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MiG-3 colors and painting
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The most usual colour schemes for MiG-3 are:
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green and dark green uppersurfaces, with light blue undersurfaces; sometimes
overpainted with non-standard black or sand mottles or stripes;
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green and black uppersurfaces, with light blue undersurfaces;
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green or factory green (dark blue-green, sometimes used until mid-1941)
uppersurfaces, with light blue undersurfaces;
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green, dark green and black bands with light blue undersurfaces; it's not
clear if these schemes are from the factory or are field repainting on
a two-color base. Perhaps some squadrons received both black/green and
dark green/green aircraft, and tried to standardize the camouflage by adding
the missing color on each aircraft; some photos seem to show 4-color camouflage,
too; we could consider the possible use of ochre too, which is difficult
to distinguishable from black in b/w photos.
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white mottles over camouflaged aircraft; usually the rear fuselage, tail
and wings are mottled white, while the central and forward section are
not mottled. This scheme is common on LaGG-3s, too, and perhaps is so to
avoid to dirty one's uniform with fresh white paint when there was no time
to let it dry;
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white oversurfaces (by workshop or field painted over the standard camouflage)
with light blue undersurfaces; sometimes different shades of white (or
light grey) are present on the same aircraft, particularly on the removable
panels that could be exchanged from one aircraft to another. The white
paint wais often painted in the field, but sometimes it could be painted
in the factory;
The only known stenciling are:
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the serial number on the right side of the nose (it looks black on white
backgrounds, and a lighter color, perhaps red, on the camouflaged backgrounds;
perhaps it's always red);
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a black line on each side of the fuselage, under the leading edge of the
horizontal tail plans, perhaps to show a lifting point; not always present.
The colors for details are probably:
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usually blue-grey for the undercarriage legs, wheels, bays and doors; sometimes
they look painted with a light color, perhaps the underside light blue
or metal primier grey-green (indistinguishable in b/w photos) and dark
color (probably dark green) wheel hubs;
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blue-grey for the cockpit interior, instrument panel (with black quadrants)
and radio boxes, radiator cowling interior and so on; (on some photos,
I think to see also all-black instrument panel, but I'm not sure);
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the propeller is usually bare alluminum, often with the rear part partially
painted black (often showing alluminium patches near the extremity; on
white-painted MiGs, the blades are often painted white themselves; exceptionally
the blades are camouflaged.
Color equivalences