From photographic records, it seems that some Yakovlev planes (late production Yak-7B, early production Yak-9 and some prototypes as the first Yak-1M) adopted a blue grey/dark grey livery already in late 1942, disposed with a typical 'serpentine' or 'loop' scheme. These colors were the blue-grey AMT-11, the dark grey AMT-12, or something similar obtained by mixing light blue AMT-7 and black.

There is not full consensus on this grey/grey interpretation of these planes of 1942, but it's interesting to remember that many Yakovlev planes received a green/black camouflage already in late 1940, more than six months before the officialization of the NKAP instructions on camouflaging planes in 1941.

Above:

In April 1943, a grey/grey Yak-9 was presented as a proposal for the new standard camouflage of fighters. This led some criticism, according to which only one of two greys had to pe used, and only as a part of a three-colors or four-colors camouflage.

Right:

The same plane at the NII-VVS show room in 1943. The contrast with the darker green painting of MiG-3, and with the green/black camo of Il-2 and Pe-2 is evident.

Right:

The proposal was confronted with that of Major-General Losyukov, that proposed, in February 1943, a Yak-1 painted with a 3- shades scheme of AMT-4 green, AMT-6 black, AMT-1 light greyish brown. From the photo aside, we can see that the light brown has been brush painted over a factory painted black/green plane.

Left:

These contrasting necessities led the Scientific Instiute of Air Force, NII-VVS, to make tests from June 20 to 27 of 1943, comparing these two planes plus a Yak-1 with standard green-black camo. These three planes were wiewed and photographed from many angles and distances and against different environmental backgrounds. According to the reports, the grey/grey plane gave the best results in all circumstancies; to tell the truth, it's difficult to believe this when the plane is lying on the grassy ground, so it's possible that the report was influenced in favour of the grey/grey scheme for political reasons.

The directive n°2389/0133 of July 3, 1943, gave new instructions to paint the Soviet warplanes:

• the upper and side surfaces of all fighter aircraft are to have two colors: greyish blue and dark grey in the same scheme;
• upper and side surfaces of all types of aircraft but fighters have to be camouflaged in green, light brown and dark grey (black for Il-4 and Pe-8);
• the red stars remained in the same six positions of before, but were addictioned with a thick white outline and, more externally, with a further thin red outline.
• the directive applies to new planes and those in repair shops; it wasn't required that operative units repainted all their planes.

The directive contained 15 camouflage schemes for many types, of which only one for the fighters; so, Lavochkins and Yaks had to be conformed to the same template. The template itself was well different from the serpentine camouflage of the Yaks already on production and of the grey-grey test plane. The lines shown in the template are splinter-like, but this wasn't always respected on real planes.

According to the Soviet handbook for wooden aircraft desing "Projektirovanie derevjannyh samoljetov", page 355 (NKAP SSSR, Moskva, 1945), the darker layer (AMT-12) was painted first, and then AMT-11 blue-grey was painted on it. (cit. K. Lumppio)

Yak-1b

Yak-1B remained in production till the mid of 1944 before being replaced by Yak-3 on the assembly lines.

After July 1943, Yak-1bs were delivered with the new grey/grey camo scheme, usually with light blue undersurfaces.

Yak-1M Moskit

The first prototype of Yak-1M Moskit, delivered in february 1943, gives an excellent documentation on how the serpentine camouflage appeared. from all sides.

The second prototype, completed in September 1943, had already the NKAP camouflage of 1943 instead of the serpentine one.

Yak-3

A photo of Yak-3 prototype under testing. The fresh colors show a strong contrast. The painting sheme differs from the standard template on the nose and left wingroot where it's curved and moved forward; the remaining part follows fairly well the template, even in a weak attempt to be angular. Note the stars, whose outline looks silver instead than white.

On this plane, the distribution of the bands conform well to the template, but the contrast is very low, probably due to the quick fading of dark grey AMT-12.

Lower and lower contrast. Note the angulated lines.

This plane seems to show evidence of repainting on the mid and front fuselage, while the rear fuselage and wings show extremely faded colors. This style of repainting was common enough on photos, possibly because the front part of the plane was more prone to wearing, while the rear part was complicated to be repainted because of the star and bort numbers. On this photo, both the number and the outline of the star looks silver instead of white.

A Yak-3 of Normandie Niemen in flight, still with Soviet insignas. Repaintings are evident, and all the front part of the plane looks much darker and fresher than the back one.

Color photos of the same Yak-3 of Normandie Niemen in 1945, still with Russian camouflage but without red stars. The camouflage, well contrasted when new, has lost all his contrast. Photo of G.Risso

Yak-7B

A Yak-7b in the wind tunnel at TsAGI, probably in mid/late 1942. The serpentine livery is evident. Note the old style markings.

A colorful Yak-7B in late 1942. Again the serpentine livery and the old-style stars without white/red outline. It is believed to be the plane of Nikolai Tikhonov of 42 IAP.

Yak-7PD of the Moscow PVO with the 'serpentine' livery in 1943 and late style marks. Note the funny loop on the wing. In first position, a I-230 (MiG-3U), some of which were tested in 12th IAP of the Moscow PVO, and that are believed to be camouflaged in grey-grey.

A collection of photos of Yak7B of a navy unit that were reportedly painted in shades of grey. It seems that the uppersurface was painted with AMT-11 and 12, probably according to the NKAP scheme of 1943, while the undersurfaces look painted with AMT-11 or 12. Spinners and rudders look white or silver. Reports and images show that in the same unit there were planes with light blue undersurfaces too, as usual. This was considered a marine scheme by the crews, but perhaps this was because they didn't know that all land-based fighters were receiving the same grey/grey livery.

Yak-9

Yak-9 c/n 0118 at NII VVS in February or March 1943. Again, it wears the serpentine livery supposedly made of AMT-11 and 12, still with old style red stars.

The red-nosed Yak-9 Za Volodju! of Mikoyan was entitled to his brother Vladimir, killed in action in 1942; it has the serpentine camouflage, so it could be camouflaged in grey.

Yak-9 n.930 of 976 IAP in Winter 1943. The contrast with other planes of the same unit, believed to be green-black camouflaged, is evident.

Photo of the famous Yak-9 n.22 and 31. The wing camo of wing appear very angular, apparemtly due to a repainting by brush. The AMT-11 on the rear fuselage and wing appear much lighter than that on the nose, that appears gloss because freshly repainted. The colors of the rudder are even more faded.

This line of Yak-9T, probably just delivered to the unit, shows the strong contrast and the uniformity of the camouflage.

Yak-9B n° 01, in evaluation with the 130 Bomber Division, has a dark look, but the pattern is undoubtably of late 1943. Note the white band on fuselage, the red lightning on the rudder, the guards badge on the nose and possibly a red star on its spinner.

These Yak-9s follow a strange variation of the 1943 template.

A line of Yak-9T with an unusual twin circle on the spinner, and with light (faded grey?) rear fuselage. Note that the different shades of the landing gear doors suggests the use of two different shades of light blue on undersurfaces; it's not clear if AII blue and AMT-7, two shades of AMT-7 or what else.

A line of Yak-9DD of 236 IAD at Bari, in Southern Italy, ready to escort US bombers on a raid against Rumania. The first plane, and many other ones, appear to be pained with upper and side surface in solid grey, probably AMT-11. Note that the undersurface of fuselage of the first plane looks painted with a dark color, possibly AMT-11, while the metallic parts as under the nose and the landing gear doors appear lighter, possibly in A-28m light blue oil paint. The wingtips looks white, and a small red star was painted on the landing gear door.

LaGG-3

This plane of late production of Tbilisi plant shows a fresh and well contrasted camouflage. Only the plant of Tbilisi continued to produce LaGG-3 between 1943 and 1944. The grey/grey camouflage has never been documented on earlier types of LaGG-3.

La-5

This old La-5 was painted in grey (according to some reports, 50% AMT-11 and 50% AMT-12) and with a sharkmouth as an homage to Capt. Georgi D. Kostylev. It's very doubtful that was ever flown with this colorful livery.

La-5F and FN

Two photos of the production lines of La-5FN at Factory 21 ay Gorkiy. The repetitivity of the new camouflage is evident.

La-7

Three photos of the first production La-7 show well the new livery of 'splinter' blue-grey and dark grey over light blue, and the new style of national insignas. Black remained in use for prop blades. AMT paints appear semigloss when new, and then turned to matt. (from Yakovlev's piston-engined fighters by Yefim Gordon)

A photo of a La-7 with the NKAP 1943 grey/grey livery. The large numbers, already introduced in 1943 on the green/black camo, were painted in factory with uniform style and bore a thin outline, probably dark blue.

A La-7 under a camouflaging net.

Some La-7 with uniform grey (AMT-12 for the first and second plane. AMT-11 for the third one) in 1945 (not known if during the war or immediately after). Note the unusual shape of the bort number, probably in red. Probably these liveries were not from the factory, but were due to a repainting. The dark grey extends on the side steel plate behind the exhaust stacks, but paint looks to have adhered very badly on it. The uppersurface color looks to extend under the rear fuselage of plane 06 too, but not of the closer plane, possibly n.33, that is visible in other photos too.

This La-7 flight of 176 GIAP photographed by the frontline reporter Aleksander Dmitriyev from the rear place of an Il-2 in april 1945 near Berlin. The planes could have been repainted with fresh AMT-12 livery and red nose for this movie only. (from MBI monograh)

MiG prototypes

I-230 (MiG-3U) of mid 1943. Only six were built, and are believed to be painted in grey/grey livery.

I-231 prototype of late 1943. This is believed to be grey-grey too.

I-224 prototype of August 1944 is believed to have its upper and side surface in solid blue-grey AMT-11.

This is the only early Yak-9 when preserved in Yakovlev collection, and has a grey-grey camouflage similar to the known serpentine, but probbly not original. Later, the Yakovlev museum was dismantled and this plane has been sent to the . (thanks to Aleksandr Ruckovski)

A Yak-9 tail in excellent condition is shown at Tikkakoski museum. A comparison with FS catalogue gives: darker grey FS 35042, lighter FS 36118. (cit. K. Lumppio) I suppose that these colors are taken around the star, where they look more fresh; other slightly different shades could be obtained from the underlying part. There is some green on the rudder, too.

Two interesting images of a wreck of a La-5FN.

Above, the pieces wre made wet with water to show better their original colors; we recognize AMT-7, 11, 12 and the yellowish putty for wood.

Below, a detail of the bort number bears an interesting discovery: its outline was dark blue, and this was probably true for all late-style bort numbers on La5F, FN and La-7.