Soviet interior colours

[wombat]

Any good sources on these? Was it the weird blue of later soviet planes, or perhaps left in natural metal as they weren’t expected to last, or local factory practice?

[Troy Smith]

5 hours ago, wombat said:

Any good sources on these? Was it the weird blue of later soviet planes,

Do you meant the lurid turquoise? I think that does not come in till the 60's,  late 50's  at the earliest.

(early MiG-21s were grey cockpits) 

Quote

 

 

or perhaps left in natural metal as they weren’t expected to last, or local factory practice?

the safe bet is A-14 steel grey.

see here

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/colors/color-table.html

scroll down

 

There are other colours earlier on in the war,  depending on type,  light colured instrument panlels on MiG-3 IIRC, and other on the I-153 preserved at Le Bourget.

 

As with many of the questions nowadays,  always asking about a specific, rather than a blanket answer.  (which is A-14 Steel Grey)

 

The best place for information on VVS colours is.

http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/index.html

 

HTH

[bobmig]

This photo might be of interest. You can clearly see the different colours/finishes applied to the structure on the two closest aircraft, compared to the darker colour on those behind.

[wombat]

Indeed, and with panels already on, so presumably not simply pre and post frame painting as you’d do that before panelling.  I guess soviet production at the time would have been a hodgepodge of attempted central micromanaging, leavened by the exigencies of total chaos.

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, wombat said:

 I guess soviet production at the time would have been a hodgepodge of attempted central micromanaging, leavened by the exigencies of total chaos.

erm, we are talking about a period of four years,  and the Soviets built A LOT of aircraft,  36,000 IL-2, 35,000 Yak family fighters, 30,000 or more of the Lavochkin fighter etc etc

In the winter 41/42 there was a some chaos,  but later there wasn't.   Production was safely away from the front lines, and then proceeded tp produce vast quantities of equipment.

 

Not meaning to be rude, but many ideas about the Soviets are hangovers of years of cold war propaganda,  build that amount of planes,  requires a serious infrastructure, so why should there be problems with getting specified internal paint.

 

Bit like the idea that VVS types should look dirty and worn,  when photos show they were very well cared for, aeroplanes don't work well when badly maintained,  and that would also be sabotage. And that was a trip a gulag or punishment battalion if you were lucky...

 

I'll stick a @Learstang  and @John Thompson  in here,  as they are Soviet buffs, learstang has written books on the Il-2,  Tu-2 and Lavochkin fighters. 

 

I know there are photos of Il-2 production lines, not sure about others.

here's Yak-7s

 

 

[Learstang]

I agree with Troy, if you don't know for certain, A-14 Steel Grey is a good guess for a Great Patriotic War aircraft's interior. I use Testors Model Master Neutral Gray for my models. I've actually seen some examples of A-14, and it appears to be a dead neutral colour - just black and white. Sometimes you'll see people paint the interiors of their Soviet models in a bluish-grey or greenish-grey; this is incorrect. Go with a medium, neutral grey for the interior. 

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[dragonlanceHR]

A-14 was the official cockpit color during the war. But, as we modelers like the variety, some components or boxes *could* be painted in ALG-5 which is a 1:1 mix of YZC and A-14. Oxygen valve was Azure blue.

 

Field repairs manual allows the use of AMT-7 as substitute cockpit color.

 

Vedran