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Mig-21 Experts. Correct cockpit color.


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I don't think Czech built F-13s had green cockpits when built. The green cockpit didn't come into use until well into 2nd generation Fishbed production (around 1966-67). Lacking photos to prove otherwise, I'd go with grey cockpits for the earlier versions.

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I think the Czech F-13s had green cockpits after overhauls later in their lives. When originally produced in the early to mid-1960s they didn't, because not even the Soviet ones had green cockpits at that point.

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Gunze H46 - Emerald Green seems the right color. But then someone argue and rightly so that the color is slightly toned down. Mixing H42 - Blue Grey, does the trick.

Now the proportion depends on how your eye perceives it. Hope it helps.

In my M-G-21, I used H46 right out of bottle.

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Czech F-13s had green cockpits as well.

Well, not all and not at all times. When delivered, Czech MiG-21F-13s had grey interior color and black instrument panel. Later (probably during midlife overhauls) the interior could be repainted to dark blue-grey. The most visible change came during general overhauls, when both interior and instrument panels were painted turquoise. However as some aircraft didn't undergo G.O., they survived till the end of their service with grey/blue-grey interior and black instrument panel (some are even displayed as museum exhibits in the Czech Republic and Slovakia).

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Gunze H46 - Emerald Green seems the right color. But then someone argue and rightly so that the color is slightly toned down. Mixing H42 - Blue Grey, does the trick.

Now the proportion depends on how your eye perceives it. Hope it helps.

In my M-G-21, I used H46 right out of bottle.

There is no "right" color. The color used in the cockpit was all over the map. I've seen them that were a light dusty green, and others that were almost fluorescent.

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There is no "right" color. The color used in the cockpit was all over the map. I've seen them that were a light dusty green, and others that were almost fluorescent.

There is one very specific interior glue/green colour used by the Russian aircraft manufacturers! It is a MYTH by Western “experts” that there was a chaos in Russia and the colours were all very different. Sorry this is not true!

The colour was very precise and identical, it was used even in civilian aircraft, transports of the same era and even today can be seen.

Dodgy colour photos taken in very different lighting conditions, with flash, in sunlight, in the shade and who knows what kind of film type or slide will all reproduce the same colour in very different way!!!!!!!!!!!

And I am not speaking of books where during preparing the photos for printing the colours go off very spectacularly!

As a reference I was selling a few years ago colour chips about 3-4x2 cm in size cut up from original cockpit parts from factory fresh (they were in the original Russian brown paper packing and never seen any light) spare parts of MiG-21’s together with colour chips of that Light Grey colour used on MiG-21 MF (late production), MiG-21 bis and the early MiG-23’s. Since these were original metal parts on the reverse side you would see that particular brownish yellow “interior” primer colour. So you had three original colours on those chips. I will have to have a look if I still have a few, drop me a PM if interested.

21colours.jpg

Here is the Eduard photoetched parts put on the actual aircraft parts. Eduard almost go it 100% right!

MFbis6.jpg

This is the part with the original colour, the canopy heating pipe.

MFbis5.jpg

Best regards

Gabor

Edited by ya-gabor
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There is one very specific interior glue/green colour used by the Russian aircraft manufacturers! It is a MYTH by Western “experts” that there was a chaos in Russia and the colours were all very different. Sorry this is not true!

Sorry Gabor, but while there may be a standard, I can state for 100% FACT that it is not universally adhered to. I've seen way too many Soviet aircraft cockpits with my own two eyeballs, and I've yet to see any two that were exactly the same color.

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Dear Jennings,

It is always a pleasure to share informations with you. I am sure you have seen many aircraft in your life time. So have I, including most of the MiG-21MF’s, MiG-21 bis, MiG-21UM’s, MiG-23MF’s, MiG-23UB’s, Mi-8’s, Mi-17’s, Mi-17PP’s, L-39ZO’s, Mi-24D’s and Mi-24V’s as well as ex GDR Mi-24D’s and Mi-24P’s (not to speak of the "small stuff" and the transports or the early jets). I have been all over them, all in all more than 200 aircraft of Russian manufacture and I have to add that not museum airframes but during their operational life both at units as well as when they were striped down to the bone during overhaul. So I have seen “a few” and researched / photographed them in the past 40 years.

I am sure back in the US you had about the same possibilities when it comes to Russian aircraft.

I know that you only believe in your own beliefs, so let it be if it makes you happy! :D There is simply no point in trying to show you anything.

Best regards

Gabor

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So Gabor, you're telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about because there is allegedly a "standard" paint color? Seriously? You've seen through my eyes?

I've been inside at least a dozen different Soviet aircraft, ranging from fighters to helicopters to transports, and I've yet to see evidence that the "standard" color is in fact standard. The Mi-17 I flew in had such a bright green that it literally hurt your eyes. The MiG-21PFM I sat in had a *much* less intense green. This isn't casual observation. I look at these things with a modeler's eye, just as most of us do.

I'm sorry, but if you haven't learned the lesson in life by this point yet, let me enlighten you: there are no absolutes, period.

Edited by Jennings
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The whole problem with different shades of green is the color of where was made! In the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the GDR was prepared the same process but these elements have been different. Therefore, after some time the color looked different.

To the original question. Color cockpit version F and PF was up to the overhaul of gray. In other versions should be identified period of production. The change in color was given change in cabin lighting and especially the type of exposure to ultraviolet light used in 70th years. This is however not true Suchoi aircraft, the cockpit had always gray-blue

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There is no "right" color. The color used in the cockpit was all over the map. I've seen them that were a light dusty green, and others that were almost fluorescent.

Russian aircraft in export schemes is my thing I've seen a lot of Mig-21 cockpit photos, reference cards and photos on the net. I have seen more than one colour from 1970 exactly as described above.

Maybe the majority are the Green/Blue but plenty of others too, maybe it is a colour change after upgrades or overhaul who know but there is evidence of different colours and yes I have seen some floro green ones as well but some of the green ones have chipped up to show the blue/green underneath in places.

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@Jennings & @ya-gabor!

Gabor might be right in saying there is a standard and Jennings might be right too in saying there isn't.

Standards some times are not implemented. With Russian aircraft being built across territories in USSR, its quite possible standards were not implemented across the board.

Also, when aircraft are sent to squadrons, there might be squadron level maintenance and repaint which changes the colors from what was handed from factory. Usage & exposure to elements must also be factored in.

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