YugAF MiG-21 articles in SMI from 1989 - colour question

[Rob de Bie]

In 1989 Scale Models International published three articles by Yugoslav modellers Daniel Frka and Dragisia Brasnovic about all variants of the MiG-21 in Yugoslav Air Force service. The timing was perfect for me: the year before I had gone plane spotting at Pula air force base - a risky undertaking at the time, quite a few other spotters ended up in jail. We saw a bunch of MiG-21PFMs, one two-seater and one Super Galeb.

 

Fast forward 32 years: the new Eduard 1/72 MiG-21PFM is out, and I'm gearing up to build it. One problem: the article invariable calls out the grey colour as FS 26439, multiple times in the articles. But that FS number does not exist, neither as 16439 or 36439. Maybe it was 26493, i.e. the last two switched?

 

Does anyone have a suggestion how to solve this riddle?

 

Rob

[Space Ranger]

I'd suggest using 26440 instead. That's the semi-gloss version of Light Gull Gray, readily available, and it should be close enough. I have no explanation for "FS26439." My FS595 collection goes all the way back to the original FS595 of 1956, and that number does not appear there either.

[Hook]

I beliebe these were delivered in the standard Soviet grey - Vallejo Air has this as 71.339.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Jure Miljevic]

In Yugoslav air force up to 1991 the only MiG-21 version painted grey was MiG-21 bis. The rest were in NM with clear protective lacquer on the top. After a major overhaul they were usually painted silver or aluminium. The exception were two MiG-21 PFM which briefly wore standard Yugoslav camouflage colours. A photo of one of them, along with many others, can be seen here. Cheers

Jure

[Rob de Bie]

19 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

I'd suggest using 26440 instead. That's the semi-gloss version of Light Gull Gray, readily available, and it should be close enough. I have no explanation for "FS26439." My FS595 collection goes all the way back to the original FS595 of 1956, and that number does not appear there either.

Thanks for checking! I compared FS 26440 to my best guess of FS 26493, and they are quite close. Close enough for me anyway 🙂

 

Rob

[Rob de Bie]

2 hours ago, Hook said:

I beliebe these were delivered in the standard Soviet grey - Vallejo Air has this as 71.339.

Scalemates says that 71.339 matches FS36373, and it's satin version 26373 is the next darker paint sample under FS 26493, on my FS 595B fandeck. So it's very close too. Thanks!

 

Rob

[Rob de Bie]

37 minutes ago, Jure Miljevic said:

In Yugoslav air force up to 1991 the only MiG-21 version painted grey was MiG-21 bis. The rest were in NM with clear protective lacquer on the top. After a major overhaul they were usually painted silver or aluminium. The exception were two MiG-21 PFM which briefly wore standard Yugoslav camouflage colours. A photo of one of them, along with many others, can be seen here. Cheers

Jure

Thanks for the link, that may have provided the answer! The page shows 22701, that I copied here:

 

 

22701 was one the aircraft that I saw that day at Pula in 1988. Since this photo was also taken at Pula, but in August 1991, I guess it looks the same as when I saw it.  If I have to describe 701's colour, I would describe the nose section as halfway silver and light grey, and the rest of the aircraft as medium to light gray. How would you describe it? I'm curious how others 'see' this.

 

The SMI articles (the November 1989 issue specifically) include a photo of an overall light grey PFM, 22705. I saw that one too in 1988.

 

Plus there's this 'preserved' PFM in light grey paint: https://www.airliners.net/photo/Yugoslavia-Air-Force/Mikoyan-Gurevich-MiG-21PFM/639321. It demonstraties there were *at least* two PFMs in overall light grey.

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Rob de Bie

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

4 minutes ago, Rob de Bie said:

I would describe the nose section as halfway silver and light grey, and the rest of the aircraft as medium to light gray. How would you describe it? I'm curious how others 'see' this.

Looks like a standard oxidized aluminum finish to my old Mk.1’s 👀

[Jure Miljevic]

Rob, I browsed through my books and magazines and in May 1989 number of YU-VAM magazine Frka and Brasnovic do mention a recent use of FS 26439 on PFM trainers. So you are right, some Yugoslav MiG-21 PFMs had light grey repaint and I even found a photo, taken in 1989, of light gray 719 in pristine condition. However, I doubt this applies to 701. On the photo above she may look gray but this is more probably varnished silver, which lost its shine and now looks matt. Even if the aircraft would have been repainted with light gray, she could not have faded to this worn-out look only in two or three years.

My suggestion about the paint is to find something as close as possible to FS 36439 and than give your model a coat of satin varnish. FS 26440 comes reasonably close, but in my opinion lacks slight blue tinge. Cheers

Jure

[Space Ranger]

3 hours ago, Jure Miljevic said:

My suggestion about the paint is to find something as close as possible to FS 36439 and than give your model a coat of satin varnish. FS 26440 comes reasonably close, but in my opinion lacks slight blue tinge. Cheers

Jure

To repeat: There is NO FS 36439. It is not possible to match it, because there never has been such a color in ANY edition of Federal Standard 595, going all the way back to the original issue of 1956. I have no idea where Daniel Frka and Dragisia Brasnovic (the authors of the 1989 Scale Models International articles) got this information or this FS number. If they are still around, perhaps someone could ask them.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Space Ranger

[Jure Miljevic]

Space Ranger

Daniel Frka certainly is still around so perhaps one of BM members from Croatia could do such an inquiry? About Yugoslav MiG paint I can only repeat that FS26440 comes close, but not quite.

Some 35 years ago modeller's enamel paints appeared around here under MMM label. It was not until some time later that I found out some of them were very good matches for some of Yugoslav air force and Yugoslav people's army paints. For example, compared against the actual aircraft their medium blue (covered with a coat of matt varnish, of course) was an exact match for YuAF aircraft lower surfaces camouflage colour. Another MMM paint was light gray which could have been a good match for Yugoslav MiG paint. Unfortunately, decades have passed since I used it all up and while I still had some, I did not bother to make a paint chip of what I considered was just another gray paint. Again, perhaps some modeller from Croatia can provide more information about it? IIRC, MMM paints had been produced in Split, Croatia. Cheers

Jure

[Rob de Bie]

On 3/11/2020 at 1:15 PM, Jure Miljevic said:

Rob, I browsed through my books and magazines and in May 1989 number of YU-VAM magazine Frka and Brasnovic do mention a recent use of FS 26439 on PFM trainers. So you are right, some Yugoslav MiG-21 PFMs had light grey repaint and I even found a photo, taken in 1989, of light gray 719 in pristine condition. However, I doubt this applies to 701. On the photo above she may look gray but this is more probably varnished silver, which lost its shine and now looks matt. Even if the aircraft would have been repainted with light gray, she could not have faded to this worn-out look only in two or three years.

My suggestion about the paint is to find something as close as possible to FS 36439 and than give your model a coat of satin varnish. FS 26440 comes reasonably close, but in my opinion lacks slight blue tinge.

Jure, thanks for all the information! I think I agree with you analysis of 22701. it's probably quite weathered silver paint.

 

Here's the photo from the three SMI articles on YugAF MiG-21s.  The scan is from Scale Models International, November 1989, page 547.  I guess the remaining question is how many PFMs were painted this way. 22705, 22716 and 22719 are now confirmed. To play it safe I will probably build my model as 22705.

 

For the colour, I'm tempted to 'read' FS 26439 as 26493, and use that.

 

Rob

[Rob de Bie]

17 hours ago, Jure Miljevic said:

Some 35 years ago modeller's enamel paints appeared around here under MMM label. It was not until some time later that I found out some of them were very good matches for some of Yugoslav air force and Yugoslav people's army paints. For example, compared against the actual aircraft their medium blue (covered with a coat of matt varnish, of course) was an exact match for YuAF aircraft lower surfaces camouflage colour. Another MMM paint was light gray which could have been a good match for Yugoslav MiG paint. Unfortunately, decades have passed since I used it all up and while I still had some, I did not bother to make a paint chip of what I considered was just another gray paint. Again, perhaps some modeller from Croatia can provide more information about it? IIRC, MMM paints had been produced in Split, Croatia.

That's a fascinating story - and I hope some paint has survived! As a side story, I one started a webpage on Humbrol tin evolution. It was quite amazing how many old tins surfaced after that - my opening photo (copied below) soon became very, very incomplete..

 

 

Rob

[Rob de Bie]

On 3/11/2020 at 1:15 PM, Jure Miljevic said:

Rob, I browsed through my books and magazines and in May 1989 number of YU-VAM magazine Frka and Brasnovic do mention a recent use of FS 26439 on PFM trainers. So you are right, some Yugoslav MiG-21 PFMs had light grey repaint and I even found a photo, taken in 1989, of light gray 719 in pristine condition.

I forgot to ask: how do the authors describe the colour in the YU-VAM article? I guess FS-numbers would not mean much to Yugoslav modellers at that time.. Maybe they just wrote 'light grey' ?

Rob

[Space Ranger]

11 hours ago, Rob de Bie said:

For the colour, I'm tempted to 'read' FS 26439 as 26493, and use that.

That makes sense.

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello Rob

Translated from the first part of the article (F-13 and PFM): ˝Paint variation, which appeared on MiG-21 PFM lately, is light gray overall (FS 26439), the same as on MiG-21 bis.˝, and from the second part (M, MF, R, bis, U and US): ˝As mentioned before, MiG-21 bis has been painted in light gray camouflage colour overall (which corresponds to FS 26439) ... During certain periods even some MiG-21 PFM aircraft has been painted in light gray scheme usually associated with MiG-21 bis, confirmed by photos, taken on 1988 Aviation Day in Zadar (aircraft numbers 22733 and 22705).˝. Nice photo of the 22705, note Vojni zavod (military aircraft overhaul facility) Zmaj emblem on the top of the vertical fin.

FS595 had been one of the primary references for modellers back in the 80' around here. I doubt many had had actual FS colour chips, but for most FS595 to modeller's paints cross-reference tables came close enough. Cheers

Jure

[Rob de Bie]

2 hours ago, Jure Miljevic said:

Translated from the first part of the article (F-13 and PFM): ˝Paint variation, which appeared on MiG-21 PFM lately, is light gray overall (FS 26439), the same as on MiG-21 bis.˝, and from the second part (M, MF, R, bis, U and US): ˝As mentioned before, MiG-21 bis has been painted in light gray camouflage colour overall (which corresponds to FS 26439) ... During certain periods even some MiG-21 PFM aircraft has been painted in light gray scheme usually associated with MiG-21 bis, confirmed by photos, taken on 1988 Aviation Day in Zadar (aircraft numbers 22733 and 22705).˝. Nice photo of the 22705, note Vojni zavod (military aircraft overhaul facility) Zmaj emblem on the top of the vertical fin.

Jure, many thanks for checking the magazine! It's interesting that it mentions that mysterious colour 26439 again 🙂 Plus I'm happy to you yet another PFM confirmed as light grey, we have 22705, 22716, 22719 and 22733 now.

 

Rob

[politicni komisar]

I've been following this topic for a few days. I've been taking a color sample of 1989 in Zagreb pleso  airfield along with it. From Mig 21 Bis.

Gray 26439.

I had a Federal standard chip card

Nowadays, this color, which was used at that time, is known high flying figters Mig-21 Bis, Mig-23M, Mig-25 ... and so on.

Today the paint color market is made by

MRP https://mrpaint.sk/farby/lietadla/USSR?product_id=267  

For the early variants, however, these were repainted to this gray after the last revision 

some of those that were behind the reserve near the Pristina airfield of KOSOVO republics.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by politicni komisar

[Space Ranger]

15 hours ago, politicni komisar said:

Gray 26439.

I had a Federal standard chip card

To repeat: THERE IS NO SUCH COLOR AS 26439 IN FEDERAL STANDARD 595/595A/595B/595C! There never has been! There is no chip card for it, because it does not exist!

 

I see that Mr. Paint identifies the color cited as "Traffic Grey." There are two Traffic Greys in the RAL Classic standard: 7042 ("Traffic Grey A") and 7043 ("Traffic Grey B"). But there is NO "Traffic Grey" in ANY version of FS 595!

[politicni komisar]

No Russia F.s standard .

In the west this gray is so called otherwise it is gray for fighter jets and is this one.