Finnish Painting Guide Now you have started to collect together the start of your Finnish force it is time to starting painting. In this article we’ll give you the basic colours required to paint your Finns. Finnish Tank and Gun Colours Vehicles that were captured from the Soviet Army were quickly pressed into service in the original Soviet green colour with only the addition of Finnish Hakaristi (hooked cross) in prominent visible areas until an opportunity arose to paint them in Finnish colours.

Finnish tanks started adopting the distinct Finnish 3-colour camouflage in April 1943 after the winter white wash had been removed that was applied commonly during winter months of the war. Guns and some unarmoured vehicles had already been painted in the 3-colour camouflage which was introduced in September 1941. The camouflage scheme consisted of irregular shaped stripes with the lighter tan-grey being only 25-50% the width of the green and brown shapes.

Finnish Infantry And Crew The Finns had two uniforms, a lightweight summer uniform and a heavy woollen winter uniform. Because of the different materials these uniforms were made from they came out in different shades of grey. The summer uniform was a light medium grey, while winter uniform was darker grey with a blue-green tint.

Finnish Colours Item Colour  Vallejo Model Color Tanks and Guns     Captured Soviet equipment Russian Green Russian Green (894) Finnish equipment Camo Tan-grey Camo Brown Camo Green Stone Grey (884) German Camo Medium Brown (826) German Camo Bright Green (833) Infantry     Trousers, Winter Tunics and Side Caps Dark Grey London Grey (836) Summer Tunics Light Grey Sky Grey (989) Helmet Brown Green Olive Drab/Brown Violet (887) Belts, Ammo Pouches Dark Brown leather Chocolate Brown (872) Bread Bag Canvas Khaki (988) Boots  Black leather Black (950)

Markings The Finns kept markings fairly simple, restricting them to the national Hakaristi cross. This was initially medium blue (like on the decal sheet), though after mid 1943 black began to be used instead. It was applied to the sides of turrets. Some units had individual marking such as skulls, and often soldiers would paint skulls on the front of their helmets. Alun Gallie looks closely at the markings of the Finnish armour...