Soviet Air Force VVS pre-war to 1941 “Great Patriotic War”

Green and light blue of the first months of the war

The Soviet Air Force went through a marked change at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s. Prewar aircraft shone in a silvery finish that went with bright national insignia, while as the conflict approached a uniform protective green was adopted for the upper surfaces and a light blue for the undersides. It is between these two worlds that the eight shades in this set move.

What is inside: two protective greens, a grass green, an aircraft blue-gray tone, a light blue for the undersides in two shades, an aluminum metallic tone for the older silvery finishes and a light gray. The combination makes it possible to build an aircraft from peacetime and the same type a year later, already in a camouflage finish.

For which types: fighter biplanes and their monoplane successors, the reconnaissance and ground-attack aircraft of the first period of the fighting, trainers and aircraft left in their factory finish. Anyone building a scene from the summer of 1941 will appreciate that the shades can also be used on the remains of equipment in the background.

On the execution: the protective green was never constant anywhere. It differed with the production plant, the batch and how long the aircraft had stood in the sun. Mixing the two green tones of the set together is therefore historically defensible and does the model more good than a single uniform coat.

Silvery and green aircraft also often met on one airfield, because re-equipment went on gradually. A scene with an aircraft in its factory finish standing next to a freshly repainted example is therefore well documented historically.