Captured White 17
Last Modified on March 15, 2005                                    file name: white17.html
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This photo shows an example captured by Germans at the beginning of the war.


  Copyright Jan Koennig  www.Jetmodell.de  - [email protected]

The aircraft looks damaged, in particular its propeller blades are broken (not bended), probably by Soviets before leaving the aircraft. The aircraft looks to have been repainted on its upper surfaces, probably by Germans after the capture, to camouflage it against Russian air attacks; the photo shows traces of a large white 17, and traces of a rough cross on the fuselage, a first German attempt to mark it that was considered unsufficient and deleted. The star on the fuselage doesn't appear at all, but this could be due to its low contrast with the green background on a bw photo.
Early MiGs worn considerably standardized painting, so we can deduct its look before the German capture; its characteristcs are:
 
  • early type, without slats;
  • without sliding canopy;
  • with radio mast, but not fully radio boxes;
  • with bomb racks visible under the wings (but no bombs);
  • large white digit 17 on the tail;
  • painted green with light blue undersurfaces ( not uniform; as on other aircrafts, it looks that both colors on the metal parts are lighter than on the wooden ones);
  • the unusually low demarcation line between green and light blue on the rear fuselage could be not original, but a German repainting to delete the fuselage star; so it was drawn straight as standard on the profile;
  • green on the nose and spinner is replaced by a darker color, probably black (not a rare repainting);
  • black outlined red stars, probably in six positions (wings and fuselage);
  • silver propeller blades with partially black painted rear surface (as standard), very worn (nearly all silver) with traces of black paint near the spinner;
  • unusually worn look on the rivet and screw heads, where alluminium dots can be seen.

 
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