Was delivered to Gibraltar , June 42 (I presume crated). Shipped to Malta, via HMS Eagle, July, 42. Was she painted "Malta" colors at CB, or repainted on The Rock or Malta? ( I am under the impression some were shipped in factory FAA colors. Dark Slate/ Deep Sky/ Sky Blue/ Lt.Med Blue were official colors. Would they have been used by CB for aircraft allocated to Malta?) If aircraft was repainted, would they have also reapplied all the technical stencils too?
Spifire Mk.Vb EP200
- Thread starter Sluff
- Start date
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The paint suplies on Malta during the siege weren't very large. For the reason the full re-painting of delivered airrcraft wasn't done rather. So the CBAF factory and Gibraltar workshop could do that. I would say the CBAF delivered already painted planes that were embarked on an aircraft carriers and shipped close to the Malta here these could be launched. As far as the stencils are concerned ... if the plane was finished in the factory these could be applied. But if it was The Rock workshop these could be omitted. However Spitfire didn't have too many of them actually. Additionally these were quite small and it is very difficult to notice the markings in most of the era pictures. In all known images of the EP200 I can't see any.
fubar57
General
This is what "Spitfire (Malta) Aces says about the colours
In four books, I have three photos and a profile of EB200, not close enough to see stencils
I agree, Geo. None of known pic of the EP200 allows to find them. Threfore I have found a couple of images of other Spitfires that are enough large and of good quality to see these.
The first one ... BR226 while embarking an aircraft carrier ... I have marked all visible areas where the stencils were usually. While there is the lack of these on the fuselage side and tail those on the undersides can be noticed ( A and B ). IMHO these on the bottoms are the factory markings and either were left when the undersides were re-painted or just the bottom surfaces weren't coated at all. But the smudges around the underwing RAF roundel indicates the repainting.
the second one ... BR136 ... similar to the BR226 ... the stencils not visible on the fuselage side while the one on the bottom of the starboard elevator ( B ) can be noticed. What is more the ( A ) area , there should be a black warnig line that should be seen. But instead of this there is a light line of a joint that was there. It may indicates that the tops were re-painted while the undersides didn't.
the third one .. BR12? ... again the same like above .. no stencils seen on the fuselage but also on the bottom of the elevator ( A) that looks like a freshly painted. What is more I would like pay your attention to the sloppy painting ( B ) that can be noticed at all re-painted areas..
and finally the enlarged shot of quite well known image of a Spitfire Mk Vc Trop being refueling manually. There was an info stencil abot the fuel in three lines. In the shot there is one only barely seen.
To sum up ... majority of the stencils weren't re-applied after the repainting. It looks that these were overpainted mostly. Sometimes these applied in a factory could be left there with a small earlier painted background . Also it seems that there could have been left the main ones only. What is more these could showh through the thin layer of the new colour. Generally I would say that everything depended on the painter's mood.
buitre
Recruit
I hope the attached files are useful. They are 3 pages scanned from "Malta Spitfire Vs-1942: Their Colours and Markings", by Brian Cauchi. (I hope I am not infringing any copyright here!) This is a wonderful book on the paint jobs of the Malta Spitfires. (I am using it to decide what colors to use for BR301 as flown by Beurling on July 27, 1942.)
