La-9, La-11 in Korea - field applied disruptive camouflage, any photos?

[Troy Smith]

Hi

with the Mikro-Mir kit making an La-9 and La-11 an afforable project in 1/48th, and having just snagged an La-11 off ebay, I was pondering on colour schemes.

A look through the Red Star book on the Lavochkin pistone engine fighters shows up a few photos of La-9 and La-11 in Chinese and N.Korean markings, but I have found profiles of La-9/11 in field applied disruptive schemes, but no photos.

there are several profiles of a red/yellow 71, listed both as a La-9 and La-11

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/700/82/0

eg

I note the 2nd profile is by Yury Tepsurkaev of the Osprey Mig-15 book.

anyone know more?

Doing image searches turn up profiles, but no photos.

[Knikki]

I also had a mooch around even looking for images of Kim-il-sung as the leaders liked to be photographed around military hardware, but nope, nothing to be found. Maybe jus have to go on the source you have found.

[Yury Tepsurkaev]

Hi Troy,

I drew this profile about 18 years ago It was made as an illustration for an article about NKAF in "Mir Aviatsii" magazine. The only source was a pencil sketch which the authors of the article gave me.

[Flankerman]

Hi Yury,

Issue 2/97 - I have it in my collection of magazines.

What a great journal Mir Aviatsiya was... great colour profiles and artwork, drawings, interesting subjects (all in Russian - but the captions were in English)

Whatever happened to it ?? - it seems to have died out around about 2007.

Ken

[Yury Tepsurkaev]

Hi Ken,

As far as I know, Mir Aviatsii never was profitable and was staying afloat only thanks to sponsors. They constantly offered the editor to place more commercials but the editor didn't want to. He wanted his magazine to remain "old-fashioned and cozy". Offers on advertizing gradually ran low and the sponsors exhausted their patience. Now Mir Aviatsii is a history.

[modelldoc]

On airliners net you can found some pics from the La-9 in the Pyongyang Museum.

modelldoc

[28ZComeback]

There is a photo of a La-11 in field disruptive camouflage. It can be found in Max Hastings' book on the Korean War.  It shows a NKAF pilot standing in front of a La-11 and unfortunately only shows the nose. Please gents if you have photos can you share them?  Many thanks for your fine work!

[modelldoc]

Here are some drawings, based on the photo:

 

http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/f/700/82/0

 

modelldoc

[Troy Smith]

On 28/1/2017 at 17:39, 28ZComeback said:

There is a photo of a La-11 in field disruptive camouflage. It can be found in Max Hastings' book on the Korean War.  It shows a NKAF pilot standing in front of a La-11 and unfortunately only shows the nose. Please gents if you have photos can you share them?  Many thanks for your fine work!

 

Picked up the Korean War book today for 50p today, flicking through, spotted the photo mentioned, having forgotten it was even mentioned, and then re-found this thread thinking, oh that be something to add....

 

Though the book is on the Korean war, on the same page is a photo of US Sabres..... which are F-86Ds.....    so, the La-11 photo may well not be from the time,  and as no markings are visible, perhaps not even Koreans?  

I'll post the image up when I get chance.

 

EDIT 

obviously a propaganda shot, and looks very neat and tidy.  If you click the photo it enlarges BTW.

 

EDIT - One additional bit of information, I checked the book again, and in the illustration list, the photos credit is Chinese National Army Museum.

 

I wonder if this is the same place?

http://eng.jb.mil.cn/

So I suspect the pic is mid 50's and in China?

 

What can be seen of the camo is very interesting, with dark undersides,  or a colour under the nose?  The plane in the background has light gear legs, but dark under nose?

 as well as dark mottle on the uppers, as the  factory scheme was a pale blue grey, like this Yak-9

 

Quote

In 1947 a new light greyish blue was specificated ; this paint was put into profuction in the second half of 1947 in six versions: the nitro matt AMT-16, nitro gloss AGT-16, oil enamel matt A-36m or pentaphtal oil matt PF-36m, oil gloss A-36g and probably pentaphtal oil gloss PF-36g. The main use of this paint was for uniform liveries of fighters.

from

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/1945-1950-newtypes/1945-1950-newtypes.html

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Troy, 
this is a most interesting photo, thank you for posting it. 
The impression is of a winter camouflage with green black and white. Perhaps there is a further light shade on the left. 
I agree about the surprisingly dark look of undersurfaces. The ground doesn't look snowy though, I see the division line between concrete panels. 
The wheel has a white ring painted on, it seems a common thing on parade tanks. The inner face of wheel doors look white too while the outside looks dark. 
The dark look of the undersurfaces doesn't seem compatible with Pf-36g or similar shades. I can only remember a discussion on experimental camouflages of Soviet MiG-15s in Korean war, where it was written that the most camouflaging color for undersurfaces was found to be dark blue. 
When compared to profiles of n.71, we can see from the shadow on the ground that the photographed plane hadn't the gun camera on the windshield.
Now I see the right part of the photo. Strangely, the plane on the background look to have a small dots camouflage instead of a striped one. About the gear door of the far plane, it's too strange that it was in two colors. I wonder if this can be the result of reflections on a dark glossy surface. 

Regards
Massimo
 

[oggy4u]

I believe the camouflaged aircraft in the background  is a La-9 UTI trainer . Too bad we cannot see the national markings . Both the La-11 in the foreground ad La-9UTI have camouflage that has not been illustrated before .