Hello,
I'm building a T-72B with Kontact ERA from MiniHobbyModels. I plan to do the vehicle in a Russian army paint scheme used on T-80's, whether accurate or not. My question is if the paint scheme is usually applied to the vehicle before or after the ERA is attached. Would the ERA show the scheme? Or would the vehicle be painted, and then the solid colour blocks attached?
Thanks, this is the first tank I have done with ERA, and its proving difficult for me to find pictures of a Russian tank with both ERA and a paint scheme more detailed than solid green.

Hi Kevin,

There is not one single answer to your question, I'll just give some remarks so you can draw your own conclusion.

- camo schemes are many times applied in the field, following some general instructions (certain angles of spots, wheels in 1 colour etc) This would mean that the ERA has already been attached. BUT...
-I have seen also a pic of a T-72 with only attachment bolts and no ERA (don't know which generation ERA). So it would theoretically be possible to paint that tank in camo and add the blocks later (without camo) but again that is just theory.
-I have seen many pics of various types of T-72 in camo schemes but always the whole tanks including ERA had been painted in those colours. I bet someone comes up with a pic to prove me wrong though .

Good luck with your model!!

Matthijs

You definitely can paint the ERA tiles (Kontakt1 or 3) in the vehicle scheme as it should come from the factory with them on.
Afterwards, the tiles were often removed.

To see pictures, you could do a google search with Kontakt or ERA tiles in the search field.
If you can't find anything interesting have a look at my site, in the link page you should find good link to sites with pics of T-80s at least
Olivier

Thanks to both of you. It was exactly what I wanted to hear, and makes my painting much easier. I paint by hand, so now instead of doing individual blocks, I can wait until Im done and do the whole thing in one go. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I have enough done to be worth it.