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Updated on April 10, 2023
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Below are described some further planes of miscellaneous or unidentified regiments on the front of Leningrad, all with temperate camouflage.
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7 IAP
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Many photos of some MiG-3s of 7 IAP are available, and show some peculiarities in their painting. Trying to explain some oddities, one could attempt this reconstruction of the progressive painting of some of their best photographed MiG-3s:
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04 of Capt. S.N. Polyakov, 7 IAP, summer 1941
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Left: plane 04 flown by Capt. S.N. Polyakov of 7 IAP in summer 1941 on the Leningrad front. It was an early type MiG-3 with large stars on the fuselage, small stars (prewar style) on the wings.
Images from http://ava.org.ru/iap/14g.htm
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MiG-3 n. 4x-6 (40 or 46 or 48) presumably of 7 IAP
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Left: four shots are available, till now, of this interesting plane bearing the number 6 on its rudder and 4x (40 or 46 or 48, regrettably not fully readable) on its fuselage. Some sources located this image in the Leningrad area, and its strong resemblance to plane 04 suggests that it is from 7 IAP too. The plane is an early MiG-3, probably after having been camouflaged on the original factory AII green livery; it still preserved the red stars on the wings and the numbering on the rudder, but had larger stars and numbers on the fuselage. This suggests that the camouflage could have been made before the war partially according to the scarcely applied directives of the spring 1941, so the darker color could be something different from faded black; some limited black retouches allow a comparison to fresh black.
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This image allows to see under the wings; the stars are of prewar style, small and in outer position with black outline. We can see something related to the remotion of underwing UB pods; a large dark rectangle is visible where the pod was, and the ammo hatches were sealed with adhesive tape; besides, bomb racks are visible. The image shows also some black repaintings; it is unclear if they were retouches on scratched areas, or intended to improve the camouflage effect; probably both. The tail wheel doors don't look as usual; perhaps they were replaced by a flexible cover. |
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The front of the propeller doesn't look aluminum nor black; probably they were repainted green, that was preserved well on the front and rear root, but was lost on the rear, on the parts previously painted black in factory. The spinner, apparently in green, still hasn't the white front cone that was typical of planes of 7 IAP. We can assume that the plane could have been successively modified with the white front of the spinner, black painting over of the number 6 and of the stars over the wings, and the addition of a star on the tail, going to resemble to plane 42. |
To resume, its characteristics seem to be:
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MiG-3 n.42 of 7 IAP
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Left: MiG-3 early of 7 IAP, Leningrad front, October 1941. The characteristics are:
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MiG-3 n.67 of Lt. I.M. Dubovik of 7 IAP |
Left: photo of plane 67 of Lt. I.M. Dubovik of 7 IAP. For what we can see from the photo, its characteristics were:
Image: www.photoarchive.spb.ru |
Left: another photo of plane 67 showing the nose that, unexpectedly, hasn't a white spinner at the date of the shot. . | |
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MiG-3 n.67 of 124 IAP over Leningrad
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Right: photos of six planes of 124 IAP flying over Leningrad. The flight and relative photos were intended to refute the claim of Goebbels that both Leningrad and the Soviet air forces on her area had been completely destroyed. The planes were of the squadron of capt. Pronin, who flew plane numbered White 67. The second plane was of N. Kuzmenko. The date of the flight isn't clear, but uncropped photos allow to see snow on the ground and streets. Plane 67 is fairly well depicted in the photos, but the images of the other planes are vague. Particularly strange is the absence of white numbers on the second plane and apparently on other ones; a dark number 7 seems visible on the second one, suggesting that part of the planes of the unit had dark numbers that aren't clearly visible on photos. Besides, some of the planes had their sliding hood removed, and all flew with open canopies. Another difference is that plane 67 had its spinner fully painted white, while the other planes of the flight (and probably of the whole regiment) had only the front cone of the spinner painted white. The characteristics of plane 67 were:
http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6048&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=240 |
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Miscellaneous planes of 124 IAP, March 1942
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MiG-3 n.19 (?) of 162 IAP |
Left: photo showing two MiG-3s of 162 IAP, 43 IAD, Leningrad front, summer 1942. It is particularly interesting because the closer plane has an hardly distinguishable gloss dark number (an angular 19?) while the one on the background has a traditional white number (21?). This is a further demonstration about the use of unidentified dark colors for the numbers of some fighters of 7 IAK. The color could hypothetically be cherry red, but other colors are possible.
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MiG-3s in PARM n.1, Leningrad |
Left: photo of early type MiG-3 in PARM (Podvizhnaya Aviaremontnaya Masterskaya) no.1 in Leningrad, presumably in summer or fall 1941. It is difficult to say if these planes still had the prewar green topsides or if they were painted with black-green camouflage. |
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Left: another photo taken in the same facility. Interestingly, the number white 77 on the fuselage of the plane is well readable, and so the position of the stars on the fuselage and on the tail. The image can give the impression that the rudder was painted white, but this is unlikely and is probably an illusion due to the strong reflection on an angulated rudder, because no other photos of MiG-3 with white rudder are known (apart for winter camouflages, of course) and all the rudders visible on the photo above aren't white. |
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This work collects also a lot of photos and drawings from many
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If someone has some rights on the images here reproduced, please email to me
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Massimo Tessitori