WWII SOVIET UNIFORM COLORS

A Red Army soldier in khaki and in blue

The gymnastyorka field blouse and the galife riding breeches were the basis of the equipment of Soviet infantry, tank crews and artillery in the Second World War. The shade of the cloth differed from batch to batch and the sun shifted it toward a faded yellow within a single summer, so two figures standing side by side rarely carry the same green.

That is exactly why the set is built on three khakis: a shadow tone for the folds, a middle base for the surfaces and a lighter variant for the raised edges. The pair of blues belongs to the trousers and collar tabs of tank and air units and to parts of the walking-out uniform. The sixth shade, a rich flat red, covers rank stripes, stars, pennants and patches, that is, the details with the greatest color contrast on the whole figure.

Working with the set

The package consists of six bottles of seventeen milliliters each of water-thinnable acrylic paint. The shades are put together for layering with a brush: the darkest tone is laid into the recesses, the middle one onto the lit surfaces and the lightest is applied with an almost dry brush onto the edges of the folds. When working with an airbrush the same three serve as a base under oil filters and streaked shadows.

The range suits figures in 1:35 scale and larger busts, and once thinned it copes with small 1:72 figures as well. It also comes in useful on the textile accessories of vehicles - on rolled tarpaulins, packs and covers, where Soviet khaki appears in the same range of tones. The red bottle moreover covers pennants and unit markings on armored vehicles.