Drawing by Tapani Tuomanen

This drawing depicts a Soviet made photo-recce modification called P-40EF (F for foto). The original plane was probably a K-5, modified by the 1 ARB of Leningrad. The plane was operative in 1943 with the 191 IAP of 13th Air Army.

The modification consisted in:

• remotion of all armament;
• installation of additional fuel tanks;
• installationof the cockpit for a second man behind the pilot;
• installation of a Fairchild K-13 camera in the rear fuselage.

This comment is from red Stars 4 of Geust and Petrov; they rectifed what explained in Red Stars 1, where the plane was described as a trainer modification of 1945.

A further reason of interest is the application of the same grey/grey camouflage utilized on Soviet fighters as Yaks and Lavochkins according to the same pattern described by the templates of NKAP (Ministry for the Aeronautic Industry) of August 1943; the colors were blue-grey AMT-11 and dark grey AMT-12 on the upper and side surfaces, and light blue AMT-7 on the lower surfaces. Half of the front part of the spinner was crudely painted white.

Images from Red Stars and Red Stars 4, ed. Apali