This month's selection covers the early marking period of the CR.42 in Hungarian service. The Hungarian CR.42 went through many camouflage and marking changes in its career with the Hungarian Air Force. The early marking period distiguished by the red/white/green chevron insignia saw CR.42s with a German style three tone splinter camouflage, two types of Italian mottle camouflage, and a dark green over grey camouflage. Some of these camouflage patterns carried over to the later marking style of the white crosses on a black square, but that is next month's selection.
 

A CR.42 of the Kör Asz 1/6. Vadászszázad. This plane was based in Kassa after the Soviets bombed that city on 26 June 1941. It is finished in a German style splinter camouflage of brown, gray, and green. The Kör Asz badge is missing its normal white circle outline..
A CR.42 from an unknown unit showing to good effect the Russian Front theater markings. The cowling, tail, and fuselage band were all yellow. Some CR.42s also had yellow wingtips. This plane also features the Italian style green mottle camouflage.

As the war in Russia progressed, it was found that the yellow theater markings made the fighters very visible. To counteract that, the yellow markings were oversprayed. This CR.42 of the Kör Asz 1/6 Vadászszázad has the yellow painted over with gray. The red fuselage codes and Kör Asz badge are oversprayed in green to reduce the visibility of those as well.
Here is a clean example of an Italian camouflaged CR.42 of the Szent György 1/4 Vadászszázad. The wide yellow band denotes Russian Front activity. The Szent György emblem is a white outline.

Vadászszázad = Squadron
Kör Asz = Ace of Hearts
Szent György = Saint George

Sources:
Hungarian Air Force, George Punka, Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1994.
Hungarian Eagles, Gyula Sárhidai, Györy Punka, Viktor Kozlik, Hikoki Publications, 1996.
Fighter Biplane Finale: The Falco, Air Enthusiast Twenty, Pilot Press Inc., 1982.

 

Drawings not to scale. All images are the creation of Chris Banyai-Riepl and are copyrighted.
Use of these images is expressly forbidden without written consent, which is easy to get. Try me...