In last Monday’s review of the new M3 Lee and Grant kit from Warlord Games I promised a painting guide for Soviet tanks, and here we are with a step-by-step on how to paint them. I’ll show you how I pushed past my disdain and discomfort of painting vehicles to deliver my wife two more rolling coffins for her army. I hope you will find both the painting recipes and my insights useful to your own projects.
If you’ve seen my painting guide for grey German armour from a few months back, you will know I’ve started messing around with oil paints. In an effort to be conscious of people either not being able to get oil paints or being too young to work with frankly poisonous chemicals, I tried putting together a recipe that uses shades instead of oils. It is safe to say that using oils has severely improved my mood during painting. The capillary action allows for a very quick shading of all the rivets and recesses. Unlike shades it also leaves fewer tidemarks which means highlights transition much cleaner.
While looking up some reference photos I found that a lot of the Soviet tanks had very flat dark green paint, so in an effort to make things more interesting I took inspiration from the slightly drab green look seen on the Warlord Games tanks.
In preparation I primed both tanks in Vallejo’s Russian Green primer, which is a very close approximation of Camo Olive Green which I used to cover any corners that the spray didn’t reach. While painting you will handle the models a lot so I would highly recommend a protective varnish after the primer. Since I was planning to use oils I used a Satin Varnish, but if you just want to use the shade method Matt Vanish will do the job too. Another precaution I like to take is to always wear some protective nitrile gloves so I don’t rub off paint with any grease on my fingers (pro tip: you’ll sweat a lot in those gloves so take them off after an hour or so of hobbying and give yourself a small break, otherwise your fingers will prune).
First the classic variant: After fixing up any spots where the primer didn’t hit with Camo Olive Green use a black and brown shade of your choice – I use Army Painter – mix those one to one and then cover the entire tank. This will be quite the undertaking so get a painting palette with decently sized wells (I got the big Army Painter palette for this) to hold all the shade. After wicking off any massive pools, leave the tank to rest for a good hour or so.
Now most of the highlighting will be done by circular drybrush. I bought a set of these round Army Painter drybrushes two years ago and have been using those, but with some care you could probably make a standard drybrush work too. We begin by drybrushing Russian Uniform from Vallejo onto the larger areas, apply it in a circular motion which will fill the center of the the armor plates with more paint and lead to this nice effect of grime building up near the rivets but clearing off the large flat surfaces.
You could skip the next step if this is already enough for you, but you can take some Khaki and do a classic drybrush to create some further highlights on the edges and rivets, however you will create a more scratchy highlight on the flat areas. My last step is weathering; you can do it in many ways, but my go-to method is taking a sponge and dabbing small dots of Vallejo Dark Rust on the model concentrating them towards the tracks, as they would kick up a lot of dirt and mud.
Painting with oil follows quite similar methods as the previous scheme but with some added complexity. Before we even begin you should gather all things necessary for oil painting: the oil, a white spirit or alcohol medium, a brush that holds an okay tip but that you won’t mind messing up, and a palette with a well. When working with oils you want to make sure to wear gloves, be in a well ventilated area and not lick or ingest any of it.
We start with our base coat of Russian Green/Camo Olive Green that has been varnished with a Satin Varnish. Take whichever brand of oil you have access too and mix up something that has a brown-green tint similar to fresh soil. Thin it down to a watery consistency with the spirit. Now load your brush and tap it against the rivets, corners and recesses, the capillary action will do most of the work for you. Note that since you’re not using a gloss varnish the oil might ‘bleed’ outwards, don’t worry at all, it’s part of the plan.
Once the oil has dried up – which should take more than ten minutes – you can grab a larger brush, dip it in some pure spirit and gently brush across the harsher lines of oil, don’t use too much spirit and pressure or you might rub off paint. If done right this will create a softer transition between the flat color and the shades toward the rivets, do this as much as you need until it looks good to you. Next step is a straight up circular drybrush of Russian Uniform followed by another circular drybrush of Russian Uniform mixed with Khaki in a two to one ratio. The next step, a highlight of Khaki, can either be done as a straight edge highlight or as a drybrush if you want a more dusty scratchy look. And lastly a finishing sponge of Dark Rust to make things look less clean.
That is it really for painting the green on your Soviet vehicles. This works for almost any tank, vehicle, and even artillery. Obviously this isn’t it for the model, you still need to paint the tracks and stowage. Stowage varies so I’ll leave you to figure out how to paint that, but if you want to know how I painted my tracks, here’s a super quick recipe: basecoat with Dark Rust and then drybrush with a dark metallic color. It’s that simple.
Thank you for reading our guide on painting Soviet tanks – stay tuned for more Summer of the Eastern Front content from Goonhammer Historicals!
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