Question from Color LaGG-3 Galchenko

[Holger]

Hello, I am currently building the ICM LaGG-3 and would like to use the livery from Galchenko's machine.
 My question: After studying all the documents, websites, etc....... the machine seems to be a hybrid, at least it bears characteristics of the various early series.
 It is said to have been built before the war, so isn't it more likely that it was delivered in the livery AII Blue, AII Green and AII Black?  The standard before the outbreak of war?
 The later overpaintings after the winter of 1941/42..... and later, they could have been executed in the then valid standard of AMT-4 green and AMT-6 black???
 Hence the very patchy appearance.  As always, it's a difficult subject to deal with intensively.  Maybe there is now new knowledge about this???
 Kind regards

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
it is very likely that the plane was repaired with parts of other ones to keep it flyable for more than one year. It is particularly evident on a photo where it shows the exhaust stacks of a model of 1942, could be true for less evident differences too.
The black-green camouflage was prescribed in a directive published in the same day of the start of Barbarossa. If the LaGG-3 was delivered before the war, no black bands were previded over green. So, the first layer of black bands was probably added at the unit and was not a standard factory work. Else, if the plane was delivered shortly later, the original camo could have been improvised at the factory without a standardized pattern.
It is likely that AMT-4 and 6 could have been utilized for successive repaintings after the winter 1941/42. The patchy look seems welcome to this pilot, even his I-16 was a sort of patchwork.
Regards
Massimo

[Holger]

Hello,
 Thank you for your quick response.....
 I see it in a similar way, according to all available documents ? the aircraft is said to have been manufactured before the outbreak of war.  At that time, the old regulation with AII blue, AII green...

 So one could assume that the machine was originally manufactured in the factory livery AII-Blue and AII-Green???  When the war broke out, the black bands AII-Black, possibly even AMT-6 Black, were either still in the factory or already on the airfield.  Then came the winter paint job with the onset of winter and the touch ups thereafter the following spring which were done with AMT-4 Green and AMT-6 Black???  Hence the very mottled appearance of the machine, surely.

 I would build the machine as it was in the winter of 1941/42....... the original one???  Paint AII- Blue, and AII- Green, completed with black stripes, a mixture of AII- Black and AMT-6 Black, satin varnish, the AII colors were all at least semi-gloss, and then the winter camouflage in MK-7 white, Apply matt as spots (according to drawing and photo templates).
 Would that be a working basis that you would go along with from a historical standpoint???
 Dear Holger

[Massimo Tessitori]

It looks likely, I would go in that way. The images taken during the winter show no sliding hood nor the star on the spinner, and a repair of the glazing with adhesive tape.

[Holger]

Hallo,
thank you for quick answer.......
best regards Holger