MiG-21PFM - Vietnam - 1968
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MariusThank you guys. I have to admit, I had difficulties weathering the camouflaged area.
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The famous Red 5015 of probably the highest ranking MiG-21 ace of all time, Nguyễn Văn Cốc, credited by the VPAF with 9 air victories of manned aircraft and two other Firebee drones during the Vietnam War. All his claimed air victories were achieved with the R-3S Atoll missiles, which is surprising considering their problematic accuracy. In his tally, there were five F-105 Thunderchiefs (3 Ds and 2 Fs), one F-102A and three F-4 Phantoms.
Originally flown in natural metal finish, this 921st FR MiG-21PFM (Izdeliye 94A) was camouflaged with dark green spots over light green upper surfaces when it was relocated south from Noi Bai to Tho Xuan airfield during 1968. Aces Nguyen Van Coc, Pham Thanh Ngan, Nguyen Dang Kinh, Dang Ngoc Ngu, Nguyen Tien Sam and Dinh Ton subsequently flew this fighter over Military District No 4 on numerous occasions.
There were discussions if the dark green dots were overall applied directly on bare metal or on some grey background or if the entire aircraft was first painted grey before. There is one clear, rare close-up picture of the Red 5015 found in "Aircraft of the Aces 135 - MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War" by Istvan Toperczer of Osprey Publishing, where it becomes obvious that the underside is still in bare metal (unpainted), while the dark green dots clearly have another dark background, which in this case could only have been another shade of green.
His famous MiG-21PFM "5015" is depicted in numerous color profiles illustrating a vertical ruder left unpainted (bare metal) with green spots applied on top. This is just wrong, since these profiles are based on one photograph (see my gallery), where the rudder is deflected sideways shining in the sun, leaving the impression that the base color is bare metal. Overall, this doesn't make any sense, since the entire aircraft has had a light green base color on the upper surfaces. Why leave only the rudder half painted? I have never seen a Vietnamese MiG-21 having control surfaces painted differently..
There were also discussions about the actual cockpit (interior) colors of the Vietnamese PFMs. Some people point out, that the displayed aircraft at the Air Force Musem in Hanoi still have the original paint from the Vietnam War and that the PFMs displayed there have the cockpit painted in the known Russian cockpit turqoise. Nevertheless, this was NOT the original color during the war. It is well known that most (maybe all) PFMs have originally had a grey interior, which was at a later point repainted turqoise by most foreign air forces during overhauls. In the book mentioned above, one can find also an undated but obviously old color picture with the cockpit of a Vietnamese MiG-21 PFM, where the grey color can be clearly distinguished for the cockpit. The freshly delivered PFMs to the VPAF could not have had a turqoise cockpit during the war.
My depiction of the Red 5015 includes a UB-16-57 pod instead of the R-3S missiles. During the air engagements of the early stages of the war, the lead 'Fishbed' in each pair was equipped with two infrared-guided R-3S AAMs, while the wingman's aircraft carried two rocket pods containing unguided high-explosive fragmentation S-5M rockets. The S-5M rockets were used several times (succesfully) also to down enemy aircraft. Nguyen Van Coc is known to have flown as well as wingman, therefore I mounted the UB-16 pods for some variation in my MiG-21 collection.
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