I've been looking at photos of M-1 Abrams tanks on the web in preparation for my Flyhawk M-1 kit. I was expecting to see every M-1 in Europe to be in the three-color Nato scheme, but I recently saw a photo of US M-1s and M-109s being offloaded in Poland painted in the desert tan scheme. Are there significant numbers of M-1s in Europe in the desert scheme, or will those vehicles be quickly painted in the three-color scheme?

Those vehicles have been painted in a temporary scheme of dark green-same as the standard NATO green. It is removable and applied with brushes/paint rollers etc... There are places under the turret and hull where the green hasn't been applied. Hope this helps.

The sand vehicle you see in Europe are vehicles from stateside units that are deploying there as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. The units bring their vehicles for the deployment, and as Invincible states, many are overpainted with a temporary green paint.

Peramnatly in Europe based M1 A2 SEPv2 are painted in NATOflage.
M1 A2 SEP and M1 A2 SEPv2 from 4th ID remain in their tan livery, but some are re-painted in washable RAL 6031 Bronze-
green. According to the crew, the will get their tan livery a.s.a.p. back in the states.