Desert camo schemes

So this is just a blog post detailing my thought process for both the vulture and valkyrie, I used to do these for design and technology as a design brief and I think it will help out with some of the eventual problems, if you're not interested in long posts please look away now.

What colours?

Desert camo is a must, therefore what schemes.

1. A single coat (most likely to be applied by lazy servitors, easy and looks okay but will require more effort to look good.)
2. Dual colour camo scheme, effective and will look good.
3. More complex camo schemes, a large chance of it looking "busy".

Examples:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/1672107197_913c5ce9cf.jpg
BF110 RAF Museum london

from 291st DKOK blog I encourage you to visit
An excellent example of a balanced camo scheme.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3043/bruntinthorp2249.jpg

A desert Pink, a little too pink for my tastes.

http://media.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_F-16_in_KA2-Desert_lg.jpg

Too busy, wouldn't look very good on a model this size.

http://www.florymodels.co.uk/lightning-royal-saudi-air-forc/

Another good example, easy to do and will look good.

http://www.gatwick-aviation-museum.co.uk/victor/graphics/victor1.jpg
Victor in "hemp" a light desert camo.

My personal favorite scheme is desert pink, though realistic and it should blend in well with the desert sand. Though I don't want to have someone when I'm playing question my choice of pink valks and vultures. So compromise would be VMC Iraqi sand, which is sand with a hint of pink. I really like the 291st DKOK scheme though, but a differing camo scheme in the style of the BF101, but with a slightly reduced amount of squiggles, in a brown, probably Citadel Graveyard earth. As the aircraft are in a CAS (close air support) role, I'm not sure if there is any point in painting the bottom of the aircraft in a lighter colour (don't know the technical name).

Also if you can't tell my favorite aircraft ever is the HP Victor.

Weathering

A mixture of promodeller washes, gw washes and oils will be used, I will be making chipping using the good old sponge technique (I could use hairspray but the undercolour would be too dark as I want a washed out desert look.) 

Preshading

Will be done in all panel lines, pretty standard don't have to go through it.

All other areas including weapons will be painted VGC Black. Engines on the vilture will be painted similarly to the Valkyrie engines with masking tape to cover the painted areas.

So yeah list of materials:

Primer: Tamiya fine surface primer.

Preshading: VGC Charred brown

Basecoat: VMC Iraqi Sand

2nd coat: CC Graveyard earth

Weathering: Promodeller washes, CC washes, mig and forgeworld pigments, windsor and newton oils.

I should have pictures of the WIP tomorrow.

Sorry for the epic long post, thanks for looking.

(I do not own any of these pictures, I have endeavored to link back and give credit to people, if you are the rights holder to this and take issue, please tell me and I will remove them.)