Colours
The debate about the accuracy of the colours used for painting the original Soviet fighter planes of the WW2 era still rages on to this day, despite the extensive research that has gone into this subject. The reason being is because , surprisingly, almost none of the original Soviet fighter planes of that era have survived in their original condition, or at all. The surviving planes have been repainted with newer paints many times, not always matching the original colours accurately. There are a few fragments of original airplanes however, pulled from crash sites, which have been preserved in their original condition. Even though the original colours of these surviving wrecks have most likely changed after years of being exposed to the elements, they are probably one of the best sources of colour reference that we have, in my opinion. Another original source that exists is a catalog of colours from 1948 that includes actual colour chips of paints supposedly used by the VVS during the war. This catalog is called ‘Albom Nakrasok’ and people such as Alexander Akanikhin who created the AKAN range of paints (with the help of a historian, Mikhail Orlov), have based their colours on the colour chips from this album and therefore their colours are considered to be very accurate. However, some researchers do question the accuracy of colours in the ‘Albom Nakrasok’ itself, claiming that since this album was put together a number of years after WW2 it might not feature the exact paints used during WW2 (though the exact names of the WW2 paints are used) and that the colour chips in the album have supposedly deteriorated to the point where they have become quite inaccurate. Apart from this, in my opinion, the Albom Nakrasok still is the second best source of information that we have.
So the debate and the research continues. Some noteworthy sources of information about the colours of the VVS from the WW2 era are the research by Massimo Tessitori (which is widely based on the work of Vaklamov, M.Orlov and A. Akanikhin), and the work of Erik Pilawskii (which is based on different sources). Click on their names to go to their websites.
Apart from the exact colour hues of paints, which everyone seems to disagree on, the one thing that pretty much everyone does agree on is the names of the paints which were used for painting Soviet fighter planes of the WW2 period. The main paints of that era, used for the airplanes featured on this site were A paints (‘A’ stands for ‘Aerolaq (Aircraft Lacquer’)), A II paints (‘A’ stands for ‘Aerolaq’, ‘II’ stands for ‘Second coating’ ) and AMT paints (‘ A’ stands for ‘Aerolaq’, ‘M’ stands for ‘Matt’, ‘T’ possibly stands for ‘Tkan’ (which is Russian for ‘Fabric’)) - Soviet fighter planes from WW2 had fabric covered surfaces!
In my personal research I looked into as many available sources online as I could and tried to get as close an approximation to the “real” colours as was possible. My goal was not to create a single colour chip for each of the original colours with 100% accuracy, my goal as a ‘digital’ artist was to attempt to replicate with close to 100% accuracy the overall range of hues of the particular colours as best I could in general, thus allowing for some artistic licence. The need for artistic licence in this endeavour is inevitable, because when painting a digital image one needs to come to terms with the fact that the appearance of colours changes substantially due to the various angles of the airplane surfaces in regards to the light source, the different weathering effects, and not least of all the acceptance of the fact that the art will be seen on different monitors anyway meaning that the colour will never appear 100% accurate on every single computer in the world, no matter how hard one tries.
In my case, I decided that the best thing to do, is to use a number of sources which I considered to be the most accurate, such as the photos of the original airplane fragments and AKAN paints which are based on the Albom Nakrasok, and to come up with an overall colour palette of my own, borrowing the hues extracted from these sources. The photos I used as my source material can be found mainly on Massimo Tessitori’s and on Eric Pilawskii’s websites, links to which you already have above, but to go to the exact photos of the wrecks you can click
HERE to see A II Green, A II Blue, A II Kr.
HERE to see AMT-4, AMT-6, possibly A II blue and A II Kr.,
HERE to see AMT-4, AMT-6, possibly A II blue and A II Kr., (It’s the same subject as above, but different camera)
HERE to see AMT-4, AMT-6, possibly A II blue and A II Kr., (It’s the same subject as above, but different camera)
HERE to see AMT-11, AMT-12 and possibly A-13,
HERE to see AMT-11, AMT-12, AMT-7 and possibly A-13,
HERE to see AMT-11, AMT-7,
HERE to see AMT-7, possibly A-10 Gloss Azure as the outline
The colour palette of the original colour hues, derived from these photos, is bellow. This is the palette that I used as my overall guide for the accuracy of colours. In my opinion, when my art is compared to the source material, the general colours are a satisfactory match. I try to test this further down the page without placing my art next to the actual photo reference for comparison of colours (for copyright reasons). but if you’d like to open the links above and view my art next to the photos in those links you will see that the overall colour match is very close.
It’s worth noting that sometimes YELLOW was also used on Soviet planes, but very sparingly. Usually it only appeared on small elements such as on the tips of the propeller blades (for high visibility) or even on tactical numbers, or in the artwork that some planes were decorated with. There are two main reasons for this:
1) Yellow was a colour that was usually associated with German (enemy) identification markings, since German planes often marked their ‘noses’ with Yellow. In order to not mistake Soviet planes for German ones, Soviet planes sometimes had their noses painter red instead , or other colours rather than yellow. There are exceptions of course, but generally this seems to have been the case.
2) Apparently Yellow was a hard colour to come by in USSR during the war. The pilots or technicians who wanted to use yellow paint on their planes sometimes had to get jars of yellow paint on the ‘black market’ or through special connections. For this reason it makes sense to presume that there was no one uniform ‘hue’ of yellow paint used on Soviet airplanes. Probably whatever hue of ‘yellow was available - that hue was used.
colours used for MiG-3
Summer Paint Schemes
Most late type Mig-3s did not adhere closely to any standard camouflage template, as is evident by the varying camouflage patterns on the different MiG-3s. Though the camouflage patterns were generally improvised, the paint was most commonly applied (sometimes with a brush and sometimes with a spray gun) in thick alternating stripes of green and black on the upper surfaces, with the nose of the plane often covered in black. Regardless of the camouflage pattern, the majority of late type MiG-3s seem to have uniformly used the Green-Black paint combination on their upper surfaces for their ‘Summer paint schemes’ around the 1941, 1942 and the early 1943. This is probably due to the new camouflage template N-417ss regulation issued by NKAP (Narodnyy Komissariat Aviatsionnoy Promyshlennosti - people's commissariat for aviation industry) on the 6th of May, 1941 [1]. This 1941 Green-Black Camouflage Pattern (PLEASE NOTE! This template seems to be flipped horizontally in the link) template included the use of AMT-4 (Dark Green), AMT-6 (Black), AMT-7 (Light Blue). The stars were usually painted with A-13 or A II Kr. (Reds). Based on the photo reference, both A -13 and A II reds seem to have a bit of a sheen to them as opposed to the more matt AMT paints. The numbers were usually painted with white, or silver, red, blue, or yellow (though yellow was apparently a hard colour to come by in USSR during the war), often with whatever paints were available on the airfield. It’s also likely that the planes themselves were often repainted or touched up after repairs, with whatever paints were available on their respective airfields at the time. I used A II Kr. as my guide for the colour of the stars in this colour scheme.
This image shows the colour chips derived from the photos of the airplane wrecks, superimposed over my painting. This is to help get a better idea of the comparative colour hues between those of the photo reference I used and those of my artwork. The Green-Black camo of this MiG is made up of AMT-4 (Dark Green), AMT-6 (Black), AMT-7(Light Blue), A II Kr. (Red) colours.
Colours and Camo. Used for Lavochkins
Most ‘type 37’ (these are planes with a ‘high’ back) La-5s which included some La-5Fs , as well as some early ‘type 39’ (these are planes with a lowered back and a new canopy design) La-5Fs and FNs, were painted in accordance with the 1941 Green-Black Camouflage Pattern template (PLEASE NOTE! The template in the link seems to be flipped horizontally) in the first half of the war. The colours used were AMT-4, AMT-6 and AMT-7. The star mostly appeared with a thin black outline. The star was placed in six positions; one star on the underside of each wing, one on each side of the fuselage and one on each side of the tail. The outline around the tactical numbers used with this colour scheme was probably red or black, or none at all when it comes to the smaller fonts used on the earlier La-5s. The exact camouflage pattern varied slightly from plane to plane, but on average the GREEN-BLACK (factory painted) camouflage on Lavochkin airplanes was more or less similar to the image above.
On the 3-rd of July 1943 NKAP introduced a new camouflage template regulation 389s/0133 [2] according to which all Fighter planes, including Lavochkins, had to be painted with a Grey-Grey camouflage pattern. It appears that the 1943 template was used as a standard guide for most Soviet fighter planes from that time until the end of the war. This template made use of the AMT-11 (Blue Grey), AMT-12 (Dark Grey) and AMT-7 (Light Blue). The exact camouflage pattern varied slightly from plane to plane in several ways : Sometimes the colour contrast was strong, sometimes not (depending on the thickness of the paint applied over the original colour), sometimes the borders between colours, or the angles of the shapes, were sharp and sometimes very soft. Sometimes some shapes in the camouflage were omitted or were changed quite a bit, etc. But on average the GREY-GREY (factory painted) camouflage on Lavochkin airplanes was more or less as per the image above.
As per the directive number 3196263, the stars from September 1943 onwards were painted with a thick white (5cm) and a thin red (1cm) outline [3]. The star, as before, appeared in six positions on the plane.
The outline around the tactical numbers in the Grey-Grey camouflage was most probably blue. The evidence to back this claim can be observed on some fragments of airplane wrecks, such as here:
This image shows the colour chips derived from photos of airplane wrecks, superimposed over my painting. This is to help get a better idea of the comparative colour hues between those of the photo reference I used and those of my artwork. This Plane is painted in accordance with the standard 1943 Grey-Grey camouflage pattern. The four main colours are AMT-11, AMT-12, AMT-7, A-13 .
[1] Taken from the book ‘LAVOCHKIN La-5’ by Miloš Veštšik, page 77. Published by MBI in 2006
[2] Taken from the book ‘LAVOCHKIN La-5’ by Miloš Veštšik, page 77. Published by MBI in 2006
[3] Taken from the website page ‘Российская и советская авиационная символика’ (Russian and Soviet aviation insignia) http://www.wio.ru/simbols/simbrus.htm