11.01.2008, 08:41
It's the same old thing again, I'm afraid....
The problem when someone like Istvan introduces proper VVS colouration to any community with no experience in this area of study is that such results in predictable and uniform complaining. His choices are basically correct, your ideas of "dull", bland colouration are not.
The photograph posted (nice) actually depicts a part of the fuselage from an LaGG-3. It is finished with the later lacquer system AMT-4/-6/-7 (Green/Black/Blue). One should of course bear in mind that the item is 65 years old, and the colours will therefore be desaturated due to exposure and degradation. If you compare this photo to the chip for the same AMT lacquers posted by Istvan, you'll see the obvious origins of the appearance.
The earlier system, "AII" (A2) lacquers, were quite a bit brighter (for example on the early Yak-1). On p. 99 of the reference work cited by him you'll find the photo of an I-152 restored with lacquers AII Green and Blue which were devolved from physical samples investigated at length by a scientific laboratory. You may object to the colouration, but it is quite accurate despite your prejudices. Indeed, all of our "ideas" about VVS paints are no more than very poor prejudices based on terrible colour profiles appearing in books for 60+ years. The accepted appearance for all VVS aircraft in most communities is utterly wrong, as proven by both physical and documentary evidence. Indeed, one need only examine the VVS' long history of using bright camouflage colours-- for example on their modern jets, and those of the 70's and 80's-- to see the logic of this appearance to that service.
I might also remind all that the currently mooted 'dull' colouration is, in my opinion, a modern fad, nothing more. All viewers who examine the authentic Bf 109 in the Australian War Museum are astounded by the bright and 'gaudy' colouration, which the museum maintains is the only authentic surviving specimen of L/W paint from the War. I suspect that most paint from the 1935-45 era was similarly bright by modern standards.
And just as a last bit, can we keep the banter to adult levels of conduct, please? Discovering that one's long-held ideas may not be quite factual is no legitimate cause for abusive language. Right....
The problem when someone like Istvan introduces proper VVS colouration to any community with no experience in this area of study is that such results in predictable and uniform complaining. His choices are basically correct, your ideas of "dull", bland colouration are not.
The photograph posted (nice) actually depicts a part of the fuselage from an LaGG-3. It is finished with the later lacquer system AMT-4/-6/-7 (Green/Black/Blue). One should of course bear in mind that the item is 65 years old, and the colours will therefore be desaturated due to exposure and degradation. If you compare this photo to the chip for the same AMT lacquers posted by Istvan, you'll see the obvious origins of the appearance.
The earlier system, "AII" (A2) lacquers, were quite a bit brighter (for example on the early Yak-1). On p. 99 of the reference work cited by him you'll find the photo of an I-152 restored with lacquers AII Green and Blue which were devolved from physical samples investigated at length by a scientific laboratory. You may object to the colouration, but it is quite accurate despite your prejudices. Indeed, all of our "ideas" about VVS paints are no more than very poor prejudices based on terrible colour profiles appearing in books for 60+ years. The accepted appearance for all VVS aircraft in most communities is utterly wrong, as proven by both physical and documentary evidence. Indeed, one need only examine the VVS' long history of using bright camouflage colours-- for example on their modern jets, and those of the 70's and 80's-- to see the logic of this appearance to that service.
I might also remind all that the currently mooted 'dull' colouration is, in my opinion, a modern fad, nothing more. All viewers who examine the authentic Bf 109 in the Australian War Museum are astounded by the bright and 'gaudy' colouration, which the museum maintains is the only authentic surviving specimen of L/W paint from the War. I suspect that most paint from the 1935-45 era was similarly bright by modern standards.
And just as a last bit, can we keep the banter to adult levels of conduct, please? Discovering that one's long-held ideas may not be quite factual is no legitimate cause for abusive language. Right....