DCS MiG-15bis

[Vonrd]

This skin represents the early MiG-15s of the DDR. I'm rendering these early ones as nice and shiny. The ground crews were probably proud of their "new" planes that Comrade Stalin had given to them and spent many hours polishing them to a high sheen.

(Love the roughmets in DCS!).

Is it too much?

Link to folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lb7xrazf53s1wiv/AAAAar2pw6UAM-__Vofq2I6ra?dl=0

[Klaiber]

Okay, I've been doing research on the MIG-15's markings.

The overall "natural metal finish" of the MiG-15 is not natural.

If you look at period photographs and museum examples, you can see that the aircraft are actually uniformly painted in a lacquer with aluminum powder in it.  In fact, there should be no transparency through the lacquer whatsoever.  The aircraft are completely covered and thus opaque.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235049698-soviet-natural-metal/

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Finnish Air Force had MiG-15 UTIs, MiG-21 F13s and Ilyuschin Il-28s all in silver finish. Those planes were normally painted in the Soviet Union when they were sent back to the factory for major overhauls. Some notes based on these aircraft:

- the silver paint chipped away easily along all leading edges and intakes
- the painted surface darkened, lost it's shine and became "patched"
- in MiG-21 F13s steel parts weren't painted but left in NMF at the factory
- avoid that "chrome" silver look seen in some models; even when freshly painted those planes never looked chrome silver

I also found this Soviet color reference chart, including WW2 colors and Modern colors:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_soviet.htm

If you're looking to reproduce the aluminum lacquer, WW2 "medium grey" is a good choice:

http://www.colorserver.net/showcolor.asp?fs=26493

Does this help?

Here is a period example:

And here are some Museum versions:

 

[Vonrd]

Interesting... bit of a pity though. I kinda liked the polished metal look. I'll try to adjust the roughmet to have a gloss aluminum paint job for the early DDR skin.

[Vonrd]

Here's a shiny gloss gray painted one.

I haven't been able to duplicate the metallic aluminum paint. Not enough resolution to mimic the tiny metallic particles in metallic silver paint.

Link should be the same: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lb7xrazf53s1wiv/AAAAar2pw6UAM-__Vofq2I6ra?dl=0

[Vonrd]

USAF 181221-F-IO108-030.jfifHmm... I'm not yet convinced. Look here. https://www.detailandscale.com/meetup/mig-15-fagot

The one at the US Air Force Museum looks like it may have some painted panels, especially as a background to the BORT numbers. This is the famous one delivered by a defector from North Korea:

Shortly after landing at Kimpo AB, the young pilot learned of the $100,000 reward. To his relief, he also found out his mother had been safely evacuated from North to South Korea in 1951 and that she was alive and well.

The MiG-15bis was taken to Okinawa where test pilot Capt. H.E. "Tom" Collins, first flew it. Collins and Maj. C.E. "Chuck" Yeager made subsequent test flights. The airplane was disassembled and airlifted to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in December 1953, where it was reassembled and exhaustively flight-tested. The U.S. then offered to return the MiG to its rightful owners but no country claimed the plane. It was transferred to the museum in 1957.

I'm pretty sure it's "as delivered".

The others look like bare aluminum to me.

Your example above is, I think, from the Pima air museum and a restoration with a complete fresh paint job. Something suspect is that the stainless gun blast panels were not painted from what I've seen.

It's hard to find period photos with sufficient detail to determine whether bare or painted.

I'm not saying that they weren't painted either. Some pics seem to support that. Some pics seem that only parts of the plane were painted.

Here's the USAF Mig. At first glance photo USAF 181221-F-IO108-030 appears to be bare metal but this is a very high res photo and when zoomed in you can see the paint being scratched in areas. The paint film seems to be extremely thin though and the rivets are very prominent with little or no paint fill.

USAF 181221-F-IO108-030.jfif

This one from the NASM but it's the Chinese knock off:

 

And these from Monino which seem to support the painted.

So, I think I can buy the paint but I don't think they ever looked as smooth and uniform as the one from the Pima museum. The paint film was probably very thin and not too durable.

[Klaiber]

Yuri Tepsurkaev is an artist involved in a number of Russian language publications:

http://redstarsart.blogspot.com/2011/06/art-of-yuri-tepsurkaev.html?m=1

http://acepilots.com/russian/rus_aces.html
 

According to his corrections of other people’s comments, some MiG-15s in Korea were opaquely lacquered to reduce the shine from the natural metal.  This wasn’t specific to any season or year.  Just something they did.

However, aircraft left the factory in natural metal.

Additionally, all/most paints used in Korea came from Soviet supplies.  I have to assume that this is the case with East Germany after 1956.  At least at the beginning.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/&do=findComment&comment=1451102

He also said this about the aluminum lacquer:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/&do=findComment&comment=1451131
 

Quote

That was so-called "serebryanka" - Nitrogliphtalevaya Emal' NGE-70 (Nitroglyptal enamel).

That was an opaque paint made of aluminium powder mixed with glyptal resin and thinner, its drying time was about 30 to 40 min.

So, based on this, I have to assume that within the Korea War, MiGs arrived in natural metal.

And that some units (at least those in close contact with Soviet ground personnel) painted them gray to reduce the shine. I’m purposely ignoring camouflage markings, as that complicated things. 

But that other units, especially Chinese and North Korean squadrons, may have left the aircraft in natural metal.

Perhaps @Firefly could give us a hand understanding this?  There aren’t a lot of English-language sources that I can find.

Regardless, for a 1956 LSK MiG-15bis, I’d have to assume they’d hold to Soviet standards and want to reduce shine.

But again, I have no proof.

[Klaiber]

@Vonrd, I finally had the chance to download and check out the second skin you made.  The one with the lacquer.

I honestly really like it a lot!  It's shiny and new. And looks like what I've seen in photographs from 1956.

But since you overwrote it, I wasn't able to check out the silvered version.

Looking at East German 1950s photographs, I just can't tell if the Germans painted them. 

But based on this MiG-15UTI from the Rothenburg museum, I want to say they did.

Here is a link to the photograph:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/East-Germany-Air-Force/Mikoyan-Gurevich-MiG-15UTI/4392697/L?qsp=eJwljUEKwjAQRe/y13WhgmJ26kJcFF14gSEZ2mJ1wmRAQ%2BndTePu8T68P8HL2/hrjxwZDolJfY8GkZReCW7Ck/NHNBRGe72sNvtl7cXkTMadaIY7NEiidiqIUOzRe47GAX9/08C6TJx8TXflal2A9V4Z213xYUhxpNpgo2HEPP8ArQM0WQ%3D%3D

Honestly, I don't want to take away your fun.

So, if you want to make a painted version and a silvered version, I'd be okay with that.  So long as the silvered version isn't too bright.

 

[Vonrd]

4 hours ago, Klaiber said:

So, if you want to make a painted version and a silvered version, I'd be okay with that.  So long as the silvered version isn't too bright.

 

Well, it's pretty bright... . Here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8rag1xbcozuttap/AAAmAQ_wi3Z72NaB1XM-EdBBa?dl=0

I don't mind if we don't use it. It was a good exercise in manipulating the roughmet file.

[Klaiber]

I like it.  Let's use both.

Are you going to make a post-1959 camo version, based on the MiG-15UTI trainer?

If so, will you use black bort numbers?

[Vonrd]

Will do camo and Black Bart... erm... Bort

[Vonrd]

Submitting 3 MiG-15 skins. One bare metal, one with Gloss aluminum (gray) overall paint and a late 50's camo version using the trainer UTI version as a guide.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqicybs68bbxvqy/JG-1 MiG-15bis.zip?dl=0

[Klaiber]

They look great @Vonrd!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

The only thing I noticed is that I don't think the camouflaged versions of the MiG-15 had the black walk strip on the wing.  But that's super minor.

If you're happy with them, I'll upload them to the paint pack.

I think they came out awesome!

[Vonrd]

35 minutes ago, Klaiber said:

The only thing I noticed is that I don't think the camouflaged versions of the MiG-15 had the black walk strip on the wing.  But that's super minor.

Since the camo one is fictional, I'd prefer to keep the wingwalks. I'm afraid that, at my age, I'd slip off and break my neck... 

Yes, please upload to the pack.

[Barton]

These are all phenomenal, Vonrd!

[Klaiber]

3 hours ago, Vonrd said:

Yes, please upload to the pack.

Cool, I'll post them tomorrow.