Author Topic: Spit5 X from Malta (Read 1339 times)

Kev367th · « **Reply #15 on:** January 08, 2006, 03:57:55 PM »

LOL, yup certain to cause a few headaches.

Looks like it will continue to be a mystery, and maybe a good excuse for a touch of artistic interpretation.

Interestingly the only Spits that were repainted aboard ship were the ones delivered off USS Wasp in Op Calendar.
Also all the Spits that were delivered by carrier left with 4x20mm, the outer two being removed once they reached Malta.

http://www.ipmscanada.com/threads.html
Has 4 threads on Malta Spits, still nothing conclusive lol.

249sqn Malta Spits

Well either single color uppers, or the Dark Earth/Extra Dark Sea Grey that has been suggested.
Your guess lol.

Good pics (B/W) Malta spits here
http://www.killifish.f9.co.uk/Malta%20WWII/Spitfire.htm

Kev367th · « **Reply #16 on:** January 08, 2006, 04:47:26 PM »

Just because I had some spre time I tried a test -

Took the current V I am doing, changed it to dark earth/extra dark sea grey upper.
Got a screenshot pasted it into PSP8 then changed it too a greyscale image.
Not other processing e.g darkening etc.

Look familiar to the 249 sqn pics in post above? You can't even tell its two tone, looks like a single color on the uppers.

monteini · « **Reply #17 on:** January 08, 2006, 08:46:36 PM »

That looks GREAT!!!!!!!! Nice job

nick172

Bullethead · « **Reply #18 on:** January 08, 2006, 09:46:42 PM »

Kev367th said:

Quote

249sqn Malta Spits ... Well either single color uppers, or the Dark Earth/Extra Dark Sea Grey that has been suggested. Your guess lol.

It's even hard to say conclusively that all 4 are really 249 Sqd. Some folks would see 2 of those planes as having 1 instead of T for the squad code, and say they were survivors from 601 Sqd's Wasp batch that hadn't been repainted yet. OTOH, given they all have new-school roundels and 1 has clipped wings, it's probably safer to say they've all got the T of 249 as of the latter 1/2 of 42.

As to colors, they all look to have 2-tone camo scheme, in the mirrored pattern on the 3 closest planes, but I can't tell that on the furthest one. I'd wager they're all in desert camo mostly due to the color of the spinners, which all look red to me more than they do any other possible color. The leading plane is probably older and is more faded than the others, or the others have recently been repainted.

That brings up #4's left wing roundel. If I had to guess, I'd say it was in the process of being repainted. Looks like they went over the blue ring with a light primer, then repainted the upper wing camo, overspraying the 8 o'clock area of the roundel primer, but hadn't gotten around to applying the final blue on top before this sortie.

Krusty · « **Reply #19 on:** January 08, 2006, 11:28:08 PM »

One thing I just noticed: Don't wear down the wing walk areas. This is freshly painted stuff, and it's probably thick and spotchy. It's not been in use nearly long enough to have worn through the blue *and* the colors underneath. Chances are you'd have some scuffs and scrapes, but not enough to wear down through the entire coat of paint.

I'm thinking it's like scratching a painted wooden surface. You can see a color difference, but it's more of a shade difference, you don't usually see unpainted wood under the scratch.

Idle thought of the day.

Bullethead · « **Reply #20 on:** January 08, 2006, 11:57:07 PM »

Krusty said:

Quote

I'm thinking it's like scratching a painted wooden surface. You can see a color difference, but it's more of a shade difference, you don't usually see unpainted wood under the scratch.[/B]

I assme you're talking about Kev's fresher plane. Here's a pic of one of this batch of spits after it'd been on Malta just a little while:

As you can see, the shoddy workmanship of the blue paint is evident in how it's coming off in large hunks, apparently in a very short time. This would expose the desert camo to wear very rapidly. Also note the elevator has the paint, except for the tip which they missed. Also note another example of the yellow ring of the roundel being partially removed by the masking tape.

The caption says this was in 249 Sqd. However, at this point 249's code was still GN, and all the planes of this batch were originally in 601 or 603, which were 1-(letter) and 2-(letter), respectively. When they took the spits from these dweebs and gave them to the vet squads, they apparently just painted out the numbers and left the single letters, which is why mine has just an X like this has just a B. If you look close, you can make yourself think you see the vague outline of part of an over-painted 2 behind the roundel on this plane. Question is, what color did they paint it out with? Or did they just peel it off? These codes were apparently applied on top of the blue paint, at least on some planes, and might have come off as easily as the blue itself.

Bullethead · « **Reply #21 on:** January 09, 2006, 12:43:37 AM »

OK, I've had the day off sitting here at the TA in Pembroke, NY, so I've gotten this far along enough to show progress. I've just the blue roughed in, and still have to tear it all up, plus ALL the weathering, but you can at least get the idea from this. Figured I needed to put up a pic of it, since it's what the thread started out about

. But doing the extensive chipping is going to take a long while. IIRC, I spent several weeks on that in AH1.

Kev367th · « **Reply #22 on:** January 09, 2006, 05:59:22 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
One thing I just noticed: Don't wear down the wing walk areas. This is freshly painted stuff, and it's probably thick and spotchy. It's not been in use nearly long enough to have worn through the blue *and* the colors underneath. Chances are you'd have some scuffs and scrapes, but not enough to wear down through the entire coat of paint.

I'm thinking it's like scratching a painted wooden surface. You can see a color difference, but it's more of a shade difference, you don't usually see unpainted wood under the scratch.

Idle thought of the day.

Was one step ahead of you.
I had already removed the wing walk areas when I slightly changed the blue color.
Only very very slight chipping is around the wing gun loading access panels, and a few of the engine access panes. Even then it is only as far down as the underlying desert camo.
Will post a pic later.

Bullethead - Looking good

If, (a big if) the serial # in your pic is BR246 that would make it the one I am doing. In which case it went to 603sqn. The plot thickens

.
Apparently I have a choice of 3 spinners colors no-one knows for sure -
Red, black, or overpainted blue.

Krusty · « **Reply #23 on:** January 09, 2006, 02:18:59 PM »

I think it would look sweet with black overpaintd with blue. How do you do wear patterns on a prop? diagonal streaks? And in what direction?

EDIT: Bullethead, my comment was about the other blue spit. Seeing your progress I like it too, but I think it needs a bit more blue on the inboard wings. Worn blue, but more blue

Have you considered trying to depict the blue "stuck" in the panel lines (not wearing off as badly) or something along those lines?

Pooface · « **Reply #24 on:** January 09, 2006, 04:24:19 PM »

kev, silly question, are the control sufaces supposed to be different colours, or is it just because you haven't started on them??

Krusty · « **Reply #25 on:** January 10, 2006, 12:38:37 AM »

He mentioned that they did not paint the control surfaces

Guppy35 · « **Reply #26 on:** January 10, 2006, 01:17:57 AM »

I did profiles for the Corgi/Merlins over Malta bit at the request of Peter Arnold who was working with the Merlins over Malta crowd to get a Spit and Hurricane back to Malta last fall.

At Legends I got a chance to be part of the discussion with Peter Arnold and Clive Denny, who did the painting of BM597 as well as flying it.

While this was done with some concessions due to the temporary nature of the paint, this is what we came up with. There was no real consensus other then believing that US Navy paint was used. I doubt the answer will ever be known unless someone comes up with a paint chip.

Info on the diecast Spit that the profile was done for as well as images of BM597 painted up for the trip to Malta
http://www.diecast-aviation.co.uk/html/merlinsboxset.html
http://www.merlinsovermalta.com/

Kev367th · « **Reply #27 on:** January 10, 2006, 06:56:27 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
He mentioned that they did not paint the control surfaces

They appear to fall into 3 categories -
1) No paint at all.
2) A light dusting.
3) A 'proper' coat.

Pooface · « **Reply #28 on:** January 10, 2006, 11:12:50 AM »

well kev i think you've done such a great job it would be a shame if they weren't painted

it would just look better if they were the same colour IMHO

Guppy35 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 10, 2006, 11:24:59 AM »

Looks single color to me, and at least with this one, I don't see any color difference on the control surfaces.