Hi, I had an idea for a T34/76 that was rushed out of the factory for frontline service. Does anyone have any color suggestions for a realistic primer color for T34s or a good bare metal color(preferably from Tamiya). To elaborate on the idea I may put a few streaks of green paint so as if the painting was interrupted suddenly by orders from high command.
Feel free to drop any paint scheme ideas with listed colors below as I have little experience, Thanks
Other paint brands are acceptable, just nothing too expensive as I’m just starting out
I Googled T-34 color unpainted…Some discussions said bare metal color,some said red oxide type color
Rushed into service ? Possibly no paint at all, so bare steel and surface rust. Some of those tanks even painted in final color had no primer under them but if they were primed it was likely red oxide. I’ve seen accounts of zink chromate too which is actually a kind of green. So bare metal paint would be steel and any number of ways to show rust streaks or even surface rust. It will be easiest and cheapest to accomplish the red oxide look imo.
A raw steel presentation would be more challenging to successfully pull off. You can’t just spray it overall steel and call it done.
You will need cutting torch burns where the steel plate was cut to shape. You will need weld burns where the pieces were assembled. Cutting torch vs welding torch marks are not the same. Pieces made off site or in a different part of the plant and put into the stockpile (guns, roadwheels, drive & idler, etc.) may have been finished in different manners & colors. I could easily see the cannon finished in armor green, and the hatches in primer. Mismatched roadwheel colors. Overtop of everything will be a patina, of varying levels, of rust.
It could be a very effective piece, a crazy quilt of colors. But every color needs to tell a story.
There was an article in FSM on building just such a T-34 from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ) back in the 90’s. The guy basically took one of the then available T-34/76 kits, Tamiya I think, modified it with the STZ peculiar fittings, and finished it in an overall light fresh rust/oxidized steel.