I’m doing a quick build of a little 1/72 scale Yak-9. The colors are given in both Humbrol and FS nos., but I don’t trust either when it comes to Russian planes of WW II. Any of you Great Patriotic War aircraft experts know what this Gray-Blue over AMT-12 Dark Grey over AMT-7 Blue might match with in MMaster or Tamiya? What does AMT mean in this context, anyway? I got these names and numbers from the bunch of profiles in this month’s issue of Scale Aircraft Modeling, and they tend to be pretty sharp when it comes to reseach. If this AMT-7 color is accurate in the magazine, it’s very vivid and quite impressive-looking. Also, these profiles all have sharp demarcation lines which, in my experience, don’t ring true on the old Soviet birds. I’m also guessing these are all flat colors, though I tend to add a bit of semi-gloss for realism.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Here’s a great site for building VVS aircraft. There is a search feature that may bring the answers you seek.
http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/index.php
For Russian Gray Blue, I use MM Underside Blue ( #2123). You can search a webstore, such as Squadron, to find the Dark Gray color. All of MM’s Russian colors are grouped together by number.
Hope this helps.
If you can’t find them in MM or Tamiya, may I suggest www.whiteensignmodels.com? They do detailed ranges for the main WWII combatants, and ship internationally. AMT 7, 11 and 12 are included in the VVS range. I bought a whole bunch, and got good results and great service.
I built a lend-lease P39 and found that all most all those aircraft were left in the olice drab over natural grey scheme paint.
I have also learned that painting the aircraft to any set of requirements was not a top priority for Mother Russia, they wanted numbers not pretty. I would defy anyone to claim the shade of whatever you use is not correct.
Don