what color should a OIF or desert storm m1a1 abrams be??

For Desert Storm, they were almost all sand. I don't know of any that weren't. They were quicky painted stateside, in Europe, and in Saudi Arabia. Some (stateside and Europe) were painted in official CARC Sand, FS 33531. It is available from Testors in the Model Master line. The ones in Saudi were painted with locally made paint that was darker and more brown than CARC Sand. Model Master has it too in their Army/Marine Gulf War Sand.

For OIF 1,the invasion, the US Army's 3ID had all CARC Sand tanks. The USMC had sand, NATO camo, and forest green tanks. As other Army units came into the fight, 4ID, 3ACR, and 1 CAV had all sand tanks, most being M1A2s and M1A2 SEPs. 1 AD and 1 ID out of Germany brought NATO camo tanks.

So, sand for ODS, and sand, NATO camo, or forest green for OIF.

what colors would these be for vallejo or tamiya??? thanks again for your help. what color is the interior????

No idea on Vallejo. Tamiya has no exact matches since they don't follow the FS system of paint colors. Some say Buff w/white added is close to FS 33531 sand. I stick to Testors MM paints exclusively since they do match FS numbers, I mainly do US subjects.

075 Sand for Vallejo ... Of all the colors I tried I like 075 the best since adding weathering,washes, a little white or brown, or smoke, gives subtle changes which I found match photos of the real tanks under different lighting conditions..also to represent which type of sand the tank is operating in,etc.

Perhaps not truly evident in my photo which is more a brown tone (where my camera didn't capture enough "cream" color)--still if you look at the lighter areas of my tank-- that is almost what's left of 075 when sprayed on--it pretty much matches the photo of the real one.. the darker tones were done on purpose.