base coat, which is exactly what happened to the first of the greens listed.

The chemistry of the box

With a single exception all the shades are lacquers and are thinned with lacquer thinner. That exception is the white, which the manufacturer supplies as an acrylic precisely so that it can be partly rubbed off once dry and reveal the green coat underneath.