in article snipped-for-privacy@somewhen.com, Mad Modeller at snipped-for-privacy@somewhen.com wrote on 10/23/04 9:34 PM:
I did a 1/72 Spit in the Wasp scheme and posted it on alt.binaries.scale.models a few months back. Is that what you saw? Also there was one done in 1/48 and featured on hyperscale.com.
MB
Nope, sorry. I do have a Frog Hornet and a Matchbox Canberra PR.9 with PRU blue undersides.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Could be. I just remembered the subject came up a couple of months ago.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Richard Caruana wrote a long article with profiles of the Malta Defenders in Scale Aircraft Modeller International, April 2002. He reports that the Spitfires from the Wasp were originally desert camoed and overpainted, often crudely, with something close to USN deck blue, darker than the F4F's photographed alongside, as camo for the ferry flight. These colors didn't last long--either they were repainted or destroyed, 12 of them soon after they landed on Malta. No other ferry flights did this painting. Of the 14 Spitfire profiles he includes, only one carries the blue camo.
Wasp! The Ranger only got into the Med for the invasion of North Africa in November of 42'.
Bill Shuey
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Milton Bell wrote:
FWIW Many years ago I met a Gent who had been aboard the Wasp for the Malta Ferry runs. I had just acquired Volume 2 of Alfred Price's "Spitfire at War" from Ian Allen publishers and there were pictures of Spitfires being loaded aboard at King George V dock in Glasgow, I believe, and of the Spitfires launching for Malta. It was obvious something had changed during the trip. I showed him the pictures and asked him about the difference. According to him on the first night out the R.A.F. Leader (Sqdn. Ldr. Gracie I presume) and some of the U.S. Navy pilots were swapping stories about their aircraft and Gracie commented on the blue color of the Grumman Wildcats being so much better for combat over the sea than the R.A.F.'S Tropical Scheme. As the crew member put it "That baby shit yellow color stuck out like a sore thumb over the sea"! Sailors can be so direct! Any way, the next day the Wasp people broke out some drums of paint and by the time the Spitfires launched for Malta their appearance had changed. This Gent is no longer with us so I can't go back to him for clarification, but the impression I got at the time was that they overpainted the Middle Stone and left the Dark Earth. The pictures in the book look to me like there are two different textures on the Spitfire's surface even though both colors would appear very dark in a black and white photograph. It is obvious that the painting was done by hand as you can see places here and there where they slipped over insignia or code letters a wee bit. What color they used?? I assumed Non-specular blue gray, which is what U.S. Navy used on their aircraft. (Hey! You know what you get if you break the word assume down, right?). If there are Wasp Log entries describing what was done as one poster here has mentioned I would love to see them published.
Bill Shuey
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