Cold War Soviet Truck Repair

The Louie the Lilac truck is not all I have been working on.

A number of my Cold War era, 40 year old trucks have become unbonded.  The cabs and spare tires are falling off.

So I have to glue them back on.  I am not painting the green trucks at this time, just repairing them.  I figure they are usable in green plastic, but the yellow, blue, and brown ones have to be repainted.

Here they are in their new home.  Safe and sound.

A total of over 100 painted vehicles in this two boxes.  And these are just two boxes.
 

BTR-60

Roskopf BTR-60.

It is the open early top version.

The main machine gun is the same one Roskopf uses on all their Russian vehicles.  Which I like since they are supposed to be the same gun.  I think Roco makes 20 different .50 caliber M2 machine guns.

Interior detail is limited but good enough.

The bottom is nicely detailed, which is rather strange I think.

Nice comfy seating for the crew.
 

Finishing Trucks

Trucks waiting to dry.

Finally finishing painting these many trucks.

Probably close to 100 of the various types in total.

The Soviet Army will have a reasonable supply train.

And the engineers will have heavy dump trucks.

Somehow a Roskopf BTR-60 open top managed to sneak in there.  It's the only one I have, sadly.
 

Painting Trucks

My painting techniques have been getting a workout this last month.

The wheels are very time consuming.

Note to Roskopf BTR-152 in the middle, both have been slightly modified by a previous owner.  I think the one with the flat roof originally had a Roco SdKfz 234/1 turret on it.

These desperately need the window frames painted.

So do these!

I paint with a brush but I keep a cotton swab handy.  I use it to wipe off any excess paint that gets on the windows.  Tamiya can be cleaned with water and so I dip the swab with water if the first wipe does not work.

I use a toothpick to spin the wheels so I don't have to touch them while painting.
 

Trucks and Painting Tips

More Cold War Soviet Trucks in line for there wheels to get painted.

I use Tamiya  X-1 gloss black, Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, and Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black to paint most vehicle wheels.  In this can get confusing since these are Soviet tactical trucks they are all getting Flat Black.  Since all three jars are similar, I put the little note TRACKS for the Flat Black and TIRES on the Semi-Gloss black.  On a similar project I was painting black civilian construction vehicles and used black for the tracks, and semi-gloss for tires.

On top of all my paints I put a little price tag.  I put the color and other data.  The black dot indicates there is a steel ball for paint mixing already in the container.  The silver circle around the jar lid indicates this jar has been opened.  Tracks and Tires indicate the typical use for this paint.  With three jars that look very similar this seems to minimize problems.

Flat black.

Side two waiting for paint application.

Not just watching paint dry, but photographing it for posterity.
 

Brush Painting Trucks and a House

Another dollar store house gets a painting upgrade.  I use cheap paints on these and they work just fine.  A little extra brushwork and these things look a lot better I think.  They are great for dropping down a whole village in the middle of a wargame, or even constructing a whole city.  You can get 10 of these types of buildings for the cost of one box of troops or one tank.  You probably would not want ten of this specific one of course.

The Cold War Soviet Union project continues.  Over the years I picked up a lot of Chinese made die cast trucks and others from the former Warsaw Pact and now it is time to paint them.  These are finished, note the painted canvas and black tires on the trucks in the back.

Wheels are painted.  These get a very basic paint job, overall green, canvas light green, tires.  That's about all.  Quick and easy and so I can do 100 of them in less than a year.

Canvas tops waiting for assignment.

Truck tires drying in the open air of my desktop.

Truck tires get painted one side at a time so I can handle the truck and not get black paint on my fingertips.

Dump trucks, cargo trucks, van body trucks, tow trucks, heavy dump trucks, fuel and other liquid tanker trucks.

Windshields get masked off and them when the mask is removed the window edges get painted.
 

ARV and ARV

Here are the two Soviet ARVs that I made from Roco Minitanks T34 tanks.

I suspect that  ARVs like this were in the inventory of the Soviet Union perhaps as late as the end of the Cold War.

Certainly there are nations, Yemen and Vietnam that STILL use the T34 as an active duty tank in 2026.

So there must be some that still have them in reserve!

Tanks are expensive and even an old tank, as long as it runs is useful.

I painted these in the color that I use for the Soviet Union in WWII and into the early Cold War until about 1960.
 

T-34 ARV

This Roco Minitank might be 50 years old.

In the 1970s I was reading about Soviet Union making armored recovery vehicles out of the T34.

The simple version is remove the turret, weld over the hold in the hull top, and add a hatch.

I added a couple tow cables.

And some tools.  This model sat unpainted for over 40 years until this week.  Not detail painted, but good enough for wargaming.
 

Cold War Soviet Engineer Gear

This is the rocket launcher that was hiding under yesterdays tent.  I am not sure what it is actually supposed to be.

The tent from yesterday for comparison.

 A group of large cargo trucks.

Support vehicles from my heavy engineer unit.  Note road rollers on the left side.

AVLB on T54 chassis.

Note the upper left a farm tractor, used for towing large aircraft, and the small van that had it's roof repaired a while ago when it was blue.

 Another view of the skip loaders.