Dear friends,
I have received the book, and read most of the Soviet colours chapters, and as promised I share some brief impressions with you.
The book begins very well, as in the acknowledgements section, there is mention of a certain Massimo Tessitori, that you probably know….
Then the part on soviet colours 1940-1945 begins on page 228 and goes on to page 289, the end of the book, with one page of bibliography.
The ten chapters are:
- Terms and definitions
- Until 1940
- 1940
- 1941-1942
- Winters of 1941-42 and 1942-43
- 1943
- Winter of 1943-44
-1944-1945
- Frontline experience
- A view from the inside
All the chapters are heavily illustrated with clear photos and copies of original drawings from the various orders, and these are much better than all the ones I have previously seen.
We also have three tables, one of them “Enamels and lacquers used for camouflaging aircraft in the 1941 – 1945” has printed representation of 17 colours.
Of course, they are not real colour chips, and probably the reason is that the producer, AK-interactive, would like you to buy their paints, if you want to know the exact shade.
Hoping not to infringe any copyright, and in good faith, I enclose a scan of this table.
![](https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7897/46075791544_60b89dbb2c_b.jpg)
From the colours, you can see that for most of them there is a perceptible variation in hue among the ones for wooden surfaces, and the ones for metal surfaces.
At the address
https://ak-interactive.com/product/real-colors-equivalences-for-air/ you can download a table with colour equivalencies for all the real air Colours.
The global impression is that the material is very similar to that published in M-Hobby and then summarized in Aviakolletsia, but even if I have those publications, I am quite happy to have bought this one.
I feel that, even if most information is not new from what already published in Russian, it is exposed more clearly.
I imagine that, even after having studied it thoroughly, the changes to make to Massimo site on Russian colours will be minimal or absent.
The only difference I have noted is that Mr. Orlov believes that the green and black La 5FN n.57 has a grey-blue front cowling, while Massimo believes it is red: a very minor point indeed.
I find very little to criticize, maybe I would have liked more clarification on the use of silver colour for undersides, and I would have called the Milori Blue as prussian Blue, but these are all minor points.
I would suggest that, if you are really interested in aviation colour, this is a book that you cannot miss.
And then now I HAVE to order some of their paints…
Regards
Daniele