Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here is my interpretation of what a soviet inspired Cadian style troop would look like.

For my personal army, I'm referring to them as the Bifrost 541st Rifle division, and they will be operating alongside Valhallan tank regiments.

What do you think of this scheme?

I like it. I don’t know anything about the “proper” Soviet uniform, but I’d probably go with green pants as well, for ease of painting.

A combination of the late war uniforms that were worn at various stages and in various conditions were my inspiration here.

I've painted a test model and will post a picture of it on here.

While I quite like the combination you have come up with, it doesnt shout soviet to me. I think the green would need to be lighter and the other bits to be more tan than grey.

The White stripe looks like a football helmet.

Slap a krasnaya zvezda on their shoulders and everyone looks Soviet.

Personally I think it's too busy and your Ryadovoy looks like a CFL player, but they're not my dudespeople. I would simplify the scheme, but there again I am very lazy and use a single shade of grey for all my pseudo-Soviets.

That is a rank-and-file troop, right? Not a Serzhant or anything?

If you want soviet look...



Adding a camo pattern or changing the pants color shouldn't have much effect on the overall feel.
Red pauldron would look good too I think, but the helmet/armor should be green.

Also, FWIW, the basic rank in the Red Army was, until 1946, Krasnoarmeyets, or 'Red Army Man'.

After that it was Ryadovoy, as it was before in Imperial Russia. AFAIK, neither the Soviets nor Russia have ever used 'rifleman'.

I personally think a better, more Soviet scheme would be to do the uniform in the light-brown colour of many Soviet uniforms of WWII (photos of which have been shared above) with the armour painted in the green tone that you see their helmets painted in. That's literally an extension of how they often seemed to look in WWII and would look far more Soviet than the mock-up IMO.

Add a red star on the shoulder pad if you want and you're sorted.

This is what I ended up actually painting

The prominent red and white makes me think Canadian, but I may have a bias there.

 greatbigtree wrote:
The prominent red and white makes me think Canadian, but I may have a bias there.

Now that you say it I can't unsee it lol.

I'm happy either way. I just wanted them to look winter-y

The helmet truly looks Canadian, with the white stripe in the middle (thought of adding a maple leaf? haha)

The red stock, magazine, and muzzle looks odd at best to me, but each to their own, I guess.

Looks okay, but definitely doesn't say "Soviet" to me, at all. But, this is Warhammer - if you dig the paint scheme, that's all the justification required. I have purple Eldar for cripe's sake.

Again, slap a red star on anyone's shoulder and they look like a Soviet. It's not what I'd have done, but if you're happy then that's all that matters.

For the Emprah, eh?

Honestly, if you would fix up the trousers (e.g. the same green) you would get a better look for a soviet style unit.
Alternatively you could go for the brown uniforms.

Having taken a third look, I think the Red on the lasgun is overpowering.

I would personally stick with Black Stock, Metal Power Pack, and Metal Rifle end. I would say it's too bold, and you almost don't "see" the uniform. It also detracts from the "pop" of the helmet colour.

Referencing colour theory well outside of my expertise, I would say that holding to a single colour for the uniform helps to hold the model together, visually. Starting at the bottom and working up, you have your leather, then armour, then uniform, split by leather again, uniform, then armour / gun. Followed by skin, and armour again. It forms a bit of a pattern for the eye to follow.

Your scheme doesn't follow that, and it kind of looks like a gun and head hovering above "landscape" colour. The colours are good, and please don't take this as "you shouldn't do that" but please take it as, "You're stepping away from painting norms, so be aware of that."

In terms of being wintery, you have some very warm Red, Green, and Gold put in hard contrast with the cold blue-grey and crisp white. While you can cool down the red with a bit of black/dark blue wash, but gold's just a warm colour. I don't think you can cool down gold, so I might suggest a bright silver instead, compared to dull steel for the other metals. To get green cold, you've got to get into the pine-greens or other evergreen tree greens. You've got spring grass green right now, and that's, well, spring-ey.

I like where it's going. I personally like the bright helmet idea. I might save the stripe for unit leaders, and leave the rest solid red, just to help them stand out.

My recommendations have nothing to do with historical accuracy, so take that as you will. I'm just trying to advise based on model-as-is. If you want winter-y-er, I'd suggest making the whole uniform in the blue-grey (cool colour), shifting the gold to bright silver (cool colour), and perhaps giving your whites a wash with a thin Ice-Blue wash. It will help with shape definition and *definitely* cold-ify the white colour.

I still like the red helmet. Nice Pop to it.

 greatbigtree wrote:
Having taken a third look, I think the Red on the lasgun is overpowering.

I would personally stick with Black Stock, Metal Power Pack, and Metal Rifle end. I would say it's too bold, and you almost don't "see" the uniform. It also detracts from the "pop" of the helmet colour.

Referencing colour theory well outside of my expertise, I would say that holding to a single colour for the uniform helps to hold the model together, visually. Starting at the bottom and working up, you have your leather, then armour, then uniform, split by leather again, uniform, then armour / gun. Followed by skin, and armour again. It forms a bit of a pattern for the eye to follow.

Your scheme doesn't follow that, and it kind of looks like a gun and head hovering above "landscape" colour. The colours are good, and please don't take this as "you shouldn't do that" but please take it as, "You're stepping away from painting norms, so be aware of that."

In terms of being wintery, you have some very warm Red, Green, and Gold put in hard contrast with the cold blue-grey and crisp white. While you can cool down the red with a bit of black/dark blue wash, but gold's just a warm colour. I don't think you can cool down gold, so I might suggest a bright silver instead, compared to dull steel for the other metals. To get green cold, you've got to get into the pine-greens or other evergreen tree greens. You've got spring grass green right now, and that's, well, spring-ey.

I like where it's going. I personally like the bright helmet idea. I might save the stripe for unit leaders, and leave the rest solid red, just to help them stand out.

My recommendations have nothing to do with historical accuracy, so take that as you will. I'm just trying to advise based on model-as-is. If you want winter-y-er, I'd suggest making the whole uniform in the blue-grey (cool colour), shifting the gold to bright silver (cool colour), and perhaps giving your whites a wash with a thin Ice-Blue wash. It will help with shape definition and *definitely* cold-ify the white colour.

I still like the red helmet. Nice Pop to it.

I will go ahead and dive right into those suggestions, however, I like the grey and the green together.

I think I will go ahead and make the gun grey or black, and then do a dull metal on the "metal" bits.

I think you're right in that it's probably too loud at the moment.

Thanks for your input!!

Happy to help! If you paint the Gun grey, like the pants, you can bring back the pattern I mentioned as the gun is prominent on the torso area.

There’s no wrong way to paint, I’m just trying to advise on my own experience and (limited) knowledge. If you like it, that’s the most important thing.