Black Sturmoviks

[VALENGO]

Despite the fact that Il2 was named "black death" for german troop I can´t find good pics of Sturmoviks in overall black scheme. In the web there are some fuzzy pics that make me suspect that the plane is painted in black, but nothing clear. Anyone has pics of black Sturmoviks?. Thanks in advance.

 

[GrauGeist]

To be honest, I have never seen a photo of an all black IL-2

I know that they used black in combinations with other colors, like the A-24M/AMT-4 green with the A-26M/AMT-6 black

 

[Wurger]

I haven't seen a such painted Il-2 too. However these planes were painted with a dark green colour on tops at the end of war. And this is the reason these could have been misled while looking at B&W pictures.

 

[Snautzer01]

Black death is bubonic plaque also called black death in europe. Killed millions and there was no escape and no cure

added a wiki on the "Schwarzer Tod" https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzer_Tod and in english The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe Ever | History Today

Remember that plague like the Spanish flu just after the ww1 were very recent. Even so the chose an even worse plague to describe the Il2.

 

[Wurger]

 

[VALENGO]

Well, I knew the history about bubonic plague, but Aero Modeller magazine, june 1970, stats: night intruder scheme: overall matt black. I have that issue with me from my very childhood, the article is deep and well documented.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I just flipped through both Ilyushin Il-2/Il-10 and Soviet Air Power in World War 2 both by Gordon Yefim and I do not see any mention of it. There are a couple of color profiles that have patches of what appears to be a blackish/greenish color. Perhaps this was an experiment they tried and it did not become standard?

 

[fubar57]

Been through all my books and nothing black. I did find a post war Yugoslavian aircraft in dark grey. In every book, the photos aren't great and the aircraft look dark however most have captions that mention the common Sturmovik colors




Geo

 

[GrauGeist]

I just flipped through both Ilyushin Il-2/Il-10 and Soviet Air Power in World War 2 both by Gordon Yefim and I do not see any mention of it. There are a couple of color profiles that have patches of what appears to be a blackish/greenish color. Perhaps this was an experiment they tried and it did not become standard?

David, see my post (#2 above), the VVS did use black in conjunction with various shades of green (typically darker greens) at different periods during the war. This pattern was actually used on several types besides the IL-2.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Yea I saw it, I was just reiterating that was the closest to all black I could find.

 

[GrauGeist]

Yea I saw it, I was just reiterating that was the closest to all black I could find.

Ahh...gotcha

It appears they had two different shades of exterior black but I can't tell if that was due to a VVS order or if it was due to wartime influences (bombed factory, relocated factory, scarcity of pigment materials, etc.) and it also looks like there was an interior black used on some aircraft, too.

 

[Snautzer01]

Well, I knew the history about bubonic plague, but Aero Modeller magazine, june 1970, stats: night intruder scheme: overall matt black. I have that issue with me from my very childhood, the article is deep and well documented.

1970 is a longggg time ago. You just can not trust that anymore. Specially things concerning Luftwaffe and VVS airforces.

 

[Airframes]

Perhaps it was a reference (by German forces) to the, what seemed like constant hordes of them, silhouetted against the sky,low down, therefore appearing black ?
Just a thought ...........

 

[GrauGeist]

For the most part, IL-2s used mostly a grayish blue underside, in some noted cases, an off-white underside color.

However, there were some IL-2s that had a black underside, that were used as night bombers. The upper colors were the same as day bombers, using either a two or three color camouflage (with or without black in the combination) pattern.

A good chart that covers the various VVS colors can be found here: table of colors

 

[Wurger]

Well, I knew the history about bubonic plague, but Aero Modeller magazine, june 1970, stats: night intruder scheme: overall matt black. I have that issue with me from my very childhood, the article is deep and well documented.

1970 is a longggg time ago. You just can not trust that anymore. Specially things concerning Luftwaffe and VVS airforces.

That's true. I have found the article. The "b" line with the night intruder scheme seems to be poor imagination. I haven't heard Russians used Il-2s as a night bomber etc... Also the "a" point with the day camo scheme seems to be a little bit incorrect too. There were two summer, camo schemes for the Sturmovik. The first one , as GG had mentioned it, consisted of the Black and Olive Green colours and the second one ( the most common ) consisted of the Dark Brown or Sand, the Olive Green and a Dark Grey. So in fact the second scheme was a three-colored one. Also there were planes painted overall with a Green on tops, especially at the beginning and the end of war and after that.