Basic Soviet Air Force (VVS) Painting, Colouration and Markings 1940-45

Basic Soviet Air Force (VVS) Painting, Colouration and Markings 1940-45

This article is a brief tutorial about the basics of VVS colouration and markings practices during the War years. By no means is this intended to be comprehensive! The subject is by far too complex and detailed to be described in full here, so this piece should serve as some food for thought, and general set of guidelines for VVS skinning.
Aviation Lacquers
The Soviets used a very substantial number of paints during the War, and pre-War, years. This is similar to the behaviour of other nations, and should come really as no surprise. The aviation lacquer system in use at the outbreak of War was the "AII" (as in A-roman-numeral-2) variety. These are notable for being rather quite bright; most Western observers think that they are 'gaudy' looking. Some earlier finishes of the "A", "AEh", and "AE" systems also remained, but they were not the most common.
At the start of 1942 some limited use was made of a new type of lacquer called "AMT". It took a while for these new paints to come into wide-spread use, and they were not common until the summer/autumn of 1942. Even so, AII was still used quite widely at many aero factories, especially on bombers, until after the War. For many reasons, AMT paint was used much more on fighter aviation than on larger aircraft, like bombers, transports, recce, etc. The first AMT paints were simply replacements for the same AII shades (i.e. green, black, blue, etc), even using the same pigments in their manufacture. Later, in 1944, new grey AMT colours came into use and supplanted the original AMT colours on fighter aircraft.
During 1944-45 a limited amount of a new lacquer system called "A-m" was seen. This system was intended for all-metal aircraft, and was only used on such machines (like the Pe-2 and Tu-2, for example). These colours are notable for being quite dark, indeed, and were not overly common during the War.
Fighter Camouflage
The VVS was at the forefront of much thinking in aviation camouflage, from well back into the 1920s. In the pre-War era the there were many advanced ideas, such as "sky" camouflage and "ground" camouflage. In other words, many fighters wore colouration seen to be inconspicuous in the air, such as aluminium and grey lacquers, while bombers and such like wore colours suitable for operation near the ground. This kind of dichotomy in thinking stayed with the VVS through the War, and actually does still to this day. In the pre-War era, some aircraft were manufactured with a single-colour upper surface livery (often green, with blue unders). This kind of finish was not considered to be camouflage by the VVS, only a military finish suitable for covering the airframe (during peacetime camouflage was not seen to be required). For these "non-camouflage" schemes, AII green was typical, but also AEh-15 was used in this way. When, in 1940, the government instructed that all aircraft would be camouflaged, most of these examples were modified with appliqué, many using the ubiquitous AII Black paint. Some numbers of I-16s did carry on in this outdated way, and so too did some MiG fighters, and so this appearance has become a bit apocryphal in Western literature. However, in the main, this non-camouflage appearance was no longer seen after 1940 (and was against regulations, as well); aircraft like the La-5 or Yak fighters obviously never appeared like this.

An I-16 "Type 24" in AII Green upper surface finish (in fact, with the
wing mounted ShVAK, this would be a Type 28).

An early MiG wearing the old AEh-15 dark green lacquer.

Some examples of the older "sky" camouflage could be seen in the early War period. These can be discerned from non-camouflage applications in that they were over-all colouration, not simple upper and lower schemes. The main lacquers in use for this kind of finish were AII Aluminium and AEh-9 Light Grey. This type of finish could be seen mainly on the I-153, outdated examples of the I-16 (i.e. the Type 5) and the SB bomber. Indeed, the Chaika and SB sometimes received spectacular appliqué camouflage involving green patternation over these (upper) surfaces, an appearance which has become highly popular in artistic work (although it was in fact uncommon).

I-153 wearing AII Aluminium. This lacquer was exceedingly bright and
reflective, as seen on this skin. The national insignia are of the interesting
pre-War variety, 'Circle-stars'.

An SB M-100 wearing all-over aviation lacquer AEh-9 Light Grey. This type of finish
was seen as a form of 'sky camouflage' for the speedy, high flying medium bomber.
Such notions from the 1930s were cruelly exposed as outdated during the GPW.

"Red 2" wore a fascinating appliqué of AEh-15 Green lines over AII
Aluminium.

The most common colouration for fighters at the outbreak of the War in the VVS was a two-colour disruptive pattern of black over green, and blue undersurfaces. A dark green paint was also used in lieu of black, but the former was more common. This combination remained the same with the introduction of AMT lacquers, except that the AMT system had no dark green colour (leaving only black). This is precisely how fighter camouflage remained until the end of 1943, even if the patterns and style of application changed quite a bit. There were many specific patterns of application for these finishes, many of which are probably still unknown. The manner and style of application were highly individualistic. These would depend mostly upon the specific factory manufacturing the aircraft, and the time-frame in question, but could also depend upon the preferences of individual workers and even random fancy. What is most important to bear in mind is the factory, in which one can usually see a certain range of somewhat agreed methods for many pattern applications. Equally, the type of aviation lacquer in use was often decided per factory in many cases.

Yak-1 wearing one of the type's early hard-edged schemes in AII Green and Black.
Note the distortions around the aft canopy area; most VVS models in IL2FB
suffer from serious mapping irregularities.

The 'Great Meander' pattern in AII lacquers Green and Dark Green.

A Yak-7B wearing a lovely pattern from Factory 153 in Novosibirsk. In this case, the paints in
use are AMT-4/-6/-7. The similarity between the different Green and Black colours is no
coincidence; the same pigments were used to colour the AMT and AII versions.

An early 4-gun LaGG-3 wearing another unique Novosibirsk pattern, this in AII Green
and Black.

Yak-1b wearing a complex AMT-4/-6/-7 application from 1943.

The beloved 'Loops' scheme on a Yak-9T, this time in AMT lacquers. The popularity of this
application across the Yakolev programme was such that it appeared in use at several factories,
Saratov and Novosibirsk predominating.

There is one case in which we see an unusual amount of uniformity in painting and finish, this being Factory 21 at Gor'ki (now named Nizhnij Novgorod). This factory was the first to employ the new AMT lacquers in mass production, and it was always enthusiastic to obtain the latest such paints. The Factory 21 staff employed these finishes with curious (by Soviet standards) regularity, and developed a 'default' paint pattern for use on all their La-5 aircraft. This pattern application was so ubiquitous that it has come to be known as the GSP (Gorki Standard Pattern). In short, if your reference photograph of an La-5 during the entire 1942-43 period (i.e. pre-AMT-11/-12 lacquers) does not clearly show another pattern, then one should employ this one. It was simply that common.

The Gorki Standard Pattern on the early La-5, 1942. The finishes here are AMT lacquers (-4/-6/-7),
as the factory so relished to use.

Here is the GSP a year later, now on the La-5F. As this application developed, the fuselage 'bump'
areas become somewhat tighter and more compact.

There were a few examples of this scheme in AII type lacquers, but AMT predominated heavily, and it is thought that by summer 1942 no more quantities of the older finish remained at this facility. A few mid-to-late series LaGG fighters were also finished with the GSP, especially those manufactured at Gor'ki.

At the start of 1944 a new system of AMT paints was introduced en mass for fighters. [In fact, this finish was actually seen in very limited cases prior to 1944. The known examples of this practice were all LaGG-3 fighters of the last type (Ulyushennij i Oblegchennij), manufactured during the late autumn of 1943.] The new upper surface colours were AMT-11 Grey-Blue and AMT-12 Dark Grey, but the current blue undersurface colour was retained (AMT-7). Almost without exception, these new colours replaced the old ones on all VVS fighters after this date. Furthermore, units in the field immediately began to apply this colouration onto surviving fighters which had been finished originally with other colours/lacquers. Along with the new colour finishes, the government (NKAP) decided to issue a recommended pattern for fighter camouflage. Note the word "recommended"; that is how this instruction was greeted at the factories. By and large, during 1944 the various factories did use a version of this pattern, although never, never with angular straight lines as in the NKAP diagram. Some of the common factory interpretations of this application are shown below.

Here is the actual diagram which accompanied this NKAP scheme recommendation, Order No. 389/0133.
The Soviet aviation factories regarded the angular, straight lines with utter contempt-- it was the antithesis
of all VVS camouflage practices heretofore.

The La-7 wearing a typical NKAP-type scheme, 1944. Thanks to Jester for the superb La-7
Template.

Factory 153's interpretation of the NKAP pattern, here on a Yak-9D.

By 1945, some factories began to deviate from the use of these NKAP type applications. Factory 381 at Moscow and 166 at Omsk were fine examples of this work. Indeed, the Saratov plant (no. 292) showed little interest in the NKAP scheme even in 1944, when it completed many Yak-1b fighters with an application of their own invention.

A 3-gun La-7 manufactured at Factory 381, Moscow, 1945. The new pattern was a return in many
ways to previous ideas on camouflage application.

Factory 292 at Saratov was not especially thrilled with the NKAP's ideas, as
demonstrated by this common Yak-1b application from 1944 manufacture. Later,
the same factory deviated again heavily with camouflage on the Yak-3.

During the early months of 1945 a new single-colour application could be seen at some factories. To date, examples finished in this way have been identified only from Factories 21 (Gor'ki) and 292 (Saratov) [i.e. the usual suspects when one discusses odd camouflage techniques], thus involving the La-7 and Yak-3 programmes. For these schemes, lacquers AMT-11 (most frequent) or AMT-12 (infrequently) were used as a single-colour upper surface application, with AMT-7 unders. Numbers of aircraft finished in this way were limited, and by all means the two-colour disruptive pattern of AMT-11/-12 remained standard right through the War, and immediately thereafter.

"White 100" wearing a single-colour upper surface AMT-11 scheme, 1945.

A three-gun La-7 finished in AMT-12 single-colour uppers.

There were no three-colour camouflage schemes applied to VVS fighters at the factory. In fact, even in the field these were exceptionally rare, with no more than 2-3 examples known from some 20,000 photographs. There was no "brown" (RAF-like) Soviet aviation paint, and nothing like it was ever used on any fighter. All of the myriad profiles made for years, and existing all over the world, showing this kind of colouration are completely in error.