MiG-23M Red 12

[jonbryon]

This image of Red 12 in flight is well-known: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-23#/media/File:MiG-23-red12.jpg

 

According to the caption it was taken in 1989. I'm going to finish my Trumpeter 1/48 MiG-23M in these colours and have the following questions:

 

1. Does anyone know the unit Red 12 belonged to and where it was based (simply knowing the country will do)?

2. Do any other photos of this airframe exist?

3. Is it likely the underside of the fuselage between the nose cone and the front gear bay was black as with other MiG-23Ms?

4. Does anyone know what colour the front half of the intake splitter is? Linden Hill say this area was usually bare metal but I'd love confirmation.

5. The pylons look to be the same colour as the dielectric panels; would that be about right?

 

Many thanks for any help!

 

Cheers

 

Jon

[janman]

I do not have answers for all the questions, but for the question number three my answer would be yes. They usually basically always had that black area as you described.

 

Number 4. Bare metal or some very neutral metal grey, in other words dull silver or aluminum. 

 

For the fifth one my answer is no. The dielectric grey on a pylon wouldn't make much sense, so apart from some veeery special case they are not painted with that color. Some pylons might be bare metal (or only part of the pylon) and some a kind of semi-metallic neutral grey or painted with the fuselage grey.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited April 22, 2017 by janman

[janman]

A little follow up: According to Yefim Gordon book, this aircraft should belong to the 35th IAP (Fighter Unit) operating in Zerbst, Germany (EDIT: East G or DDR, of course). On the other hand, given the date, they should have operated Fulcrums by then, since the Ms were replaced with MLs and MLDs in the mid 80's and later (starting from 1987) with MiG-29s.

 

I can PM you a page from the book with three photos of M's pylons. You'll get a good idea of the colors.

Edited April 22, 2017 by janman

[Floggerman]

#3 has been answered: yes, black (in front of the IR-tracker)

I guess, the pic is from end of 70's, definately not from 89.

It looks like a late M or early MF (the transition was fluent) as it could have the canopy strut and the modified front part of the bottom fin (both is not very clear on the pic)

 

EDIT: the rudder hinge is M, so it's all unclear...

Edited April 22, 2017 by Floggerman

[janman]

1 hour ago, Floggerman said:

 

I guess, the pic is from end of 70's, definately not from 89.

 

 

Yeah, I think so too. Despite of the photo caption's 1989 claim, I too tend to think this must be an older photo. A grey M (or MF) Flogger and late 80's just doesn't sum up, especially if it was serving on the Western front.

[jonbryon]

Many thanks for the replies; they've clarified a few things. 

 

I too was doubtful about the 1989 caption, but then I was also assuming US DoD captions would be correct!

 

The pylons definitely look a darker grey than the fuselage to me, so I will think about that a little more.

 

Cheers

 

Jon

[mingwin]

in the Airwar.ru MiG-23M page : link there is a photo of the splitter plate being bare metal on a grey MiG-23M.

i havent found any other photo of that very subject, but two different artwork profile of the airframe mentionned the 787th IAP in DDR late 70's. i know it's not reliable source...

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by mingwin

[jonbryon]

10 hours ago, mingwin said:

in the Airwar.ru MiG-23M page : link there is a photo of the splitter plate being bare metal on a grey MiG-23M.

i havent found any other photo of that very subject, but two different artwork profile of the airframe mentionned the 787th IAP in DDR late 70's. i know it's not reliable source...

 

 

Very helpful; thank you!

 

The profile art is significantly different from the photo, mainly in the style of the '12' - in the photo there is a white border - and the MiG in the photo has the earlier three rods IFF antennae, whereas the profile has the bladed one. I don't know much about Russian/Soviet aviation - it seems more likely to me these are different airframes. Were bort numbers unique to a particular airframe (i.e. was there only ever one Red 12 MiG-23M)?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[mingwin]

yeah, forget about the airframe  drawings.  ...and the answer to bort number question: No, there might have been many (white outlined)Red 12 MiG-23M, even at the same time... just not operated on the same area of USSR.