Finished Zvezda 1/35 modern Russian infantry

Hello friends,
Привет друзья,

Today I've finished the last of my Zvezda Russian infantry. To be clear this is two sets - the first is the "Polite People" set I reviewed in my last post. The second set is the Russian Spetsnaz kit (also Zvezda). Both of these kits went together really well, though the proportions on the newer "Polite People" kit are noticeably better than the Spetsnaz kit, which has fairly chunky features. The Spetznaz set is likely based in the 1990s or early 2000s. I decided to paint them in the modern Russian camouflage scheme anyway - perhaps they represent a regional unit yet to receive more modern weaponry and sights or even a militia unit fighting Ukraine in the Donbass/Luhansk region. Not accurate certainly but for my purposes (wargaming modern conflict) quite sufficient.

Russian troops in Crimea, 2014. The "digital flora" uniform fades to what looks like plain olive green at a distance but retains the detail up close.

The cam pattern I went for is called единая маскировочная расцветка (unified camouflage colouration), perhaps more commonly known as "digital flora". This was... not easy to paint. The uniforms Russia is using seem to fade fairly quickly. The infamous "Little Green Men" who appeared in Crimea in 2014 had clearly deployed with fairly faded uniforms and outside of parades it seems rare that the pattern isn't faded heavily. The pattern also uses what seems to be much smaller pixels than other digital patterns such as that of the US Marine Corps. This presents two challenges - the faded uniform from a distance appears to pretty well be flat olive drab, yet up close has a reasonable amount of colour variation. I needed that affect on the miniature. I ended up using a combination of sponging and washes and I think I got there in the end.

The finished "Polite People" set.

The rear

The Spetsnaz kit. Much chunkier figures. The figure on the right was painted as a (failed) test figure for the camouflage scheme and basing which is why he looks different.

The pattern up close. Dark green, black and brown over a lighter greenish-khaki base.

Thank you for reading :)