Winter T-34

I finally decided to try my hand at a winter whitewash camouflage scheme. The model is a Soviet T-34/85 from UM, a Ukranian model company. The kit itself was a good one, with a photoetch engine grill included, link and length tracks, and vinyl roadwheels. I liked the way the looked, but I’ve heard that vinyl doesn’t hold up well over the long term. We’ll see. The kit fit together well, without any major problems. I did make one mistake in that the radio antenna mount on the right hand side of the body should not have been placed, as this was a later model tank, with the radio antenna mounted atop the turret. I had always thought that Russian tanks did not have radios at all, but it turns out that they did later in the war (the tank with this particular gun was produced in 1944-45).



Winter camouflage was usually painted on with a water-based paint and done with whatever was at hand – brush, rag, broom, whatever. This paint tended to wear very quickly when subjected to combat, harsh weather conditions, etc, so the overall effect was very motley, depending on how much action the vehicle had seen since its last “touch-up.” I achieved this effect by painting a base coat of the standard Russian green. Then over that I airbrushed a not-quite-even white, leaving a lighter coating around panel lines and areas that would see a lot of wear. Then I heightened this effect by drybrushing the green base color on certain areas. I especially wanted the look of a tank which would transport troops into battle, so I hit the engine deck pretty heavily with this. Then I added some scratches and scrapes with small dots or lines of the same base green. Then a thinned white was brushed over some of these areas in a haphazard fashion, imitating the effect of several touch ups done by the crew at the front. Over this mishmash, I did a fairly heavy burnt umber wash, to give the tank a “muddy” look, as well as to tone down the color contrasts. A light dusting of white pastels tied it all together.



The base is my standard sand and white glue mix covered with talc. There was also some darker dirt sprinkled over the track marks, as well as glued onto the wheels and tracks, to simulate mud. From this angle you can see the headlight, which was an aftermarket deal, with a separate lens and reflector. The antenna is made from a nylon paintbrush strand. I had long been too intimidated to try something like this, but it actually turned out to be not as difficult as I had thought. In general, when I do weathering, it seems like too much while I’m doing it, but on the final product it always looks like not enough. On this one, I also worried that I had overdone it, but the great thing about winter camouflage is that it’s almost impossible to overdo. I ended up very pleased with the results – hope you like it too!