Egyptian T-55 in the 1973 "October" War

I decided to do a double post today because I have some time and also because I am on the subject of T-55s used by both Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur war. My model collection has become extremely focused on the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973. A very narrow slice of history and one which I personally can relate. To start off a selection of photos showing actual Egyptian T-54/55 tanks from the 1973 "October" war as the Egyptians like to call it. I'll defer to that name for this post because of the subject. Although the Tamiya model is a T-55 it can be back-dated to an earlier T-54 with conversion sets available on the market. For the sake of showing off the typical camouflage and markings applied by the Egyptians, I included here photos of both versions which served together in this conflict. The Egyptians Liked a combination of colors usually composed of a Brick-Red/ Olive Green/ Yellow Sand although other colors such as a charcoal black were also applied. This was not the rule though and it seems that only a general guideline was issued to frontline tank units as to how to paint their vehicles. There were also other color combinations and patterns but I think as a generic 1973 war scheme the one I have applied here was the most common. The Egyptian tank forces also painted large White rectangular bands on the sides and backs of their turrets as friendly identifiers during the war. I didn't paint these (because I didn't want to mess with the nice camo on the turret) but did put the parallel bands on the fenders which were also painted on during the war. The Individual vehicle number plate, very similar to a civilian license plate, appears on most Egyptian army vehicles of the period and is included on my model. It is an overall Sand color with a red border, black numbers and "Al-Gaish" (army) in red. I used the old Verlinden dry transfer for these and the plate color (yellow) is wrong but too late to fix that now. Egyptian T-54/55s also displayed a large 3 digit Arabic-Hindi number on the turret sides (usually). This could be in either black or white and anyone modeling this version and scheme should refer to a photo of an actual vehicle.

When Tamiya released their version of the T-55 I knew that I would have both Syria and Egypt represented in my growing collection. This is a fine kit and easily made up into a prize-winner. My tank crew figures are from "Warrior", the "African tank crew" set adapted to look like Arabs (moustaches and tanned-white skin). I used the Friul metal tracks for the T-55 series and they look great with just the right amount of sag. Gives the model a good hefty weight as well. Highly recommended.