I-153 n.86

Updated on October 20, 2017

Drawing by Tapani Tuomanen

These photos show a I-153 of 27 iap SF, belly landed in winter 1942 in Murmansk area.

The image shows some interesting characteristics:

partial winter camo on the engine cowling, and on the part of fuselage between the upper wings;
traces of white winter paint on the fuselage center and rear sections, and perhaps on the tail;
a large part of the right upper wings seems to be white, while the other surfaces look uniform green; the division line between green and white looks sharp, probably due to repairs instead of a camouflage; the white thing on the left upper wing looks like snow more than a winter camouflage;
the front plate of the cowling is green; the spinner could have some traces of winter paint; the front of the blade seems aluminium, while the rear is probably black as for prewar standard;
a ski looks visible under the wing root; anyway the tail wheel has no any ski;
a star is clearly visible on the fuselage sides, while it seems that there are not stars on the wings uppersurfaces and on the tail;
a short radio mast is visible on the stabilizer; it's likely that the plane had a mast on the wing too, that was broken;
a thin band (red?) passes around the rear fuselage, under a white bort numberr 86.