Sovietwarplanes

Hello All,

If this has been addressed before, my apologies as my searches didn't reveal many discussions about the color schemes of this aircraft. 
My assumption is that after June '41, the factory began camouflaging in the typical black and green.  However, there is a photo in the Soviet Naval Aircraft work showing a three-color disruptive camouflage.  Does anyone have any information on such a scheme?  Also, in the old Munson aircraft series, the artwork for the MBR-2 shows what looks like camouflage using the two grey fighter colors.  Is that an accurate portrayal?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,
unfortunately the argument of the camouflage of the flying boats, when they were not painted silver, is scarcely known. Orlov himself wrote to have not found any document on them.
There are photos of a wreck of 1944 that the author claims to be painted with AMT-10  matt bluish grey-green, a paint  officialized in 1945 but probably utilized even before
 http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=175255&st=240 (http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=175255&st=240)
http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=954&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=40 (http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=954&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=40)
The author sustains that the camouflage was made with AMT-10 and steel grey A-14, but the argument don't look convincing to me.
AE-10 dark grey and AE-14 light blue are prescribed for inner surfaces of sea planes, but it's not clear if they were used for the outside too, nor what was their shade.
Usually profilers represent the two-shades MBR-2 with the usual black and green camo of land based planes. A two grey camo is perhaps more likely after 1943, however both representation are a guess.
Could you show the photo with the three colors camouflage, please?
Regards
Massimo

MBR-2 production ended in 1940 so none were camouflaged in factory.  MBR-2s were factory finished same as I-153 - metal panels were light gray AE-9 and the rest (faric covered wooden haul and fabric covered wings) were silver AII Aluminium.

Field applied camouflaged from early war varried from green "spagetti" to more standard black + green.

Late war gray-green + gray camouflage scheme is not confirmed, altough it was described in 1944 book by Burche.


Wreck that Linevich describes is a postwar MBR-2.
HTH,
KL

Hi,
This can be, but he presented it as a piece of 1944. Was it dated again later?

Again, I would be very interested to see the photo of the 3-shades MBR-2.
Regards
Massimo

Massimo,

The picture I referred to is in Bock's(?) "Soviet Naval Aviation" written in Polish.  I'll try to post it here, but I have to wait for help from one of my adult progeny as I'm not very computer literate....

Regards!
Jim

Hi Jim,
I've found the photo. I see thin light lines overposed to the boundaries of the supposedly black and green bands. I can only guess that it's some light grey.
Regards
Massimo

Could you post the photograph, Massimo?  I have an MBR-2 also that I hope to build some day.

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason,
here it is.
(http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mbr-2/3shades.jpg)
from Sowieckie Lotnictwo Morskie 1941-1945, R.Bock, Kampanie Lotnicze
Regards
Massimo

Thank you for posting, Massimo!  That is a strange scheme.  I have to admit I don't know much about Soviet marine schemes and how much they differed from VVS/PVO/ADD schemes.  I do know that the Naval Il-2's seem to have been painted for the most part in standard schemes (one of Nelson Stepanyan's aeroplanes being a notable exception).

Regards,

Jason

Hi Jason,
well, for what I know those planes had the usual factory livery. For seaplanes... I don't know.
Regards
Massimo

Thanks Massimo, from me as well for posting that photo.  I was unaware that MBR production ended
that early, so all these other than grey/silver schemes were field-applied.  So really, these planes could
have many different colors, including the later greys as Munson portrayed.  Bock's book has a profile with
a grey and green, maybe the AMT-11 and AMT-4?  I guess it's all conjecture at this point....

Thanks to all who contributed!

Hi Jim,
yes, it is a conjecture. But I would exclude AMT-11 and 12 if the plane is before the summer 1943, they weren't yet in production for what I know. However one can't exclude that this was another grey. The most widely accepted livery is green and black as on the instructions sheet.
Regards
Massimo

Interesting scheme!  As Massimo has noted, it's probably a field variation of early war black + green scheme.  Light outlines are most likely original factory gray/silver AE-9/AII Al. 

Later gray-green + gray scheme described by E. Burche should be similar to British gray-green + gray scheme as seen on Sunderlands.

HTH,
KL

Hi,
I think that the light lines, whatever is their shade, are overposed to the darker colors; this because their width is costant enough that it would have been difficult to make it leaving them of the background color.
Regards
Massimo

Light lines are the same colour as engine necelle and support struts.  Those parts were obviously left in original light gray AE-9.

Regards,
KL

Perhaps the color is grey, but the light lines are overposed. Please try to paint dark colors over a light background leaving an irregular line of constant width, and see how easy it is.
Regards
Massimo

Massimo,
I do not know whether overposed  or original paint, but when looking at the right wing the bright irregular line is far from constant width.
regards,
     66misos

Hi Misos,
the pair of lines close to the tip are much thicker, I agree, but for the most part of the wing you can find an excellent correspondance between the curvatures of both sides of the light lines. Where they curve, the curvature radius of the inner side is smaller than on the external side, just as expected by a airbrush or brush trace (or a street, a river, something curved but with a more or less constant width).
Regards
Massimo