Beriev Be-6 Madge - A-VMF colour schemes help

[Tony Whittingham]

Hello All,

I’ve been given a 1/72 Madge with a MAD boom that’s in bad need of refurbishment. It’s currently in dark green and light blue. Are there any other colour schemes I could apply?
 

regards,

TW

[Aardvark]

3 hours ago, Tony Whittingham said:

It’s currently in dark green and light blue. Are there any other colour schemes I could apply?

Why "dark green and light blue"?

 

 

Those models that were made on Russian forums:

- Trumperer:

http://scalemodels.ru/articles/13578-Trumpeter-1-72-be-6.html
http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_79838.html

 

- Plasticard:

http://scalemodels.ru/articles/10150-Plasticart-1-72-be-6---skripach-ne-nuzhen.html

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_65288.html

 

were painted in a gray top!

 

The only color photo Be-6

exploitation period 

speaks of gray:

http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/sea/be6/be6-7.jpg

 

But modern restoration in the kiev museum gives rather a gray-green color:

http://www.dogswar.ru/images/stories/samolet/Beriev-Be-6-3.jpg

 

Other Soviet live Be-6 here:

https://avp23649.livejournal.com/212900.html

but his condition is very sad.

In fact, the question of Be-6 coloration is very little studied.

The problem is that the Navy had its own requirements and standards for painting.  Therefore, the aircraft of the fleet could be painted according to the standards of the Navy in colors different from the colors used in the Air Force.

Standard colour for Navy was mysterious шаровый- sharovyi colour, main discussion which is here (with "special guest star" 😁 - Alexander Akanikhin aka AKAN):

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_55915.html

In this discussion, I am referring to

"Rules for painting ships, auxiliary vessels and basic floating equipment of the USSR Navy (Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense, 1965) ":

This book have 

Table N1 colors of paints and enamel  for painting of external surfaces of ships of the USSR Navy "Sharovaja" enamel was four paint chip

N 29; N 33; N 32; N 31:

And Table N3 "Recommended for choosing coloring paints and enamel, used for painting of external surfaces of ships of the USSR Navy:

In the first column of the table swimming areas are indicated from top to bottom:

- Black Sea

- Japan Sea

(South part Sea);

- Japan Sea

(Northern part Sea);

- Sea of Okhotsk;

- Baltic Sea

(South part Sea);

- Baltic Sea

(Northern part Sea);

- Barents Sea.

Next "Recommended colour" which is divided into "for superstructures" "for hulls" "for submarines".

as you can see, everything is very complicated here.

Probably, if a Sharoviy color was used for aircraft, then there were two varieties of it - for southern latitudes and for northern latitudes, as it was later with the Yak-38, which had two shades of blue.

But there is also a possibility that the fleet used a specially developed aviation enamel AMT-10

for flying boats.

 

A sample of the AMT-10 color can be seen in the photo of the remnants of the Be-4 posted on the last page of the discussion of the Sharoviy color at the link that I posted above.

 

B.R.

Serge

 

P.S.

Why is the mysterious sharoviy color?  The origin of the word "Sharoviy" is not clear, i.e.  everyone knows that it is gray, most likely how to explain here:

https://ru.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/шаровый

"The spread of this word speaks in favor of early borrowing from Türkic;  Wed  Chuv  sărlа "to paint", sără "paint""

And most interesting in

wiktionary article this:

" List of translations
 English: flint gray;  iron gray;  ocean gray"

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Aardvark

[Tony Whittingham]

thank you, Aardvark!

That's a great help!

 

Cheers,

TW

[Aardvark]

 

 

About 6 minutes (from 20:51) documentary filming of the Be-6:

 

Other  (from 29:09 to 32:50) documentary filming of the Be-6:

 

Drone filming memorial Be-6 in Safonovo:

 

B.R.

Serge