Israeli Centurion - Second Attempt

IDF Centurion Sho'ts - models from Peter Pig

The other day I made my first attempt to paint an Israeli Centurion Sho't MBT.  I am struggling to come up with the right colour for the Israeli armour on the Golan Heights in 1973.  I haven't seen any colour photos of Centurions on the Golan in 1973.  Other colour references for Israeli armour show everything from a desert sand sort of colour all the way through to a grey colour.  Many references mention a colour called "Sinai Grey", but the actual shade seems elusive.

Base coats on black primer - GW "Death World Forest"

I was not fully satisfied with my first attempt - the tank looked too brown, not green enough. I think I had the right colours, and just needed to try a different approach with them, so that is what I did.

GW "Zandri Dust" is dry brushed on to the base coats

This time I used GW's "Death World Forest" as a base coat over black primer.  I then dry-brushed GW "Zandri Desert" over the base coat, and then applied a wash of GW "Agrax Earthshade".  The usual finishing touches (painted markings, pencil on the treads, weathering powders, paint chips, "windows" etc) followed before finishing up.

Here are some pictures of the two tanks finished tanks using the newer approach.

Tank from the front - the commander is behind his .50 cal

The chevron indicates company number, and the rings indicate battalion number

I threw some dirt (weathering pigments) on the turret - it will fade a bit in time

Another view from the front

The placards on the back of the turret indicate the tank number - "Bet 3"

This tank was supposed to be "Bet 2" - my hebrew free hand painting needs practice...I also painted a little battalion symbol on the back of the engine

Top view, showing the commander in his hatch

Here is a comparison shot with the tank from the first attempt.

The tank in the middle is from the first attempt - the two tanks on either side used the newer approach

I'm much happier with how this combination worked out - the green sticks around a lot more with just the light dry brushing before the wash.  These tanks will do OK for the table, and I am going to put another order into Peter Pig for some more.  Next time I will put the commander standing up much higher in the cupola - you see a lot of that in the photos from the war.  A great way to acquire targets, but it caused a lot of casualties among the IDF tank commanders.

I will also try and add some more stowage to the MBTs to spice things up.  Peter Pig has tank stowage, and so does Battlefront.  Things like blanket rolls and boxes really give the tanks a look of being in the field.