Cold War Gone Hot Miniatures (15mm) - Suggestions Requested

I have been going through my shelves recently and am rediscovering some old projects. One in particular that is grabbing my attention was my stuff for Lebanon in 82. What got me thinking were the figures that I had not done anything with.

I had three BMP-1s that were assembled but were not yet undercoated. I also had almost a platoon's worth of figures as well. Now, I could easily add these to my existing Syrian collection but I want to do something else. I have been jealously reading some of NickO's AARs for his I Ain't Been Nuked Mum rules that he is working on. While I don't want to invest in a company sized force, I was thinking maybe a Chain of Command sized force might do. I have plenty of Europeish terrain from my WWII collection. Why not try to get something together that I can use there?

I started to fool with this a bit last night and put minis on painting sticks and went to prime the miniatures. My black spray primer decided to die. I was sure I had another can of black primer around and was rather disappointed when that came up as empty as a politician's promises. I reached for the darkest can of spray paint that was there in the cupboard. It was a rustoleum flat camo green. I am going to try this out and see if it works. It could be a complete disaster but this is a trial balloon project anyway.

Now at this point I am stymied. I need some help. How does one exactly paint Cold War Soviets (Circa 1980 or so)? Some surfing got me a uniform color of Vallejo Russian Uniform. But what about the rest of the kit? I am comfortable painting the weapons. but what color are the helmets? What about pouches and web gear? Any thoughts? What color should the BMP-1s be? I know the answer is Green but what green? Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

My other concern is getting the troops right for the platoon. What was the composition? When I did Rock the Casbah all those many years ago, I knew the Syrians based their units off of Soviet units. But did the platoon have any Anti-tank elements? Did they have a three man Sagger team as part of the first squad? I found FM 100-2-3 which probably has what I want in it but is painful to search through as it is a huge doc.

Now I do not have any US military figures. I really would like to get some that would reflect the US Army in the early 1980s. Who does figures in 15mm that would do the trick? Would Peter Pig US Marines work or is there something better? Also what would the organization be? In the early 80s would the vehicle of choice be the M113 or would the Bradley be present? I am going to ship off any infantry to be painted as I do not want to try to do the woodland camo pattern. Life is too short.