Early La-5F n.31 of Vasilii Maximenko of88 IAP, 4th Ukrainan front
Here is a photo of the left side showing the pilot. it's clear that the fuselage has some repairs, covered with black paint by brush.
Photo from the right side....
The plane is interesting not only for its early camouflage and markings and for victory stars visible on the left side, but also because it is one of the rare La-5F that were flown without the sliding canopy (that was of not jettisonable type).
Three stars only are clearly visible in the photo, plus something confused, but Maximenko claimed at least seven victories at the date end of 1942, and this image was of 1943, so it's likely that there are at least seven stars, even if scarcely visible. In my reconstruction, seven starlets are painted with a less bright shade of red, and three with a brighter one. It could also be that the visible starlets have a white outline, and others haven't it.
Photo: Stalin's falcons of Tomas Polak.
A La-5F in the NII VVS show room, probably in 1943.
The plane looks fully painted in glossy white, intended as a prototype livery, not as a winter finish.
The plane looks an early production one, with non-jettisonable curved canopy.
Planes 12 and 14 delivered to 5th GvIAP, 11th GvIAD, 2nd GvShAK, 1st Ukrainian Front in 1943. The planes were paid with funds offered by the jazz orchestra of I.Utesov.
Full slogan is: "??????? ??????" "?? ???? ???????? ?.
???????", e.g. "Veselye rebjata" "Ot jazz-orchestra
L. Utesova".
The director Leonid Utesov is standing on the wing with some officer.
The planes have the white- red outlined stars adopted in August 1943, and probably have the grey-grey camo adopted in summer 1943; the oblique demarcation line of light blue on the fuselage sides confirm this, even if the camouflage is scarcely recognizable.
As one can see, at the delivery there were not white paintings on the nose, represented on some profiles, nor red inside of slogans, that seem painted with white on the left side, and badly covering white or silver on the right one. Note the absence of the 'f' logo on the engine and rudder.
http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/336/1/3
http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=2021.30
Drawing of La-5F n.1 of 303 IAD, probably the personal mount of of the division commander, gen. G.N.Zacharov. The plane is numbered 1, after the deletion of a previous code (seemingly a second digit '5'). The engine cowling lacks of the F logo. The red spinner is my guess.
The plane is visible on the background of plane 81 on a photo at pag.22 of MBI monograph on La-5.
The La-5F n.40 of Capt. P.N. Belyasnik, shturman (navigator) of 126 IAP PVO. This plane was built from his personal donation of 45000 roubles, as written in the inscription.
Three photos of this plane are available: one is this, two further ones are on Istrebitel La-5 p.33.
This one is likely retouched, because the first row of the inscriprtion is not visible at all, while other ones are even too sharp.
On other photos the inscription appears lighter than the star, but not as the number; we can guess it's silver or yellow.
The plane is of early production, with the non-jettisonable curved canopy and early type red stars.
Many profiles represent it with a red spinner; from photos, it's impossible to distinguish between grey and red, but it doesn't seem glossy, so grey is more likely.
La-5F n.11 tested at NII VVS between 21 oct and 31 Dec 1943.
The plane is fitted with the early non-jettisonable canopy.
Note the inscription 'Mongolsskiy arat', probably on both sides, unusually put into an oblique position.
Image: MBI p.21
SAFFC p.73
The photo depicts Gal'chenko with his La-5F, in 1943 or 1944.
His La-5 follows the look of his previous LaGG-3, featuring a black cat with white outline on its tail, proibably on both sides; as on his previous LaGG-3, the number on the fuselage has been painted on with camo colors.
The photo doesn't show the spinner, that was white with a red star on his LaGG-3; here it can't be seen, so it was represented as grey; in facts, it was appears as white with two red rings on a later photo, but it's unclear if it was so at the date of the photo. Certainly it hadn't the red star, else it wouldn't have been overpainted with rings.
A later image, probably of October 1944. The plane features the white-red spinner, a HSU medal pained on, a white rectangle presumably for victory stars (they don't appear on this photo, but they could be 24 that was its final score in October 1944, when he stopped active fighting being commander of the 324 IAD.
The plane was represented with a white-red band on its tail on some profiles, but the image doesn't seem to show a two-colors band, but a solid white one.
The image is poor, but it seems that the painting of the medal was sophisticated, including some rings of a chain.
La-5F of 21 IAP, summer 1944.
From Red Stars of Geust.
Capt. I.P.Pavlov of 137 GvIAP in summer 1944.
