Hi,

Until very recently I had assumed that the Spitfires on Malta had the usual "Desert" camo of Dark Earth, Middle Stone and either Azure Blue or the lighter Sky Blue undersurfaces. However, having read a book on Malta Spitfire Aces I found that was not the case. Although leaving the UK in standard Desert Scheme which worked well on the ground, it seems that as most of the combats took place over the sea that scheme was not deemed appropriate so a variety of dark greys, blues etc was adopted. The Spits shipped out on the USS Wasp were apparently painted en route in what is described as USN Dark Blue/Grey, which is noted to have faded quite quickly. Those painted in Gibraltar on on Malta itself used RAF/RN Extra Dark Sea Grey, and Dark/Light Mediteranean Blue.

To add to the problem paints were short on Malta so they were sometimes mixed locally, and at times were in such short supply that they were appied thinly and the original colours began to show through. This is an area where the current campaign needs to be modified I think.

Peter

Later. Sorry John, turned them round on photobucket but it still posts them sideways so I have given up.

Hi Peter.

I'm getting a bad neck, trying to look at your profiles.

Can you try turning them around the right way, by editing the image on Photobucket?

Hi,

we have that blue/greyish Spitfire skins.

Greetings,

Knegel

Hi Knegel,

I do not currently have EAW-Malta on my machine so I may well be mistaken but I do not recall the Spits being blue/grey. I wonder if you are referring to the recce ones in PRU Blue? Anyway, not to bother as I have not been able to rotate the pictures as John requested, and as nobody seems interested I will let this thread die a death.

Cheers,

Peter

bootho...

check out the blue malta spit skins
at the eaw skin factory link at tally ho...

Hi,

its this:





Greetings,

Knegel

Thanks Knegel,

Yes I found them. Not bad but many variations are possible.

Cheers

Peter

Hallo Peter,

some time ago I´ve read the problems already started when the Spits were standing on the deck of USS Wasp. The desert camo did anything else than hiding the planes from German recce planes. So the ship crews hastily painted the RAF planes using their paint stocks. Not having sufficient paint they used thinners to achieve the best possible results. Made the colours soon fade away, though.