(Yellow?)-49
MIKOYAN & GUREVICH, MIG-3
631 IAP of 141 IAD PVO. circa Kuybyshev (modern day Samara), Russia, June, 1943.
This plane featured in Mosfilm's 1944 movie 'Sky of Moscow' (‘Небо Москвы’ in Russian)
IN REAL LIFE
(Yellow?)-49 is one of a number of airplanes of the 631st IAP which we know about only through the footage in the 1944 movie called “Sky of Moscow”. The movie was filmed in Kuybyshev in June 1943 [1]. At that time the closest fighter regiment in that area was the 631st IAP PVO of 141 IAD PVO, which might have operated from the Sizran airfield (As was determined in a forum on scalemodels.ru). It is highly likely that the footage featuring the movie’s MiG-3 airplanes was filmed on the airfield of 631st IAP PVO and most of the planes in the film, including Number-49 are real, operational airplanes of this PVO unit.
Throughout 1943, 141st Division was tasked with defending the government agencies which were evacuated from Moscow (Kuybyshev was to be Russia's alternative capital should Moscow be captured by the Germans). It was also tasked with defending the industrial centres in the cities of Kuybyshev, Penza, Ulianovsk and Chapaevsk, as well as some of the railway bridges across the Volga and Samarka rivers[2].
Based on the available information about 631 IAP it is known that this regiment received its MiGs in October1942 [3]. It is also known that the only air victory that is recorded by the 631 IAP occurred in June 1944 (a year after the the start of the filming of ‘Sky of Moscow’) when junior lieutenant G.P. Lebedev heroically rammed a German Junkers Ju-88 bomber during an air battle in the Gorodishe region[4]. Based on this information one can only presume that the MiGs of 631 IAP PVO, including (Yellow?)-49 , didn't see a lot of battle action in the summer of 1943 while guarding the city of Kuybyshev, which might explain why they were able to be used in the filming of the movie 'Sky of Moscow' while in service with the PVO.
IN THE MOVIE
In the fictional movie 'Sky of Moscow', Yellow-49 appears in the background of several scenes, links to which are listed below. It also appears in one foreground scene in which the protagonist, Ilya Streltsov , is shown to be getting ready to climb inside this plane, but when the scene changes to him actually getting into the cockpit, the plane changes to a Yellow-33.
Noteworthy visual characteristics
1. On Patreon
2. On Patreon
3. It seems like there was a slightly lighter colour painted over the top of the black on the nose and propeller blades. Possibly a darker green or a thinned-down AMT6.
4. Note the presence of the starter tooth.
5. Note the dents on the side of the plane
6. The dark paint on this plane appears to be lighter than usual. It's possible that these parts were repainted on the airfield with thinner washes of AMT-6, or maybe even a mix of AMT-6 and AMT-4?
7. On Patreon
8. Note the painted tip of the tail ('Nicknamed 'PILOTKA' in Russian)as well as the thin line around the trimmer. Both appear to be quite light, most probably white.
The star is deformed in shape. The front point is protruding further than the other points. The lower back point on the left tail star is slightly smaller than the others.
Reference for this part of the plane can be found at about 35:35 of the movie.
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=2135
9. Tailwheel didn't retract in flight, as can be briefly seen at 13:15 - 13:16 of the movie where Yellow-49 is taking off.
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=795
10. The side stars were most likely repainted by hand and therefore they all appear to be slightly deformed.
11. Note the bare metal patch in the corner of the canopy. A result of a repair job.
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=2149
12. On Patreon
13. On Patreon
14. Note the chipped glass at the back of the sliding part of the canopy.
Here are a few closeup images to help illustrate the points above. Full set of closeup images is On Patreon
Footnotes
[1] This information is based on this video which talks about the movie ‘Sky of Moscow’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5c3C1qvaE8
[3] This information is taken from here: http://ava.org.ru/iap/631.htm . Also, do scroll down when you go to this link to see a bunch of photo reference for the MiGs of 631 IAP PVO.
[4] This information is taken from the Russian Wikipedia entry https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/631-%D0%B9_%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BA_%D0%9F%D0%92%D0%9E
Links To the reference images and videos
In the fictional movie 'Sky of Moscow', Yellow-49 appears a number of times, from the left at 13:05 - 13:07,
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=785
at 35:35 -35:50 (it's in the foreground)
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=2135
and 1:05:56-1:06:07 (it's the plane that's not moving),
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=3956
from the right at 1:16:29-1:16:43 (it's in the background).
https://youtu.be/MeJ8heAU4TI?t=4589
Photo reference:
https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/1027383/28081640.b/0_b2e8a_6bf24859_orig
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