You'd be smarter to paint those tricky tracks with Testor's "rubber" enamel paint--the one that comes in the small bottle. I advise this because those tracks don't seem to hold acrylic paint too well. I've had it chip off of them.

Use the enamel "rubber", and then do a light wash of acrylic red-brown or rust. Apply a tiny dab of dishwashing liquid to your wash in order to make the acrylic flow easier.. Drybrush lightly with steel.

Yeah if you heat them you'll end up with them bending the whole length like the guy has no bones. As Tiger II said cutting, gluing, and filling works best. Or get some cheap figures and substitute the arms etc. They don't have to be the same nationality - I have a big spare parts box of figures and use German arms on American GIs etc. You might have to change the cuffs sometimes though.

For repositioning figures, I have always used the cut/glue/fill method.  I've never used heat.

Alright, thanks guys. And finally, and I know this is off topic, but do you guys ever make major repositionings of figures? As in use heat to bend them, sand them down, all that? I tried earlier today and it was a disaster!

I love Tamiya and thin with isopropol alcohol.

I use Tamiya X-20 thinner with a dash of water to thin the acrylics I'm going to shoot through an airbrush. 

I also use isoproply alcohol to clean my airbrush after acrylics.

Tamiya paint is great for air-brushing- not so great for great for hand-brushing. I'd personally recommend using a different brand on your figures but the Tamiya should be great for the T34.

I wouldn't bother with the Tamiya thinner. Water is fine, with a little rubbing alcohol is better.  I use auto windshield washer fluid - here it comes in a large jug for really cheap. The stuff is mostly water with a little alcohol added as an antifreeze and blue dye. I haven't noticed the dye affecting my paint.

So you guys suggest Tamiya? I love Tamiya's models, so I was thinking of getting the paint. Should I also get Tamiya paint thinner then?

Yay! I picked a big bottle of 'Pullman Green' some time back figuring that after weathering it would look good enough...

Acrylic should work great, I've heard some people complain it doesn't spray as well as enamel but I haven't noticed much difference. And it a heck of a lot easier to clean up, after normal cleanup you can flush your airbrush by just holding it under a falcet.

As to the figures- the helmets, boots, and other leather items should be black though I've heard brown leather was used rarely. The uniforms should be black as well but the Soviets used whatever cloth they could get so blue and even infantry khaki tanker uniforms weren't uncommon.

I paint almost exclusively with Acrylics from Tamiya, Vallejo and Citadel.

I only use enamels very seldom and usually for a very specific reason (i.e. I already have the color, or I'm doing some weathering that the quality of the enamel paints work better for).

Alright, great. Finally, do you guys suggest a specific paint type for painting the tank as well as figures? I own a bunch of acrylic paints, are they fine to work with?

Any Pullman or Russian Armor Green will suffice for the choice of green.  The paint on a tank weathers in many different ways so unless someone painted the tank "pink", I would find it hard to argue the green was "wrong".

As far as weathering goes, spraying the undersurface and running gear of the tank a "earth brown" will work well.  Fade the "overspray" gently up the sides to give the effect of dust on the tank.  Follow this up with a dark wash and you'll be well on your way.

Protective Green 4BO (4БО) was “a mixture of 40-46% yellow ochre, 15% 15-20% zinc chromate, 10% ultramarine and 10-20% white.” These 4 components were mixed and applied under less than less than ideal conditions, in the field, making it a minor miracle that any 2 soviet tanks came out the same color.

Worse, the paints that were used then were radically different chemically from what’s available now. Still worse, you can’t even count on what you see in a museum: 4BO bleaches in sunlight, chemically darkens over time when left to itself, and probably has been repainted by the staff anyway.

I’ve attached a chart of FS color. (Every one of them has a proponent in some modeling forum another who has proclaimed that his is the “TRUE” 4BO.)
Floquil’s Pullman green [FS 34081] is good.

There wasn't a standardization of green, but anything dark will pretty much work. Just go with what looks good to you. The weathering usually affects the basecoat anyway.

I'm not a huge armor guy, as I normally build airplanes. However, when painting tank tracks in the past I used a simple method. First coat in Tamiya 'gunmetal". Overlayed with a misted coat of red brown. Light, dry brushing of raised tread areas with silver. Further weathering done with brushed on pastel dust. Earth color or buff...or color for whatever environment the tank "operated" in. You can thicken the pastel dust with flat base to make larger chunks of "dirt". Good luck