Colour match for modern Russian armour

Preferring enamels to acrylics (yes, I’m something of a dinosaur), I am looking for a Humbrol or Revell paint match for a 1/72-scale Russian T-80BV. I have studied countless online photographs, but the actual tone varies depending on image quality and lighting. My initial thought is that the colour is a grey-green, much lighter than Soviet-era tanks. Of course, I may be totally wrong on this …
Any thoughts?

Paul

AK-Real makes Modern Russian Green # RC 098
Its as good starting point as any.

Ak-Real is like Tamiya,thins with hardware store lacquer thinner,sprays great just like Tamiya.

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I feel AK’s color is waaay too green!

For me I use either NATO green, or IJA Green from Tamiya, depending if I want a more green or a more olive paint scheme. You could probably use Tamiya dark green, for some that I’ve seen.

There isn’t a huge amount of consistency with either Soviet or Russian green, so this is definitely a case of “close enough!” if you want…

Damon.

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By the way, Tamiya also makes a line of enamel paints. I never used them (I like the acrylics: thins with hardware store lacquer, cleans up with water or alcohol().

Damon.

If you look at photos of Russian armor in the Ukraine, there looks to be lots of variation in the greens used.

For Humbrol enamels:

Best option for post wwII armor is 102

next is 86 and close to that 116 and 117

117 is also closest match for 4BO Green

30 is a bit too bright but ok

Use buff or tan to lighten the shade for highlighting, dont use yellow or white or light grey.

I mainly build the little fellows in 1/100 scale by Battlefront/Team Yankee and up to recenty I have used Vallejo Russian Uniform Green for anything in the WWII period up through the 1960s, and Russian Green, also by Vallejo for 1970’s to the present. The present shortage of Vallejo paints have caused me to turn to Tamiya USAAF Olive Drab in the Aircraft (AS) series of paints. I don’t have an airbrush so I rely on spray cans for painting Armor. I find that the USAAF OD is quite satisfactory for modern Russian armor if the model is primed with Tamiya Gray Primer, and left to dry at least 24 hours before the main coat is applied, then left to cure for another 24 hours before doing anything additional to the model.

The reason I like the Vallejo paint is that they have matching paint in the bottle for touch up, and Taniya does not have a bottle match for the USAAF OD, at least I have never seen it. What that means though is you really have to be careful when you are painting such things as road wheels and tools.

All in all the Tamiya provides a very nice, and quite respectable modern Russian Green.

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From what I’ve seen lately, it seems mostly to be a burned out rusty-orange! :upside_down_face:
:grin: :canada:

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