Hi, I have lately been building a dragon ISU-152, and while I was building it, I pulled out my GAZ-67b which I hadnt finished due to a lack of paint.

The figures that come with the GAZ 67 are OK, but with mould lines on them. There is one figure in particular, the drier of the GAZ who is interesting. As a sort of joke, I sat him on top of the JSU-152 barrel just to see how the size of the figure compares to the SPG. I thought that maybe I could portay the driver as painting a kill stripe on the tank barrel? Is there any evidence of kill markings on soviet tanks?

Thanks

Hi Ted,
Having just flicked through one of my reference books on soviet self-propelled guns - couldn't find a single picture with kill-markings...I get the impression Russian armour didn't have a long enough life-expectancy (mechanical unreliability and enemy action) for them to acquire many kill-markings. But that is just an assumption on my part, of course.
Cheers
Dierk

Neil Stokes can correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that Stavka frowned on anything but aircraft having kill markings and that the average Soviet Soldier had more of a group work mentality, even among tanks etc, with the individual being recognized only peripherally. Thus, patriotic slogans were acceptable.

More research needs to be done, and there may be some exceptions, but onteh whole I would say no.

Don't know about Stavka requirements but soldiers (individual, and artillery or tank crews) did keep scores of their victories. They also were getting an awards (orders or medals) based on the kill numbers. And it was used a lot for a propaganda. Just because there are no photos of such markings doesn't mean that no one painted them, right? Or maybe they were more concerned with staying alive day after day, than to paint silly rings on a gun barrel?

For example, well known KV-1 "Беспощадный" ("Merciless") was widely used for propaganda. Just between spring of 42 and spring of 43 they destroyed 27 enemy tanks, 9 mortars, 10 cannons, 17 machine guns, 30 cars and trucks, and 13 armored cars.






But what Soviet tanks did not have was the rust, that many modelers love to paint so much. A tank commander could be court-marshaled if his tank looked like some 10-year old rusted can of tomatoes.

it would be possible...but incredibly rare

According to the principles of "Socialist emulation" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_competition ) Russiald soldiers were encouraged to obtain the best results and they were rewarded with lots of medals.

But anyway, I've seen lots of original Russian tanks pics. Any of them had victory marks, lots of them had slogans on the turrets.

I tend to agree with Dierk




Cheers

sorry for my mistake

I think the old rings on the barrel thing was pretty much uniquely German and pretty much for propaganda.

One of the principles of warfare is to ensure that any one particular soldier is not recognisable from any other, it's an Intel thing. If you see a distinctive tank you can then work out what unit is facing you etc.

Has anyone see a photo of ANY tank with kill markings, actually in combat?

As a case in point take a look at the Wittman article on Wikipedia and there is a shot of his decapitated tank. Not a good picture for sure but I can't see any evidence of the kill rings which should be pretty obvious I'd think.

I actually have numerous books on Russian/Soviet armor, and after reading this thread, decided to have a look for myself. So far, no unique signs of kill markings on anything have been seen. I'll keep digging.

Not to jack your thread, but did anyone (manufacturer), ever do a 1:16 KV-1 or ISU-152? I'd love to do a 1:16 ISU-52. I've now gone through three more books; still no kill markings.

Thanks for all the help guys!