VVS Pacific Ocean Fleet Yak-38 'Forger' ++FINISHED++

[exdraken]

very nicely done!

 

congrats!

 

[modelling minion]

Very well done Cliff!

She looks absolutely fantastic, and as you say very colourful, you would struggle to lose it!

Thanks for taking part as you always bring something unique and do a great job of it, a GB wouldn't be complete without a Cliff 1/100 build in it!

[Hewy]

Very nice forger cliff👍

[CT7567]

On 10/5/2019 at 2:50 AM, CliffB said:

Does anybody know why these aircraft were painted green underneath?

The topside sea blue color seems natural for an ocean-going fighter, but green has always seemed like an odd choice.  I don't have any definite answers but can make some semi-informed speculation about the belly paint color. The green occurs (roughly) in areas of the airframe that would be subject to the most heat from the exhausts, particularly during vertical takeoff or landing.  This suggests it has a different formulation for durability/heat resistance than the topside blue, which may also have limited the colors achievable (camouflaged MiG-23s have a "two tone" belly with a darker color under the "hot" engine section for similar reasons). 

 

The most widely used and durable primer formulations frequently use zinc which results in various shades of green (still used to present day on Soviet/Russian wheel hubs, amongst other fixtures). If the green areas of the Forger were subject to anything like the wear and tear seen on U.S. Navy and Marine carrier aircraft during a deployment, it would make sense to stick with the simplest color to do the job when touch-ups at sea would have to be expected, so this may have been a typically Soviet utilitarian decision.

 

The other interesting thing is that late in its service life at least some of the late production Yak-38Ms, which featured various technical upgrades over the baseline Yak-38, were painted in a light gray over dark gray scheme (apparently following the same pattern as the original blue over green).  It seems odd they would have chosen green in favor of gray for the original scheme, so if my speculation is accurate then they may have improved paint options from the time of the original aircraft's production, and/or the gray Yak-38Ms may have been used differently (for example I have never seen a photo of one of the gray airframes deployed at sea).

 

Mostly idle speculation on my part, hopefully if anyone has more definitive information they'll share here ☺

 

[CliffB]

On 10/8/2019 at 1:31 AM, CT7567 said:

The topside sea blue color seems natural for an ocean-going fighter, but green has always seemed like an odd choice.  I don't have any definite answers but can make some semi-informed speculation about the belly paint color. The green occurs (roughly) in areas of the airframe that would be subject to the most heat from the exhausts, particularly during vertical takeoff or landing.  This suggests it has a different formulation for durability/heat resistance than the topside blue, which may also have limited the colors achievable (camouflaged MiG-23s have a "two tone" belly with a darker color under the "hot" engine section for similar reasons). 

 

The most widely used and durable primer formulations frequently use zinc which results in various shades of green (still used to present day on Soviet/Russian wheel hubs, amongst other fixtures). If the green areas of the Forger were subject to anything like the wear and tear seen on U.S. Navy and Marine carrier aircraft during a deployment, it would make sense to stick with the simplest color to do the job when touch-ups at sea would have to be expected, so this may have been a typically Soviet utilitarian decision.

 

The other interesting thing is that late in its service life at least some of the late production Yak-38Ms, which featured various technical upgrades over the baseline Yak-38, were painted in a light gray over dark gray scheme (apparently following the same pattern as the original blue over green).  It seems odd they would have chosen green in favor of gray for the original scheme, so if my speculation is accurate then they may have improved paint options from the time of the original aircraft's production, and/or the gray Yak-38Ms may have been used differently (for example I have never seen a photo of one of the gray airframes deployed at sea).

 

Mostly idle speculation on my part, hopefully if anyone has more definitive information they'll share here ☺

 

Thank you for your thoughts CT7667 and my apologies for taking so long to reply (I've been away).

I think you could be right!

 

Regards

Cliff

[Aardvark]

On 10/8/2019 at 3:31 AM, CT7567 said:

This suggests it has a different formulation for durability/heat resistance than the topside blue, which may also have limited the colors achievable (camouflaged MiG-23s have a "two tone" belly with a darker color under the "hot" engine section for similar reasons). 

Absolutely not!

Different colour under fuselage MiG-23/25/27 e.t.c. it's oil resistance enamel!

I writen about this in other topic.

But, but green under fuselage Yak-38 it's really heаt resistance enamel. 

Yak-38 sometimes was so   smoked from below!!! 

 

B.R.

Serge

[CliffB]

21 hours ago, Aardvark said:

Absolutely not!

Different colour under fuselage MiG-23/25/27 e.t.c. it's oil resistance enamel!

I writen about this in other topic.

But, but green under fuselage Yak-38 it's really heаt resistance enamel. 

Yak-38 sometimes was so   smoked from below!!! 

 

B.R.

Serge

Thank you for the clarification Serge.  I'm still learning .

I'm still not sure though why it had to be green in colour?  I didn't think that all Yak-38s were green underneath?

 

Cheers

[Aardvark]

34 minutes ago, CliffB said:

I didn't think that all Yak-38s were green underneath?

Of course not only green! 

 

Conditionally, the evolution of color Yak-38 can be classified as follows:

 

Early scheme Yak-38 Blue/ Green with differences shadow blue for region based*.

 

Late scheme Yak-38 Dark Grey/Light Grey

 

Experimental**

camouflage for Afghanistan, known only four Yak-38 with this scheme.

_______________

* - 

**- but this camouflage will be standard for land based Yak-38 in case 3WW. Of course, if they had time to repaint!

 

B.R.

Serge

 

[CliffB]

1 hour ago, Aardvark said:

Of course not only green! 

 

 

Hi again Serge

My original question was why were early Yak-38s painted green underneath?  Green is a very unusual colour for the underside of a naval military aircraft.

I understand that the undersides were painted in a heat resistant enamel, but this in itself does not explain the green colour (because plenty of other heat resistant Yak-38s were not painted green).

 

Cheers

[Aardvark]

5 hours ago, CliffB said:

My original question was why were early Yak-38s painted green underneath?  Green is a very unusual colour for the underside of a naval military aircraft.

I understand that the undersides were painted in a heat resistant enamel, but this in itself does not explain the green colour (because plenty of other heat resistant Yak-38s were not painted green).

This just explains the green color, because for a long time this was colour heat resistant enamel

 in order to verify this, You can see the color inside exhaust  jet engine  

MiG-19,21,23,25, Su-7, 9, 15, 17, 24 e.t.c. it is the green color! Why green?  Probably something related to technological features. 

When technologies became more progressive, gray paint appeared, which was used at late Yak-38.

Only this.

And do not forget, the Yak-38 is actually a strike aircraft to support the actions of the Marines, therefore it should work at low altitude for which it’s all the same as the bottom is painted, because you will see the plane and shoot at it anyway.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

P.S.

And of course, as and in other countries 😉some admiral  in Soviet Navy don't like Air Force/Army and vice versa, 

Therefore, the concept: "DO NOT AS in the army or air force!"

no one canceled!

😉😁😁

As an example of the MiG-9 of the Pacific Fleet, they were not only of a different, darker gray color, but they also carried a rocket (!) , which was not in the Air Force!

But no published  photo naval MiG-9 with rocket.

🤗

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Aardvark

[CliffB]

@Aardvark  Thank you Serge.  All is now clear .

 

Cheers