At the risk of opening the proverbial can of worms, I have a question about Soviet 4BO green. For a number of years now, most sources of the modeling reference variety (and instruction sheets from folks like DML) have made 4BO green out to be very close to FedSpec 34102. Now along comes Maquette in the PK43 field kitchen (no accuracy potshots, kids, I think the thing is cute and besides, mujaks have to eat too) and the T-34/76 model 1940 and 1941 kits saying that the "nearest color analog" is FedSpec 34151.

I'm not REAL fussy, but can we get a few of you to ring in on all this?

Thanks a heap.

Bob

hi in an ideal world the spec for 4bo was written up and tested , however in war time it tends to go out the window , the basic powders and resin to make it up were not always available , so near enough was ok , get it out the factory was the real order of the day , then it comes down to how long it was mixed for and with what ever available , not only that then how it was applied , spray , brush , rags , broom all were used , then you have the effects of the sun, rain , wind , snow all help to tone down and change the colour - lastly the hardest part to modelers to understand is that paint goes off the longer it stands - it starts to seperate out , so mixing once again is important . so in the end it is not a real colour as laid down in the standards but shades of the colour , i have seen enough colour photographs and taken them myself to know first hand close is near enough , one set which i cannot publish show over 100 t 55 tanks and there is at least 20 shades of soviet green , and that is not even in war time , so if you think it is close enough who the hell can tell you it is wrong , judges are too fussy about colour , so remember this saying told to me over 40 years ago now , The light you paint in is not the light you are judged in , it still hold true to day ,cheers ian

APG took color samples off the T-34 and KV-1 they received during the war and the color came closest to FS 34052, a very dark green. The fact that a similar color was on both tanks which were produced by different factories suggests its fairly typical of wartime vehicles.

... to deviate a little from the original subject, I would like to ask about the modern soviet green (as used in the Cold War). Can you, please, give a good color match for it, in terms of FS ? Sorry, I know this is not the "Modern" forum, but I have been searching for some months and couldn't come up with a satisfatory answer.

Thanks in advance, Mr. Zaloga.

André