~ Monthly Profile ~
October 2006
~ Monthly Profile ~
October 2006
This aircraft, "White 67", has been widely profiled, and images of it have been published similarly. The best current attributation is to the 68 GIAP, about whom little is known, frankly. The date of the image is said to be winter 1944-45, and this seems reasonable. The pilot of "67" is not known.
I decided to have another look at this machine recently, having been shown yet another profile of it with blue trim and details. Looking to the various images of "67", it became clear after some review that in the first case, many of the images differed wildly in quality. Secondly, the image exhibits properties highly reminiscent of Soviet 16 mm film stock. I surmise that this is no co-incidence, and that indeed these "photos" are all taken from a 16 mm still. With this new idea in hand, it immediately occurred to me that the interpretation of the trim colour here as "blue" was not convincing. Furthermore, many of the various details had really not been drawn to my satisfaction, including my own earlier work.
Thus, I began an entirely new interpretation effort on "White 67". I noted with interest that it was Carl Geust himself who proposed a red colouration for the trim features, and after some experiment I have come to agree with that judgment as well. I chose to depict AMT-7 on the wing undersurface (for blotting out the 'surround') merely on the basis that this was commonly seen, and not in that the feature is clear on the image. There does seem to be a slight suggestion of the green colour on the fuselage side, this probably being A-24m (noting the modest contrast). All other details were taken from the image as best they could be.
There are many published photographs of s/n 42567; a fine example can be seen in Red Stars Vol. 4, p.73.