Soviet T-28 camo

I’m building the HobbyBoss 83853 T-28 and one of the color options is a two tone camo pattern that I’ve never seen on a T-28. I was going to build the kit for a diorama of the battle of Brody in the Ukraine. Does anyone know if the Soviets would of had camouflaged T-28s in the Ukraine in 1941? I can’t seem to find any hard evidence that there were unless they were captured.

I can’t access my books at this time, but I’ll throw this out for a start;
The damaged Soviet T-28 tank captured by the Germans (albumwar2.com)
This T-28 Model 1939 appears to have a two-tone camo. The 15th Mechanized Corp was located near Brody on June 22nd, 1941, so we are close to being in the right place at the right time. This is about the best I can do at the moment.

@paska thank you! I’ve been looking through my konevs Golgotha and it showed a ton of T-35 and some T-28s. This picture helps me a lot, some of these black and white photos can be tricky with figuring out if there’s a two tone scheme on the vehicle.

Glad I could help! Having now managed to acquire my copy of Osprey’s Operation Barbarossa 1941, vol 1, I now see that the 15th Mechanized, which included the 10th Armored Division, was the only armored unit operating in the area. So, what’s the phrase I’m looking for? Bob’s your uncle? :wink:

1 Like

@paska ahh so this confirms your original post! Thank you. The one complaint I have with some of these new kits coming out from new manufactures is that they post a color scheme but no unit to attribute it too. Trumpeter and hobby boss have done this I believe with all their kits. It’s a bit frustrating but also it makes it at times a fun research project!

I have to laugh! I usually try to be somewhat more careful in my search techniques, but this was a purely fortuitous find, which was only confirmed after the fact. Operating with this technique typically ends up with my foot inserted in my mouth. I got lucky this time. :smirk:
The paint scheme seems rather odd. The gun mantlet appears to be dark green, with a sharp demarcation against the lighter-colored turret side. The only real expression of a wavy camo pattern appears on the hull sponson, where it is clearly seen. Not much to work with, but it is at least proof of concept, which is all that really matters. There are other 4-way views of color artwork to be found for T-28’s online, so those should help flesh this out a bit.

1 Like

@paska it really does help a lot! Like I’d aid I’m going for a two tone that hobby boss has in the directions. I’m not sure how uniformed the Russians would of been with vehicles all being camo the same or not. That’s the only part of paint instructions that gets frustrating, no information on the unit or place. But i generally do enjoy researching some of these builds, let’s me put my history degree to use :joy::joy:

From what I’ve read, it would appear that the Soviets were just starting to introduce camouflage paints for the army when Barbarossa started. Only a portion of the army had received or applied any, and it was pretty much a field applied by units situation, very similar to the 1943 introduction of the three color camouflage paints by the Germans.

1 Like

I just found this site with a short document on the development of Soviet vehicle camouflage paint;

Tank Archives: Soviet Camo that Came Too Late

The T-28 shown sports a 3-tone camo… Which begs the question, is the one I posted above actually a 3-toner as well? :man_shrugging:

1 Like

@paska id argue that the one you showed may have been overly weathered from combat but who knows. The first pictures of the T-28 look to be a two tone camo but the article is stating it’s three tone?

@Stikpusher thank you for this information. I’ve had trouble really confirming this and finding this data when it comes to T-28s being camo’d or just a regular green.