Hi Troy,
Is there any idea what paints might have been used for the camouflaged Mig-15's used in Korea?
Hi Troy, I don't know for sure. I don't know for sure if they know it for sure.
I suppose that many of them are green AGT-4, light brown AGT-1, dark grey AGT-12, light blue AGT-7, light blue-grey AGT-16, blue-grey AGT-11 or, more likely, their oil equivalents. I'll ask Peter to try an answer.
Regards
Massimo
Hi Troy,
Massimo?s asked me to provide an answer which I?ll oblige, even though I?m by no means an expert.
The first thing that needs to be highlighted is that the subject of the MiG-15 camouflage - and not only in Korea - is the proverbial can of worms!
I?ve worked with Massimo (living in the same country does help
) on the post-GPW colors of the VVS, for over a month and, quite often - and much to our frustration - as soon as we thought we had reached the correct conclusions, new info would come around that would put everything back into discussion.
We?ve Google-translated (with all the limitations of such a translation tool
) several Russian-language websites and even though we got some invaluable help from members of this forum hailing from some of former-Soviet Republics, it sure looks like the final word is still a long way out.
Massimo has summarized our common findings in the
Painting of Soviet military planes: 1945-1950, new types and
Painting of Soviet military planes 1937-1950 and internal surfaces and primers sub-sections of the
Colors of Soviet warplanes section of the VVS research page.
This, by force, is to be considered a living document, as new info keep popping up.
Now, coming to the subject of the MiG-15 camo, we found that
? The outside color of non-camouflaged MiG-15?s WAS NOT natural metal but rather a silver paint, first, and later on, and similar to US practice, a clear varnish to which a percentage of aluminum powder was added, as it showed better resilience to wear and tear.
? Landing gear bays and struts were always painted steel-grey A-14, while the l/g doors could be A-14 or either aluminized paint or natural metal.
? Wheel hubs were (supposedly) green A-24. However, there are pictures on the net and on books of un-restored aircraft that show hubs painted a turquoise-green, perhaps the DM Green correctly pointed out by KL in the Yak-23 cockpit colors thread.
? Many a Russian source state that the cockpit was always painted blue-grey PF-36m, the exception being the examples produced by Zavod N? 153 (Novossibirsk), whose cockpits were painted Green A-15. This, according to some Russian modeling-forum posters, was due to the fact that Z.153 was slated to produce the Yak-23, and had therefore stocked appropriate amounts of A-15 for the task, when it was suddenly notified it was to get into MiG-15?s production instead. So, rather than returning the stocks of this paint, it was either ordered or sought for and was granted permission to incorporate said stocks into the MiG-15 production. Ftr, green painted cockpits were mentioned to Tepsurkaev, a Russian aviation historian and one of the authors of Soviet MiG-15 Aces of the Korean War (Osprey), by some of the VVS veterans of the Korean War.
We really believed this is how things were until yesterday, when going thru the
MiG-15 walkaround by Squadron Signal, we noticed that the b/w pictures of the cockpit of red 2057, the aircraft that Lt. No Kum Sok, of the NKAF, used to flee to South Korea, show a light color ? no doubt PF-36m.
Out of curiosity, we checked the serial number ? 2015357 (incorrectly typed as 2015337) and that ?153? after ?20? and before ?57? made our brows rise. Indeed it turned out this, particular aircraft was the 57th MiG-15 bis of the 20th batch built by ? you guessed it? ? the Gosudarstvenny Aviatsionny Zavod 153!
To be 100% sure, then, one would have to get color pictures of the, specific aircraft one wants to model. Problem is, with very few pictures, even b/w, of the Soviet MiG-15?s in Korea, this is, at least, wishful thinking!
I, for one, will follow the
rule-of-the-thumb hereabove, unless I run into solid evidence to the contrary.
You may ask also what color is green A-15 and its closest FS595 equivalent ? well, none of the sources we?ve checked had the answer. A picture of a Yak-25 with the cockpit painted what is believed to be green A-15 is published in the
internal surfaces and primers sub-section of the VVS research page.
So far as the shades of the outside camo colors are concerned, I agree with Massimo. They were probably the wartime colors ? why go thru the exercise of producing and trying new paints when the GPW ones worked perfectly? ? albeit produced to new specs.
Hope this helps,
Pete57
