Cold War Era in 6mm - Painting US M1A2 tanks

I recently painted up some Russian T-55 tanks for some Cold War era gaming and now I need to work on some US tanks for them to face off against.

I picked up a GHQ Combat Commander box to give me a good start on my force and have started to paint some of the M1A2 Abrams tanks.

These models are very detailed and look very nice.  I wrote a post about unboxing these models that you can find here.

I started by cleaning up the flash.  There was not much cleaning to be done.  These models are pretty nicely cast.

Next up was to prime the models white.  I used my inexpensive sand-able auto-body primer from my local parts store.

Once the primer was dry, I put down a couple of layers of US Dark Green.  This gives me a solid base coat.

Next, was a wash to add some depth and shading to the models.  I used Agrax Earthshade.  This is a brown wash and I decided to use this instead of the Nuln Oil I used on the Russians so that the models (hopefully) have a different look on the table.

After the wash dried, I mixed a bit of white into the US Dark Green to lighten it up a bit and dry-brushed the models.  I tried to avoid the tracks because I wanted them to be kind of dark.

With the painting finished, I flocked some bases just like I did with the Russians and glued the tanks to the bases.

I applied a layer of Testor's Dull Coat and the models are finished and ready for battle.

This is a pretty simple paint job, but looks very nice, in my opinion.  I've got a very small force completed and have many more to paint.  This force should grow quickly as these are easy to paint.  I love easy to paint.  Easy to paint are my favorite models.

As with the Russians, I've not added any markings to the tanks.  I'm just not sure they will be that noticeable and I don't want to ruin my paint job.