Good evening!
As many of you already read (and know), the building of the old Tamiya T-34/85 is not as enjoyable as other kits. Now comes painting, which is the funniest part for me! I'll basecoat it soon (probably on Friday or Saturday, just after some exams at the University), and this is how the kit looks like (photo by Tamiya)

The instructions advise to use XF-61 Dark Green, but I think it's TOO DARK and I'm not going to use it, also because I don't like Tamiya acrylics used by brush. So my choice would go for Humbrol enamels, which are very familiar to me and the result with a brush painting is better.
The result I would like to achieve is this

or this

or (ABOVE ALL) this

(Nevermind the weathering, I'll post another topic to ask you some advise - thanks to the authors of these models for sharing their photos, though I don't remember their names!)
Which base colour would you use? I thought Humbrol 150 (Matt Forest Green) or 91 (Black Green) would look good on it... what do you think, and which colour did you use to make you Soviet tanks?
And what about the basecoat for the tracks?
Thanks for any help!

Giacomo

Giacomo,
4BO was a VERY Dark green used on Soviet Armor in ww2. There have been many posts regarding this shade and what to use so on and so on.....

You are sure to get a number of different answers - everyone has their own style....

For what its worth here's what I have tried.

Base coat your Tank in a med to dark yellow primer THEN spray several coats STARTING with the dark green then lighten it each time. This is a sort of reverse shading. OR-
Paint the entire model in black basecoat then work in your green lightened with yellow - remember if you use white to lighten it will turn your green to grey!

You could also use counter-shading or oil filters

I 'll be curious to see what others techniques are....

Chris

Any excuse to trot out the pictures of 'Sniper' which should be in its original paint scheme (allowing for years of weathering, being in the bottom of a bog etc etc )

Sniper

In the days when I Humbrolled I painted my Soviet tanks 116 US Dark Green (I know, it's a 60's aircraft colour). Nowadays I might go for something lighter, like 117 US Light Green, which is supposed to be FS34102, one of the suggested matches for 4BO.

Hi Giacomo. Having read numerous meaningless threads on the proper green for Russian armor, I´d also go for the colours suggested by David. 116 or 117. A lot of people have recommended these over the years. With all the usual weathering that Russian armor recieves afterwards, the base colour usually gets lost anyway. In the examples you gave, it proves that both lighter and darker greens look good, especially when weathered up nicely.

Thanks everyone for your help and to David for the Sniper link!
It seems that the three tones (Humbrol 150, 116 and 117) are very similar to each other...
I think I'll get two of them and maybe all three and make a comparison (I'll use them in the future as well)...
I won't make a mix, also because I don't have an airbrush and I don't feel to blend the colours, but I'll definitely go for washings and filters!

Actually, the great thing about Russian armor, that you can paint it any green you like... the wartime production somehow made standardization unimportant, so the tanks were painted green, period.

Thanks for replying!
I eventually opeted for Humbrol 150 Forest Green.
I also bought Mig Productions' European Dust pigment, so I'll see what it means to add some SERIOUS dust to a tank!

The Russian magazine Tankmaster has published period color photos of Soviet T-34 and IS-2 tanks on exercise, and the 4B0 is a medium, not dark green (risky, I know, to match a color to a photo, but the other color values in the pictures looked pretty good--the sky looked like sky, the grass looked like grass). According to Cookie Sewell, historians in Russia have recommended FS34102 as a good match to the original color cards, though in a wartime situation, there would have been lots of variations. Steve Zaloga has a paint sample on a vehicle part (date unknown) and he suggests FS34098. Take yer pick. Both colors are available as USAF cammo colors from Model Master and others.

Ok, this is how I will proceed:
1)overall coat with Humbrol Forest Green (too bright, maybe)
2)Seal with flat (semi-gloss, actually) Maimeri spray varnish
3)Filter with Humbrol US Army Green
4)Other filter with Humbrol dark Green
5)Washings with various enamel and oils
6)Drybrush with Forest Green+Beige
7)Paint chipping (drybrush with Burnt Sienna+Raw Umber oils)+decals
8)Rust streaks with Burnt Sienna oil

Comments? What do you think?