Soviet aircraft icons

[Charles M]

Soviet aircraft icons


I seem to recall mentiong in a previous post that the Soviet aircraft icons are inaccurate, in that they display red stars on the upper wings of all aircraft, whereas from the autumn of 1941 onwards these markings we ber of unused Unit numbers for the Soviet OB, it could be done. The icons might look less pretty without the stars, but they are more accurate representations.

Another issue is one of camouflage colours. Despite what is shown in books of the Cold War era, Soviet single-engined fighters almost never sported brown camouflage; the few exceptions to this rule included small batches of Yak 9D, M and T's (and possibly somu, e Yak 7B's) on the southern front. Yak and Polikarpov fighters as well as La 5's used green and black, or occasionally green and a dark blue-green, LaGG 3's green and black, and from the summer of 1943 two tone grey was authorised but probably not fully introduced on all single engined fighters until that winter, and used until the end of the war throughout all seasons. White distemper, which caused extra drag, was no longer used in winter. Single engined fighter Units with an availablility date commencing late 1944 should be in two tone grey. Again, there might be enough spare Units in the OB to remedy this

Colour errors that need rectifying include the following single-engined fighters:

Unit 086 Yak 9B
Unit 139 Yak 9T
Units 140 and 661 LaGG 3
Units 141 and 146 La 5
Unit 144 Yak 1
Unit 410 Yak 3 should be in two tone grey
Unit 411 Yak 9U should be in two tone grey
Unit 554 Yak 9B should be in two tone grey
Unit 660 LaGG 1 Apart from the incorrect colours, this Unit should be renamed LaGG 3, as no LaGG 1 except prototypes existed, all LaGGs that saw action were built or converted to LaGG3 specifications.

Note that Unit 146 shows a La 5F, with bubble canopy, not a La 5, whereas Units 141 and 419 incorrectly show a La 5FN, not an earlier La 5, which should either be a razorback or as used for the Unit 146 photo. The Yak depicted for Unit 411 actually shows a Yak 9D, not a Yak 9U, the latter lacked the oil cooler intake below the nose.

Sources

Yefim Gordon, Lavochkin's Piston-Engined Fighter, Midland Publishing, 2003

Jiri Hornat, Colors of the Falcons: Soviet aircraft camouflage and markings in World War II, Iliad Design, Ottowa, 2006 and 2009

Erik Pilawskii, Soviet Air Force Fighter Colours 1941-1945, Chevron Publishing, 2003

MilosVeštšík & Jiří Vraný, Lavočkin La-5, Miroslaw Bílý, Prague, 2006

[DRG]

Yes, I have known ALL about the "red star" issue for going on a quarter-century now

Since they are still like that I guess you can figure out they are not going to change but if you are ambitious you can change them yourself