Yak-2 & Yak-4 profile

[66misos]

Hi Massimo,
thank you for comment. Blades are slightly reworked and picture replaced again. IMHO they were originally NMF with black 3/4 of back side a latter repainted completly black. It is apparent on the close-up photo of the nose from the left.
Regards,
  66misos

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Misos,
I agree. I think that they have utilized a bad-adhering black paint for the second layer.
regards
Massimo

[Llemon]

Hi KL,
basicaly I agree with you - official scheme was black & green.
Here are another photos of the same plane I have found on web:







I havea to admit that camo on the plane (front & middle sides of the fuselage, wings, engine gondoles and vertical stabilizers) quite well fit to official camouflage template. However, the black is missing around the horizontal stabilizer root. Fabric on the rear left side of the fuselage is missing, we can only guess whether black was also there or not.

My original interpretation was that originally dark green (AIIz?) plane was for some repainted in the filed conditions to the new scheme, but black either poorly covered or it was mixed with new AMT-4 green to get enough paint or something like that. Those photos are usually dated to summer/july 1941 - time when Soviets at the fronts had completly diffrent problems from looking for perfect black.
Where is that color scheme from, please? The fuselage star is missing there - same like on that Yak-4. AFAIK there should be two red stars - on the rear fuselage side and on the tail.
However, if we suppose that plane was camouflaged already in the factory/PARB and different dark shades are only matter of light conditions and/or optical illusion then, of course, there should be only two colors - green (AMT-4) and black.

EDIT:
Here is reworked version to fit official NKAP template:


Regards,
   66misos

Another photo of this machine. It looks almost like a 3 color scheme here.

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Llemon, hi Misos,
this seems the original scan of a photo that I saw many years ago on some book. At the time, I had the same impression of a 3 shade camo.
 Considering the timeline and pattern, it is very likely that it was black and green only, but perhaps they utilized less black paint on the rear cockpit area to allow it to dry more quickly for the access of the crew.
So it could be that it seems as a blackish green instead of full black as it was on other parts of the plane.
Regards
Massimo

[66misos]

Hi,
could be true. But also the fuselage just behind the engines/propellers could be covered by a dust/smoke after the forced landing on the dry stepp.
It looks like standard black-green camo to my eyes.
Regards,
   66misos

[TISO]

An interesting photo poped up on Facebook group Official World war 2 historians & buffs. It was posted by a gentelmen named Adam Hoskins with a question about his grandfather who served in wehrmacht was captured in 1944 near Mons and ended as POW in UK where he stayed.
To me it seems two tone upper camo

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Tiso, excellent image, thank you for sharing it.
The painting is certainly the usual prewar one, green and light blue, with very noticeable differences of shade accordind to the material of the skinning. The light part over the fuselage is yellowish putty visible after the fabric skinning had been ripped off.
Regards
Massimo

[TISO]

Look at the left wing just outside of the star. To me it seems a change in colour in a roundish shape albeit a low contrast one. Over the necelle while lighter due to exhaust it does seem non uniform base colour