Aloha everyone!!

Was wondering if anyone knew the standard camouflage pattern used on Turkish M60A3's. I have this picture that seems to show a two tone pattern of light sand and green but has Turkey adopted a "Nato" scheme overall?

Thank you in advance!!

Kurt

Hi Kurt

Here are some Turkish M60 pics (but please don't ask me about the variant ) :
IDEF 2007 expo :





Looks like a 3-tone camo to me :

















HTH

Frenchy

Those are A3s Frenchy. Items to identify it as such is the rounded gunner's sight housing on top of the turret (doghouse); the small armored flap over the right side optical blister (indicating that the tank has a laser range finder); and the short, thick antenna on the rear of the turret (the crosswind sensor mast).

Also of note is that the tank uses the "German" style of smoke grenade launchers vs. the US style.

And you can see that even as recent as these photos are, that there is still a mix of aluminum (ribbed) and steel (smooth) road wheels in the first two photos.

Thanks for the identification tips Sabot !

Frenchy

I'd point out the thermal shroud on the gun tube as well, but some of Hisham's Egyptian M60s photos showed that tube on what appeared to be M60A1s.

Thank you so much everyone!! Okay so here's my last 2 follow up questions
@ Frenchy-as usual great pics Frenchy but would you say that after your first pic that the following pics are like a Desert Yellow with Olive Green sprayed over it?
@ Sabot-and Sabot do you know where I can pick up those German style smoke dischargers?

Thank you again!!!

Kurt

Hi Kurt

I'm no camo expert so I can't really help you with question #1, but both Voyager and MR Models have released German launchers :

Voyager :


MR Models MR-35209 set :


Frenchy

A-ha! A thread about Turkish tanks! Let me try to help as best as I could (although there are a lot of Turkish modelers who would know more).

Most modern Turkish vehicles are painted in standard NATO colors, with nearly the same pattern for a particular kind of vehicle. For example, all our M-60 tanks would look similar (except for the rare cases the painting crew gets the colors confused). The exception to this is non-combatant vehicles like service trucks or buses. Those are olive drab for Army, dark blue for Air Force and grey for Navy vehicles.

Turkish M-60s are based on the A1 or A3 variant, but mind you, nearly all of our tanks are modified this way or that way. All of them used to be in NATO colors. Recently though, vehicles serving in the South-East areas and near the Syria-Iraq border started to receive the new camouflage. Frenchy posted their photos, the new colors are black (Nato Black), green (Nato green) and that crazy, sandy looking color.

You should note that these new colors are a fairly new application and used in the south-east Anatolia (in conflicts with Kurdish insurgents) and/or border operations. Otherwise, since our armed forces are crazy about rules, any other vehicle in another area (say western Turkey) would still be in NATO colors.

By the way, the tanks with the names "ALTINORDU" (which means Golden Horde) and FATIH (Conqueror) are actually very interesting, because such distinguishing marks are generally strictly forbidden. To my knowledge, names on tanks were last allowed on tanks that took part in Cyprus operations back in 1974. Otherwise, they are only allowed on some vehicles for parades and that is when the Army is trying to give a "message".

By the way, if you are building a Turkish M-60, you need Weggman (or was it Wegmann) smoke launchers. These German launchers can either be found as Frenchy suggests, or they are included in Revell's german vehicles OR Italeri's M-113.

I think you also need to scratchbuild this part:


Here's another interesting photo from South-East Anatolia. You can see the Otokar Cobra armored cars are still in NATO colors, while the Unimog is repainted in new colors.



Lastly, these new MAN trucks appeared in last years parade. You can clearly see the colors.

Emre, your 1st picture is of an M48 mantlet and none of the pictures of M60`s show it fitted.
Do you know if they were fitted to M60`s?
If one is needed, you can get one from the Revell Leopard 1A5 kit.
I picked up a book about the Turkish Army from the local hospital shop for 50p and it made me think about doing some Turkish armour kits.
This thread has made me think about it again and i have 2 M60 kits in my stash.
Another question, did the Turkish Army use the M60 with the M9 dozer blade fitted?
If so i can start 2 M60`s in Turkish colours.

The Unimog seems to have an odd shaped canvas roof, what is it?

Regards

Malcolm

HTH

Frenchy

Can`t beat photographic proof.
Many thanks Frenchy

Malcolm

Hello Malcolm,

The part on the mantlet must be confusion on my part. That's what I get for placing all my M-48 and M-60 reference pics under a single "Patton" file I think with Frenchy around, I shouldn't even be posting pictures!

EDIT: I asked for the Unimog and yes that bulge is a part of the vehicle. According to my friend, it is a command truck and it's carrying a power generator and communications equipment, so the tarps are modified to cover those as well.

By the way, I was given a book about the Turkish Army and I can scan pages if you'd like. However, it might take some time as I'm moving into a new house and I need to locate the book.

I have I lot of pictures for M 60 A 3 bud there is no digital...

There is only one photos ...15 years ago ,.. somewhere in Turkey... M60 A3 and erhntly..

I like the replacement M2 .50 cal on top of the cupola. I hated the M85 .50 cal with a passion.