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I did promise a small surprise for our Czech friends back at the Moson 2018 show. The latest Eduard MiG-21MF, the “Grey version” is out and it was about time that the Russian Air Superiority Grey colours was provided to the modellers. The Gorkiy produced MiG-21MF’s were delivered in this overall grey scheme not only to Russian AF but also to foreign buyers, including the 20 airframes to the Czechoslovak AF. The exact ID of the paint is AC-1115 in Russian manuals, in English it reads AS-1115. While in 1975-76 the very last pieces of the MiG-21MF were produced, in parallel to them the MiG-21bis was already in production as well as the early MiG-23 versions. They all received the same Grey colour. But we should not forget about another “big user” of this colour the MiG-25 family of aircraft. Based on current information the AS-1115 can be traced back to the Foxbat aircraft which needed a special heat resistant paint. It stayed with the MiG-25’s but with the advent of camouflage schemes in late 1970’s and early 1980’s this grey colour virtually disappeared from other fighter aircraft. Here is the latest paint from Mr. Paint the AS-1115. I have sent colour sample to the company, an original piece of metal with the right colours on it. Not a visual observation, not a comparison to colour charts, to other model paints or Federal Standard numbers, but the real aircraft part. OK, you can ask how authentic these colours are? I took several original aircraft parts and first of all compared them. What the parts were? First of all MiG-21 bis spare parts provided by the manufacturing factory for repair purpose. They were all painted in accordance with factory specifications, that is with the same colour as the actual aircraft produced, in this case the Gorkiy based aircraft manufacturing plant № 21. Theses actual parts were never used so they never faded, never been subjected to weathering, to sunlight. They were kept in the warehouse of the aircraft repair/overhaul factory. The part I sent was from the wing root cover panel but several other MiG-21bis parts were also compared in the past years. There is a minimal, fractional shade difference between some MiG-21bis parts but the colour is the same. This gives chance for play with slightly different shades of the same grey for the weathering fanatics. Although I have to add that our own MiG-21bis when they arrived from the factory were extremely uniform grey with not a sign of the slightest difference between panels. One should not make decisions based on a single source. So I had a look at MiG-23MF panels also. Once again factory fresh, no usage, no fading. They came from different production batches and different parts of the aircraft. The colour was identical to the one on MiG-21bis parts. For illustration please find attached the MiG-23MF parachute brake cover and the wing tip end plate together with the raw wing root covers of the MiG-21bis. How about the MiG-25? Well unfortunately I don’t have original pieces but have examined in the past decades about a dozen airframes. OK, but that could be subjective or the given aircraft extremely faded or extra dirty from use. In the operational manual of the MiG-25 it is stated clearly that the aircraft is painted overall in the AS-1115 grey colour with exception of few areas. Best regards Gabor