History-W.W.II

Thanks for posting this. This is why I continue to frequent rms. Every once in a while some "wheat" comes along that makes enduring all the "chaff" worth it.

in article snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net, William H. Shuey at snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net wrote on 2/8/04 4:41 PM:

Indeed Barnes and Noble is a great place. Another title I picked up at the local B&N is The Air Battle for Malta (The Diaries of a Spitfire Pilot) by James Douglas-Hamilton. This was a marked-down book and, like the title Bill describes, gives the reader a better appreciation for what the people of Malta endured and the conditions under which the battle was fought. I'm working on a 1/72 Spitfire at the moment that I'll paint blue and arm with four cannon as it was on April 20, 1942, the day it was flown off the USS Wasp to strengthen the garrison on the island.

Now I'll have to look into another title. Thanks Bill.

MB

Milton Bell wrote:

Milton:

What is the ISBN number of that book? James Douglas-Hamilton was an officer involved in the Battle of Britain and was Scotland's premier Duke also. He is spoken of widely in Sandy Johnstone's book "Enemy in the Sky". I wasn't aware that he had written a book, that one I want. Your comment on the Blue Spitfire also struck a chord. Many moons ago I met a Gent who had been in the air department of the U.S.S. Wasp during the Malta Spitfire delivery cruises. I wrote his name down at the time but I can no longer find the note, bad filing system. Anyway, he commented that the evening after they had sailed from the Clyde they were entertaining the R.A.F. pilots at dinner. The R.A.F. Squadron Leader ("Jumbo" Gracie?) commented about the Spitfires being in the damned desert color scheme, It seems that the "Baby Shit Yellow" color used on the upper surfaces stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb over the sea and was not liked. Sailor's can be so descriptive! :-) Anyway. the Wasp's people broke out some drums of paint and overpainted the Spitfire's upper surfaces. I assume they used the standard U.S. Navy Non-Specular Blue Gray paint. From the way he described it, I also assumed they only overpainted the Mid-Stone portions of the camouflage, but the way you describe it they did the whole aircraft. Is Douglas-Hamilton specific about this paint job? I know from Holland's book that the practice of overpainting the Mid-Stone was instigated but I'm not sure when. I would love to go to a U.S.S. Wasp re-union and ask some questions. Maybe someone would remember.

Ain't history fun? Bill Shuey

P.S. The 4 cannon fit for the Malta delivery was done just for the delivery flight. 20 m.m. guns were in short supply so this was a way to get some guns delivered as well as the aircraft. Two of the 4 guns were removed as soon as possible after arrival on the island because the weight of 4 cannon and 4 machine guns was too much. Many had the inboard cannon removed leaving the out board one in place, an arrangement unique to Malta based aircraft.

in article snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net, William H. Shuey at snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net wrote on 2/8/04 7:37 PM:

Sorry, forgot to add that important part. ISBN 0905 778 45 6.

Yep, history is fun...and expensive. Those Mk Vs that flew off the Wasp were originally in the desert scheme, hence the overpaint. It was a four hour flight over the Med and the BSY really stood out over water. The extra guns, plus that ugly belly tank were removed and became spares as soon as the aircraft were received. Photos that I have show the entire upper surface to be a single color. Some even suggest partial repainting of the lower surfaces as well. Sure wish someone had taken notes at the time on the source for the blue paint!

For looks and more information, go to hyperscale.com and do a search. Steven Eisenman has done considerable research and hypothesized a paint scheme. The only part of the original paint scheme was behind the serial and perhaps the spinner. I'm going with a dark earth spinner since photos show it to be different from the uppers of the aircraft and I don't believe it was red.

Aeromaster did a decal sheet for "Malta Defenders" but it's hared to find now. The codes were too big anyway and that's what I need. I'm doing BR136, coded 3*G I believe. If anyone knows differently, let me know.

MB

Don't Do It Milton!!! I've followed RAF schemes for a long time, and although you can never say anything with certainty, I am as sure as can be that RAF planes never used current camo colours on fighter spinners. By the time Sky was in use as a spinner colour, the scheme had changed to Medium Sea Grey undersides. If it was me I'd go for dull roundel red, but that's just me. Look out for Allen Halls book Fighting Colours, and also check for any of Richard Caruana's articles in Scale Aviation Modeller International - he's from Malta and has a special interest, including research for the restored Mk. IX Spitfire in the Malta museum.

Chek

Change' boos' to 'bos' in address to email directly

Well, I'll tell you. Non-Specular Blue-Gray was pretty dark when fresh, somewhere about around 35189 in the FS-595 world. It was notorious for fading in Ocean Sun and salt air, a Cousin of mine who flew SBD's in "The Big One" had some interesting comments on that subject. I have some published photos of the Spitfires on the Wasp for the Malta delivery runs in "Spitfire at War", Vol.2 by Alfred Price. There is a pic of a Spitfire being swung aboard at King George V dock at Glasgow and it is in full Desert Scheme. Then there are a couple of pics taken in the hanger deck showing the preparations for launch and the "Baby Shit Yellow" is obviously gone. What remains is apparently a two tone scheme of colors that are very close in color and there is obvious overpainting in places on insignia and code letters indicating brush painting, no masking. This would be in keeping with a job done by ship's personnel in a hurry. It also should be borne in mind that there were almost as many Spitfires delivered by H.M.S. Eagle and Furious and their ship's personnel would not have had access to the same color paints as the U.S.S. Wasp people. I suspect the color would depend on the delivery batch's delivery ship. If a Furious or Eagle delivery, you might be looking at a Royal Navy Extra Dark Sea Gray paint job. U.S.S. Wasp? Non-Specular Blue Gray. Ain't history research fun???

Cruise time frame? The Wasp left the U.S. sometime in January/February of 1942 for England. The two delivery runs to Malta were late April-early May of 42. She came home for some refit and then went to her fate in the South Pacific. She was more a casualty of Halsey's incompetent staff than the Japanese, but that's considered a non-pc topic in most circles. NARA? That's the new facility down below NSA off the Baltimore-Washington parkway, Beltsville, isn't it. I've been meaning to go visit one day. I used to go digging through the Naval records when they were in "Stack 19" at the National Archives in D.C., more years ago than I care to admit.

NHC? That's the old Washington Navy Yard, right? I have been advised that that is no place to visit unless you got a carry permit. Maybe we could get together and make a trip of it sometime this Summer?

Bill Shuey

in article c08hun$dmg$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, Chek at chek snipped-for-privacy@boosinternet.com wrote on 2/9/04 12:01 PM:

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll do some more checking on the spinner colors. Thought I had read somewhere that spinners for the desert schemes were the darker color. Anyway, the one model built-up used insig. red for the spinner. Certainly looks more attractive that way.

Question I have is if the underside was over-painted also, what did they use? Or was it left Med. Sea Gray? One picture sure looks like new paint on the bottom of the fuselage and "splattered/smeared" over the tire.

Again, thanks for the input.

MB

in article snipped-for-privacy@rcn.com, Ron at snipped-for-privacy@rcn.com wrote on

I'm using 5-N Navy Blue for the 1/72 model. So far, it looks pretty good compared to the B&W photos of Spits taking off the Wasp. It's PollyScale paint and dries darker than it appears in the bottle.

MB

As a pointer here: All water based paints tend to darken as they dry. Poly-S, Poly-Scale, Testor's Acrylic, you name it! It makes it difficult when you are mixing colors as you have to wait about 24 hours to see if what you have actually mixed is correct. Frustrating? Yeah!

Bill Shuey

in article snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net, William H. Shuey at snipped-for-privacy@starpower.net wrote on 2/9/04 10:31 PM:

That's not restricted to acrylics. Many paints dry darker than they appear in the bottle. Yep, it's frustrating.

MB