Hi Massimo,
I went through your pages again and here I summarize important dates & events::
http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/1940-1941/1940-41.html:
June 1940 and July 1941 - newly built combat planes - gloss green uppersurfaces and gloss light blue undersurfaces.
Already built planes usually preserved their previous marks and painting (dark green + silver/grey).http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/1941-43/1941-43.html:
May 6, 1941 - new directive ordered factories to deliver planes with
disruptive camouflage on upper surfaces and light grey undersurface.
End of May - Stalin ordered a commission to trace detailed instructions for camouflage schemes within 3 days. The brief document included two schemes for black and green camouflage, one for single-engined planes and one for twin-engined ones:
20 June 1941 - order to paint all planes with a new standard camouflage within one month.
Existing planes with uniform green uppersurfaces had to be added with matt black... Nothing was written on undersurfaces of already existing planes, that presumably preserved the original finish.
Red stars, of plan type or with thin black outline, were now placed in six positions - one on each side of
fuselage, one on each side of
rudder/stabilizer and one on the undersurface of each wing.
June 23, 1941 - for
newly built planes to utilize matt light blue for undersurfaces
July 1941 – green AMT-4 and black AMT-6 were codified
August 1941 – light blue AMT-7 was codified, and is not mentioned on earlier manuals; earlier AII light blue remained in use in parallel with the darker AMT-7 in the first years of war.
To summarize it for WWII period:
- my I-15bis was buit sometime between 1934 and 1937, so originally it surely had light grey/silver undersurfaces,
- already built planes usually preserved their previous marks and painting (dark green + silver/grey).
- plane was repainted exactly according to the sketch from the instructions from May 1941, even with the red star only on the rudder, it does not fit to instructions from end of June 1941.
So question is - did they repaint undersurfaces with light blue AIIg during those hectic days at the end of June 1941 when it was not neccessary? I do not think so. It could be repainted during prewar time when there still was the time for preparation and mantenance.
In this context I think lightgrey/silver undersurfaces seems to be more probable alternative then light blue AIIg.
Regards,
66misos