I-153 of 7 IAP with strange camouflage

Updated on January 31, 2016

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The most of I-153s were factory painted light grey (AEh-9) on metallic parts, and matt silver on fabric-covered surfaces.

The plane of the photo, of 7th IAP, Leningrad area, 1941, show a strange camouflage. It looks that a flat green layer was put on metallic parts of the nose, while the rear part of the plane, that was fabric skinned, was only marginally brushed by green that allows to see the underlying silver. Black stripes had their outlines broken by brush dots of various shapes: points, segments and irregular strokes. The poor coverance of the green layer on fabric surfaces could be due to lack of green paint, or to a reaction that melted the underlying silver paint and mixed it with green. The black bands looks much more covering. The covering of green on the metallic parts appear good. Probably the same things appear on the upper surfaces.

The stars are visible only on the tail and lower wing surfaces; it looks that the stars on the fuselage (and probably on the upper wing surfaces) were obliterated with green before painting the black bands.
Propeller and wheels were camouflaged too, while the windshield struts look light grey or aluminium.

 

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