Searching for VVS Photos

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John,
I'm still wondering why this I-153, as most of those seen, looks to have a much lighter shade of green than the I-15bis. Who knows about undersurfaces... I think blue.
Massimo

[John Thompson]

Hi Massimo! I'm also curious about the pale-coloured stripes on the base of the fin and the rear fuselage. Regardless, it's a beautiful-looking aircraft, and appears to be in undamaged condition!

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John,
if it was a MiG-3, I would think that they striped away the external fabric layer, but I-153's rear fuselage should show the void inside , not any wood. In other words, they could be some sort of marks, maybe made by adhesive tape.
Massimo

[John Thompson]

Here are some good-resolution LaGG-3 images from today's dig through ebay.de; the first two are modelbuilding reference quality and are both of the same aircraft, I believe a series 35. I haven't cropped or otherwise altered these; I present them exactly as I found them. I wonder what colour the identification number is - note the contrast with the red star:





On this one, no markings are visible, unfortunately, but if you enlarge it, you can see the aircraft was ski-equipped - note the tail skid:



John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John,
thank you for sharing these images.
All the photos show a tail ski. I suppose that the plane is the same one, photographed in different time.
I would guess that the number is light blue.
It's unclear if the plane had skis on the main landing gear too.
Massimo

[John Thompson]

How about the camouflage on this I-16, from Scalemodels.ru:
http://s2.postimage.org/mb39-03db6556aab793662f05f0fc6762f25c.jpg

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John,
I can't visualize it. Maybe, should I subscribe to Postimage?
Massimo

[John Thompson]

That's strange - the link in my previous post works okay when I try it. Here, try this:



I think the camouflage in the photo might be one of the experimental patterns as described in Orlov's M-Hobby articles.

John

[marluc]

John,thanks for all the photos you?ve been sharing with us these days.
Regarding the I-16 image,it?s just wonderful.At least to me,it looks like the dark blotches are fresh black paint.
These is what looks like a Type 29 in very worn winter finish (also from scalemodels.ru):
http://img534.imageshack.us/my.php?image=163ir.jpg
Greetings.

Martin

[KL]

I think the camouflage in the photo might be one of the experimental patterns as described in Orlov's M-Hobby articles.

Hi John,
photo was recently posted on AIF forum at airforce.ru.  Original photo was taken in 1943 in midlle Asia.  Forum members identified plane as I-16 Type 29.  It was also noted that plane's back is square, probably from UTI-4.

All this means that this plane can't be related to 1940 camouflage tests.

Cheers,
KL

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi John, Konstantin and Martin.
Really a good image. I am wondering if the plane has black green camo, with only some green repainting, or there is a third color in the camouflage.
The image of the type 29 is great too. It looks nearly as if they are washing the white paint off.
Massimo.

[marluc]

... I am wondering if the plane has black green camo, with only some green repainting, or there is a third color in the camouflage.

I think that it?s a third colour:black paint or another shade of green.Both possibilities should be recently applied colours because they have a different shine in comparison with the camouflage colour,which looks worn.Greetings.

Martin

[John Thompson]

Hi John,
photo was recently posted on AIF forum at airforce.ru.  Original photo was taken in 1943 in midlle Asia.  Forum members identified plane as I-16 Type 29.  It was also noted that plane's back is square, probably from UTI-4.

All this means that this plane can't be related to 1940 camouflage tests.

Cheers,
KL

Thanks, Konstantin! I notice that the image has an overprint in Cyrillic (4 or 5 letters). Do you know the origin of the photo before it was posted on the Russian forums, or the meaning of the overprint? It reminds me of the kind of thing sellers occasionally do on ebay.de to discourage people from copying and saving the images. Is there an ebay.ru where such photos might be found? Thank you again!

John

[KL]

I notice that the image has an overprint in Cyrillic (4 or 5 letters). Do you know the origin of the photo before it was posted on the Russian forums, or the meaning of the overprint? It reminds me of the kind of thing sellers occasionally do on ebay.de to discourage people from copying and saving the images. Is there an ebay.ru where such photos might be found? Thank you again!

Owner of those two photos is a collector known as "Petrovich". Watermark is suposed to prevent unauthorized use of photos.

there isn't (yet) ebay.ru, but people sell and buy historic photos on auction forums.  You have to understand that photography in Soviet Union wasn't anything like photography in Germany in thirties or forties.  Airplane photos were rarity in private photo albums - old photos are mostly portrets.

Check following for airplanes:
http://forum.blockhaus.ru/index.php?s=06b34e4ec854ddef22bc296eac78e3ed&showtopic=5136
http://forums-su.com/viewtopic.php?f=194&t=175481&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://sammler.ru/index.php?showtopic=63360

Portrets and biographies are sometimes interesting:  R-5, SB and Pe-2 pilot Polina Alekseevna Barbotko
http://sammler.ru/index.php?showtopic=66235&st=0&#entry763384

Cheers,
KL

[John Thompson]

KL, thank you for that information, but THANK YOU VERY MUCH for those links!!! 
I've only checked the first page on each of them, but already I've found and saved some amazing new images! I can see I'll be spending a lot of time looking through them - these sites are definitely worth looking at, and bookmarking! Thank you again!

John