WWII SOVIET PILOT UNIFORM COLORS

A Soviet airman in brown and gray

The gear of Soviet Air Force pilots looked more varied than one expects. Leather jackets and flight suits ranged from tobacco to dark chocolate, cloth summer suits had a cast of gray or khaki, and a leather helmet was worn over the head, lined with fur in winter. The colors also differed between factories, so two figures from one airfield can have a different tone and both will be faithful.

The four bottles in detail

• the base tone of Russian gear
• a lighter variant for highlighting
• a dark brown for the shadows of a leather flight suit
• the gray-brown tone of a flight suit

The shades are built as a sequence from shadow to light, so they are applied in layers with no further mixing. The acrylic paint is thinned with water, suits a brush and once thinned it goes through an airbrush as well.

Painting advice

Leather needs different treatment from cloth. Leave smooth transitions on it and add a narrow gloss highlight where the tension is greatest, while canvas takes a flat and slightly grainy surface. Underline the folds at the elbows and knees with a darker line and bring buckles and zips to life with a dot of metal. A small highlight in the middle of a brown area does more for the overall impression than another coat of paint. Leave the face and the hands until the end, when it is clear how dark the finished gear will be, and choose the strength of the flesh tone accordingly. This suits a fighter pilot beside a half-built aircraft as much as the crew of a bomber, where several differently dressed men meet in one scene. It is precisely the different tones between them that hold a scene together better than carefully identical uniforms.