A WHOLE WORLD OF WRONG COLORS

Recently on one Czech discussion modeling

forum there was a short debate about the

coloring of Finnish MiG-21BIS. One of the

discussing guys sort of “knocked us over the

head” with the coloring of the Finnish scheme,

saying that we got it wrong and should fix it. I did

a bit of research on this subject some time ago,

although I am not the author of the scheme of

the kit in question, so I took up the controversy.

I was further reassured by the words "I know of

hundreds of photos of Finnish MiG-21bis aircraft,

but in none of them the aircraft sports the original

large cockades and green-brown camouflage."

An exchange of a few posts with photos followed,

the last one I argued with showing without any

doubt the aircraft in brown-green livery with

large markings ... Thus, the debate fizzled out and

with it, unfortunately, a bit of a final conclusion,

which is that the opponent of our livery, although

I have no doubt he knows a lot, was simply wrong

in this case and Eduard got the camouflage right.

The special thing was that the author of the

original photographs that we have, which in many

cases have not been published anywhere, wrote

to me himself about it: “When the first edition of

Eduard’s BIS appeared, someone immediately

started to question the Finnish coloration. This

was quite amusing to me, because I had verified

these colors personally and directly on aircraft in

active service!”

The opponent of our color scheme of the

Finnish “BIS” argued that some of the submitted

photographs were distorted due to the lighting

conditions, which is certainly a very relevant

comment in general, but this too has its rules.

Light is not selective and if it affects colors, it

affects all of them, not just one. One could write

a scientific treatise on the subject (not that a few

scientists haven’t already written a few, Richard

Feynman not excluded). If I take it to the absurd,

colors as such don't actually exist. There is light,

and what we see is fundamentally dependent

on it. The limit of this “function” is a state where

there is no light. Then there are no colors either

... Dive just 15 meters deep in the sea and all

that remains of the colorful coral “gardens” and

other fauna is a blue-grey dullness, because

the water has gradually filtered out most of the

color spectrum of daylight. The red is the first to

take its toll, then the other components follow.

Climate, time of day or season, geographical

location or even altitude can do similar things

to colors, albeit to a lesser extent and intensity.

Well, then we can add to that the different

characteristics of photographic material (this is

what photography was done on before the digital

age, in case some of the younger ones didn't

know; today the white balance can be a problem

on digital cameras), the different quality of

reproduction, scanners, the color characteristics

September 2023

of displays and individual image viewers, and

suddenly we have an equation of twenty or so

unknowns, the solution of which would lead us to

that one absolutely correct and accurate shade

of color. However, unlike aerodynamics, where

the international standard atmosphere is used

to achieve comparable measurement results, it

is difficult to convert something to some kind of

“international standard lighting conditions”. Yes,

we could agree to take pictures only at 6,000

K, but we probably won't be able to do anything

about it in the photos we have already taken ...

I prefer not to go into the topic of reading colors

from black and white photos. However, for those

interested in this subject I would recommend

the book Jasta Colors Vol. 1 (Aeronaut Books;

2020) by Bruno Schmäling and our excellent

collaborator Jörn Leckscheid, who discusses the

types of black and white photographic materials

and their different color renditions in depth.

When looking for the “right” colors for our

models, we usually have no choice but to use

our imagination, extrapolate already known

facts, add a little bit of feeling and perhaps some

tolerance when judging finished models of other

modellers. After all, we don”t all have the same

color sense either. For example, a friend of mine

from my paragliding days kept his colorblindness

a secret for a time. We only discovered it on

a trip to the woods, where we came across

a place thickly covered with strawberries in full

crop. “That's a lot of strawberry!” we exclaimed,

happily munching away, while Alex, the man in

question, stood unhappily right over the bounty,

and finally got out ”Where are they?” He just didn’t

see red color ...

Color chips! I can hear the die-hard modelers,

clamoring for the one and only right shade no

matter what. Yes, chips ... Like the ones of the

ANA 623 Glossy Sea Blue shade for example. The

production “recipe” for this color was changed

in 1967/1968 because the original paint degraded

quickly and had to be made from different

components to make it more durable. The US

Navy then, sometime in the 1960s, made surplus

samples of this paint available to modelers and

aviation historians, with

some getting the original

1944 samples while others

had 1948 samples. And the

basis of the controversy

over the one and only

correct ANA 623 was born,

because these two chips did

not match each other! So, of

course, changes in recipes

and components used in

production, however forced,

could also have affected

the final appearance of

Text: Richard Plos

the colors used on aircraft. In my cheerful

relativizing of our ability to find the most correct

camouflage colors, I have not even come close

to name all the stakeholders. In our hobby,

for example, scale effect and related scale

lightening of colors (of which I am a proponent

myself) come into play, and of course the aspect

of availability of the right shade from your

favorite paint manufacturer. Here, by the way, my

colleagues and I occasionally get into a tight spot

when creating the color schemes, most often in

the case of colors for the pre-war Czechoslovak

air force and most of all when preparing kits of

civilian machines, in our case mainly the Trenér

line. Our office is then scented with Gunze C

series, and more and more colors are occupying

my desk as I try to find the ones that could be

used to mix the blue I see on the display. Which

brings us back to the point. I may have a graphic

calibrated one, but what good is it if the photos

I’m working from each show a different color?

Probably the biggest nut for me was the Z-326M

with registration OK-OTP. I shot it in the hangar

at the Točná aifield, then we took it outside and

I shot it in daylight. And then again, outside again,

but later, after flying. Then, on the display I got

three completely different colors of one aircraft

in one day. And mix the right color then!

All the discussion regarding the coloring of

Finnish MiGs-21BIS was therefore, in my opinion,

instructive for at least two reasons. Firstly, I think

that claiming anything about the color shades as

an unquestionable reality is pretty “waxy”. Then,

too, it’s important to realize that an individual

cannot know everything, and thus it never

hurts to have a little humility and the ability to

admit that my fixed idea may not be correct (you

know that saying about the benefit of doubting

everything in life at least once, even the fact that

one plus one are two, right?) And in the spirit of

these last words, we asked the aforementioned

Finnish colleague to share his knowledge and

photos regarding Finnish MiGs-21BIS. So, you can

look forward to his article(s) in some of the future

issues of Info magazine. So, all hail the colors,

especially the right ones in the right light!

INFO Eduard

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