"Paint Schematic for Arab Vehicles '67 and '73" Topic

All,

I am looking for a good tutorial or recommendations on paint schematics for Egyptian and Syrian vehicles in '67 and '73. In particular, looking for recommendations on primer color and base colors.

I thought the tanks and vehicles that Egypt and Syria received from Soviet Union were painted in Soviet green and then oversprayed in a sand color…would this translate well for miniatures painting? Or, would a simple primer color of red brown work well with an airbrush coat of desert sand color work?

Thoughts and recommendations are very much appreciated. Thanks.

1967 is easy: the Egyptians are sand colored(a shade lighter than the Israelis) and the Syrians are plain Soviet green. In 1973 it looks like a lot of Egyptian equipment is still sand w/o camo but some units have irregular green or brown striping camo. The Syrians again have some equipment in Soviet green with a lot of the new equipment(BMP,T-62 and similar)given sand colored stripes over the green. Look at google images for pictures of Syrian and Egyptian tanks or look at the BattleFront site for "Fate of a Nation" : link

As it happens I am forming 2 forces for Fate of a Nation an IDF and Egyptian force.

I have done quite a bit of research and digging around including a request on here about Egyptian tanks .

Your assumption on the vehicles being supplied in Soviet Green as far as I can see is correct . Also because the Soviets were driving a hard bargain with the Egyptians in the very early 70s , for equipment like T55s Egypt went into the second hand market and bought preused equipment which still had all the old Soviet unit tank numbers on the turrets etc. A clever modeller in 1/35th scale by using the hairspray technique has the old soviet numbers showing through on the model. For 15mm I merely use the sponge chipping technique dipped in Soviet Green and work on the edges and surfaces of the tank were wear would be shown ie near hatches etc. By some accounts a number of the T55s were pretty rough in 1973 .I painted mine all plain sand . However for the T62s and BMP1s . These were obtained new and should reflect that look. These will be painted neatly in camo and lightly weathered. Painting schemes for these are on the web so just use your search engine to find schemes to suit. Your Syrians were a good customer for the Soviets and therefore got better equipment and better treatment than the Egyptians .