This Il-2M belongs to the 7th Gv. ShAP, the same unit as the well-known Yemelyanenko's n.100.

It has obviously a straight metal wing, so it is certainly of Zavod 18; the pitot probe is in outer position, suggesting than the plane was built during the summer 1943, during a transition period for painting standards.

It has the white-red bordered stars introduced in August 1943; the one on the tail looks irregular, probably due to rotation of the rudder.

The camouflage is of difficult interpretation and looks to show light areas, that could be painted with A-21 brown or AMT-1 light brown as usual for a post-August 1943 plane; neverthless, the pattern doesn't resemble the right one.

Other reasons of interest are:

• the white band on the fuselage and the white wingtips;
• the white number 26 reported on the upper surface of right wing too;
• the red tail cap, thinly outlined in white;
• the white or aluminium tip of the dust filter at the wingroot.

These screenshots from a movie seem to show the same plane when it was in better health conditions. The images show the bort number 26 both on the fuselage and on the right wing; it seems to have a light repainting on the left wing, more or less simmetrical to the number.

The well-contrasted bands suggest a plane with black-green painting according to the style of Zavod 18 before August 1943. It is unclear if this image shows the stars with the wide white-red outlines introduced in August 1943 and visible on the photo above, or if it's only the thin white outline characteristic of the planes built in Zavod 18 that was certainly the mark that the plane had at its delivery to the unit.

Compared to the photo of the wrecked plane, this one seems to have the number 26 more shifted back, or perhaps asymmetrical, as if the painter made the 2 symmetrical and the 6 was added later.

The image suggests that there are (brown?) repainting on the wing uppersurfaces even if the white wingtips haven't been painted yet.

The drawing below, traced for the book on Il-2 of Jason Moore, is an attempt to deduct the look of this interesting plane.

Removing the white wingtips, the white-red outlines of the stars and the brown bands, one can extrapolate how the plane could have appeared before August 1943.