This is the scheme I'm shooting for, both white 19 and red 8 are actually on the decal sheet. This was taken at Lenningrad in or around late October 1941.
The problem with the Academy kit is that cannot accurately build any model single seater out of the box. that's not to say that one can't throw whatever decals on it and call it good, but if you do want to build a particular machine correctly, then, no. You either have to fill in all the panel lines at the rear of the fuselage, modify the wings putting the cannons inboard of the MG's, or, as in the case of 19 and 8, both.
Fortunately Massimo of Soviet Warplanes Has kindly supplied me with some drawings.
While A-14 grey is suggested for Soviet cockpits during WWII, to me it's like suggesting apple green for American cockpits of the same period, a little digging reveals that such may not necessarily be the case. From my own perspective is that once production was ramped up the use of A-14 was more likely the exception rather then the rule. This is from a Pe-2
And from an, if I recall correctly, IL-2 Arrow
And then from an early single seat built not long after white 19, albiet with the later metal wings, most likely in the same plant.
There is enough green lingering in the pics to convince me that the yellowishness is due to paint degradation and photography.
According to what I've read, ALG-5 ranges from yellow to orange and is the soviet version of Zinc Chromate, by mixing Tamiya Zinc chromate with Neutral Grey one can get to a color loosely similar to whats n the pic, and so my theory is that in order to speed up production Alg-5 was mixed with A-14 and done, so that's what I'm going with.
And we're off.............the first modification is the armor plate behind the cockpit, on the early early models, and likely 19, rather then a plate with 2 small viewing windows there was a full window so the part in the kit was sanded down to remove the raised detail and then masked off and primered in black. Next the rear fuselage panel lines were filled.
Still playing with the color a bit but close.