MiG-1/3 family
by Massimo Tessitori

Updated on 27 June 2023: new photos and revised profiles of Striped 97

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photo coloured by Massimo Tessitori

"Under a skilful rider it rushed along like an arrow, but when you lost control you could end up beneath its hoofs"
Alexander Pokryshkin, top ace of VVS during the Great Patrioctic War


Development history
Project X (or K)
I-200 prototypes
modified I-200s
MiG-1 series
early MiG-3s
late type MiG-3s
modified MiG-3s
Moving to Kuybyshev
MiG-9 (I-210)
MiG-9E (I-211)
MiG-3U (I-230)
I-231


Operative history, profiles and photo galleries

 

MiGs in service on 22 June 1941:

general overview

 

MiG-1 in service on 22 June 1941

(for the most Baltic military district)

 

MiG-3 in service on 22 June 1941:

Baltic military district

 

MiG-3 in service on 22 June 1941:

Leningrad military district

 

MiG-3 in service on 22 June 1941:

West military district

 

MiG-3 in service on 22 June 1941:

Kiev and Odessa military districts

 

MiG-3s of 401 IAP-ON

on the western front (summer 1941)

 

MiG-3s of 25 and 50 IAP

on the Southern Front (1941-42)

 

 

MiG-3s of 72 SAP/2 GSAP of VVS-SF

at Vayenga airport

 

MiG-3s with large slogans of 42 IAP,

Moscow front (summer-fall 1941)

 

MiG-3s early '14 and over'

on the western front (summer 1941)

 

MiG-3s of 6 IAK, Moscow front

(misc. or unknown regiments, 1941/43)

 

MiG-3 Zebras of 34 IAP,

Moscow front (March 1942)

 

MiG-3 n.9 camouflaged

of 38 PAE

 

MiG-3s with partial or disruptive

winter camouflage (1941-42)

 

MiG-3s of 120 IAP/ 12 GvIAP

on the Moscow front (March 1942)

on the Kharkov front (May 1942)

 

Arrows and slogans-

last MiG-3s of 122 IAP (1942)

 

MiG-3s of 7 IAK, Leningrad front

(1941-42)

 

MiG-3s of 7 IAP/8 IAP/62 IAP

of the Black Sea Fleet (1941-43)

 

MiG-3 n.97 with striped camouflage

(1941-42)

 

Last MiGs of the Pacific Fleet in Siberia

(1943-44)

 

MiG-3 captured by Rumanians

(1942-44)

 

MiG-1s and 3s remarked by Germans

(1941-43)


MiG-1/3 profiles galleries

 

I-200 prototypes

prewar solid green painting

standard black-green wartime camouflage

Winter camouflages

Fully out of standard camouflages

Captured and remarked in foreign markings


 

 

Technical detail images of MiG-3
Engine
Armament
Cockpit
Undercarriage
Structure
External details

 

MiG-3s today
MiG-3 pieces in Central Finland Aviation Museum
MiG-3 replica in Monino museum
MiG-3 restored 
in Novosibirsk
MiG-3 wrecks recovered
MiG-3 rebuilt 
by Aviarestoration part 1
images by Vseslav V. Dyakonov
MiG-3 rebuilt 
by Aviarestoration part 2
images by Boris Osetinsky
MiG-3 rebuilt by Aviarestoration at MAKS2005 and photographic walkaround
images by Yuri Pasholok

 

Modelling a MiG-3
1/72 model kits Cap Croix Du Sud
Italeri, Zvezda and Encore
Red Star and Emhar RPM
Maquette
 Hobby Boss
1/48 model kits Classic Airframes
Flashback
ICM Pomk AModel
1/32 model kits Trumpeter      
1/72 accessories photoetched set by Parts resin wheels by Equipage vacuform canopy from Falcon decal sheet from
Travers

1/48 accessories
decals for 1/48 kits from Aeromaster  resin wheels by Equipage cockpit detail sheet by Cutting Edge resin propeller by 
Fusion
metal exhaust stacks by Moskit resin control surfaces by Neomega    
1/32 accessories decals for 1/32 kit from DataDecals adhesive mask for clear parts by Eduard  resin/photoetched set
by Contact Resine
 adhesive mask for markings by Montex

 
Building the 
Maquette / RPM 
kit
Modifying a model
of late MiG-3 into 
an early type

 
MiG-3 Za Rodinu 
by Przemek Skulski 
Trumpeter 1/32
MiG-3 red 02 
by Massimo Tessitori 
Maquette 1/72
MiG-3 black 7 
by Chris Hewitt 
Trumpeter 1/32
MiG-3 models photogallery 
of  Sovietwarplanes.com 
models of Basil and Ricardo Cornejo
MiG-3 red 02 
by Michael Neradkov 
ICM 1/48
 MiG-3 white 5 
by Bruno Daldosso 
ICM 1/48
 MiG-3 Smert nemetskim okkupantim 
by Matthias Erben 
RPM 1/72
 MiG-3 black 7 
by Marcin Widomski 
ICM 1/48
MiG-3 Za Stalina 
by Pascal Divay 
Emhar 1/72
MiG-3 black 36 
by Honza Jezl 
Hobby Boss 1/72
MiG-1 red 8 
by Uwe Borchert 
conversion from Hobby Boss 1/72
MiG-3 white 54 
by Libor Jekl 
Hobby Boss 1/72
MiG-3 blue 9
by Plator Kalakulla
Hobby Boss 1/72 
MiG-3 white 31
by Gregory T. Conterio
ICM 1/48
MiG-3 white 04
by Jan Kárník
Trumpeter 1/48
MiG-3 n.46
by Ilya Grinberg
Easy Model, 1/72

 
Bibliography, references and links

Bibliography:

MiG-3 Fighter by A. Medved, D. Khazanov, M. Maslov, ed. Rusavia, 2003 (ISBN 5-900078-24-8). (Russian)

Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-1/MiG-3 of Massimo Tessitori, ed. Mushrooms 2006

Mikoyan's Piston-Engined Fighters of Gordon and Dexter, ed. Midland

Unknown battles on the Moscow skies, vol.1. and 2,  of  D. Hazanov (Russian)

Red Stars of Carl-Fredrik Geust, Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman. Good book of about 160 pages, with a lot of profiles and photos of nearly all Soviet types.

OKB MiG of Piotr Butovsky with Jay Miller, ed Midland 1991

M-Hobby, many issues, articles of M. Timin on the painting of Soviet planes in 1941, in Russian

M-Hobby, many issues, articles of Vaklamov and Orlov on the painting of Soviet planes

Real colors of WWII aircraft, of Goralczyk, Hogl, Kiroff, Millman, Orlov, ed. AK

Aviacia y Vremia, 2/2011, article on MiG-3

Warpaint n.129: Mikoyan-Gurevic MiG-3, of Yakubovic, monograph in English

Militaria i Fakti n.28: MIGI Stalina of Cieslak, Jackiewicz, monograph in Polish

Early MiG fighters in action, of Stapfer, Squadron Signal 204, monograph in English

 

Links:

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_6048.html topic collecting an huge documentation on MiG-3, in Russian.

http://ava.org.ru/iap.html wide site with photo collections ordered according to the unit and other informations.

https://www.planesinprofile.com/mig-3 site with profiles of MiG-3 of high quality drawn by Anton Petrov. In English.

https://waralbum.ru/photo/weapons/aircrafts/russian_aircrafts/mig-3/ site with wide wartime photo galleries, incuding an excellent one on MiG-3s.

https://zaika70.livejournal.com/ Blog with a wide collection of commented historical photos, included many on MiG-3s.

https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=875&t=93594 Czech forum with an excellent topic with historical photos of MiG-3.

http://imf.forum24.ru/?0-4 forum with historicap photos and their identification, in Russian

https://naukatehnika.com/tags/tag/mig-3/ Articles on MiG-3 on an online technical magazine, in Russian

https://naukatehnika.com/dvuxsotyij-uxodit-v-nebo.html

https://naukatehnika.com/ot-mig-1-do-mig-3.html

https://naukatehnika.com/esli-zavtra-vojna.html

https://naukatehnika.com/vse-dlya-fronta-vse-dlya-pobedyi.html

https://vk.com/sssrvvs excellent blog with historicap photos, in Russian

http://fighters.forumactif.com/t99566-1-72-du-i-200-aux-mig-13-et-9-emhar-rpm-hobbyboss-art-model-scratch building of a wide thematic collection of MiGs in 1/72 by Bernard Le Guenno (BLG), in French

 

Thanks to the following persons that have helped the update of the MiG-1/3 page in 2022 and later:

Daniele Righi (Righidan), Aleksandrs Ruchkovskis, Anton Petrov, Bernard Le Guenno (BLG), Vladislav Archipov (PG_monster), Vitaliy Timoshenko (Tora)

 

Thanks to the following persons that have contributed to this work in the past years:

Audrius Nairanauskas, Jouni Ronkko, Robert Peczkowski, Kovalsky Alexey, Matthias Erben, Ilya Grimberg, Gianpiero Manca, Stephane Wrobel, Andi Szekeres; Lee Jong Tae, Hannu Valtonen, Dmitriy Sribny, Thomas Siepert, Rostislav Bardokin, Aleksej Ilic, Jan Koennig, Kai Mecklin, Liuzimin, Alexey Matvienko, Alexander Ruchkovsky, John Myers, István Vadász, Jan van den Heuvel, Carl-Fredrik Geust, Przemek Skulski, Valera Mel'nikov,
Basil, Mark Sheppard, Peter Schömer, Yuri Pasholok, Marcin Widomski, Michael Neradkov, Pascal Divay, Honza Jezl, Chris Hewitt, Uwe Borchert, Libor Jekl, Plator Kalakulla, Gregory T. Conterio, Jan Karnik.

DISCLAIMER 

This work collects also a lot of photos and drawings from many sources, not always identified and mentioned.
If someone has some rights on the images here reproduced, please email to me and I shall provide to remove or to credit them.
While the historical photos are of public domain (except where otherwise stated), my color profiles and coloured photos are copyrighted.
If someone is interested in any use of them, please email me; higher resolution version is available for printing purposes.
If someone has questions, critiques or corrections, or some further images to show, please email to me.
Massimo Tessitori