The 'Malta' Blue Spits color?

[Kev367th]

Found a color pic of a crashed Spit in the infamous overall blue color.

Doesn't help a lot though, would need color balancing etc to even get close to which shade of blue it was.



Although looking at the fin flash it seems to suggest that the blue was lighter than 'USN Deck Blue' that has been suggested.

[Guppy35]

Almost looks like the color of early Wildcats, Dauntlesses etc.  That of course would make some sense since it was on the Wasp they were painted.

I had a chance to be part of the discussion at the Flying Legends airshow, on the color with Peter Arnold (Spit historian supreme) and Clive Denny, who did the painting of the Spit Vb that flew to Malta last September.  The believe was essentially until someone found a paint chip off one of those Malta Spits, we'd never now for sure

[Kev367th]

Your right - looks very close to USN Non-Specular Blue Grey that was used by early Wildcats.
Going to submit an updated Malta V (new way doing rivets, few refinements) , might try it in the Blue Grey color.
Will post a pic let me know what you think.

[B@tfinkV]

Interesting pic, how does one crash an aircraft on a beach and not leave any big disturbances in the sand?

did she crash in the shallows and wash up on the beach or what?

[Krusty]

Batty, like footsteps on the beach, the tide washed away the marks in the sand. Looks like the tide receeded a bit (a lot of smooth sand) so I'm guessing the pic was shot at low tide?

[Kev367th]

Originally posted by Krusty
Batty, like footsteps on the beach, the tide washed away the marks in the sand. Looks like the tide receeded a bit (a lot of smooth sand) so I'm guessing the pic was shot at low tide?

That would be my guess also.

Interestingly - Apparently this is the ONLY color pic of a Malta 'blue' Spit in known existance.

Definately changing the color of the now ingame Blue Spit to a lighter color. Don't think the USN Deck Blue holds up, it's too dark looking at the fin flash as a comparison.
Although it might help to find out if this was one delivered off USS Wasp or a local paint.

[edit] Yup it was delivered off USS Wasp. To show how misleading the pic is, the code 'X', should be yellow.

[Krusty]

I think it's interesting that the nose has a more worn blue, compared to the tail and spots on the rudder. I'm guessing that's because the nose has been sitting in water for a while, but I'm not sure.

[Bullethead]

Very interesting pic .

I did a skin of that very plane, which should be in the next batch to come out cuz I recently heard from Skuzzy about it.  I even worked from that very same pic, except in B&W--didn't know it was in color, too.  Going from the B&W, I got the blue and camo areas reversed on the rudder, I see.  Oh well, guess I'll fix it eventually .

I'm kinda glad to see the blue being rather light.  I've always suspected it was, because:

a.  The painting was done while aboard ship in transit to the launch area
b.  The ship was the USS Wasp so the paint would have been contemporary USN colors.
c.  This happened in the spring of 42, prior to Midway even.  Therefore, it would have been the light blue used on all upper and side surfaces of USN planes at the time.
d.  The dark blue didn't come out until late 42 and early 43.

Interestingly, this light USN blue is a bit lighter than the Azure on the belly .

[Kev367th]

Tried a real quick test using Non Specular Blue Grey, also has corrected earlier brighter red on the RAF markings. -



Kinda prefer the one already ingame with USN deck blue (which is the concesus color suggested in most threads on other BB's).

Anyone prefer one or the other?

[Bullethead]

Kev367th said:

Anyone prefer one or the other?

While I think the darker blue is much prettier, I prefer the lighter blue because I've always thought, for the reasons given above, that it's much more likely to be correct than the dark blue.  The color photo above has just confirmed me in this opinion.