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Malta Spitfire PP*H


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Hello everyone.

Can anybody please help me with some research. I am building Wg Cdr Peter Prosser Hanks' Spitfire Vc flown in Malta. Does anyone know what type of prop was fitted to this aircraft? I am planning to treat myself to one of the Ultracast props to replace the plastic item from my Hasegawa kit. Thank you for any help. - Simon.

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Hello everyone.

Can anybody please help me with some research. I am building Wg Cdr Peter Prosser Hanks' Spitfire Vc flown in Malta. Does anyone know what type of prop was fitted to this aircraft? I am planning to treat myself to one of the Ultracast props to replace the plastic item from my Hasegawa kit. Thank you for any help. - Simon.

Here's some pics for you: http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/B...its_partII.html

Scroll down to about half way.

Looks like a three blade, with what looks like a pointy de Havilland spinner.

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If you are doing this in the dark scheme, I believe the likeliest colours are the Dark Earth of the desert scheme, as delivered, with the Mid Stone overpainted, probably with Extra Dark Sea Grey. Overpainting of the light colour in the desert scheme can be clearly seen on other photos, and the colour was quoted by a painter from the Beaufighter unit on the island.

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  • 3 years later...

There are a number of photos of this aircraft, showing different schemes and fit at three different times.

The most famous one has it parked in front of a Beaufighter, facing right to left and viewed from the front, with a group of pilots gathered in front. In this photo the aircraft is in the Desert Scheme with no overpainting, and a Rotol spinner/prop. It has the fishtail exhausts and appears to have the heating tube behind them. Arguably a red spinner - some dark colour anyway - and fairly dark undersurface. It would seem logical that the first photo was taken shortly after arrival, but I don't have a specific date for it.

Another view shows it overpainted with a dark uppersurface, possibly a single colour or just over the Mid Stone. It is facing right to left, viewed from the rear, with an erk and his bike. Sorry, I can't track this one down, here is the comment I made some time ago. "a dark camouflaged aircraft, with a lighter patch around the serial and a red and white spinner. This has the earlier unflared exhausts and the heating tube behind the exhausts is missing." The likeliest colour appears to be Extra Dark Sea Grey, from the colour descriptions (not of this particular aircraft) and the evidence of a painter from the Beaufighter unit.

A third photo is in the Osprey Malta Spitfire Aces, showing the aircraft with a red(?) and white DH spinner/prop. In this view the heating pipe from the exhausts has been removed and the serial is painted around (or repainted). It is likely that this photo is later than the first, given that PPH himself left Malta under some cloud (because of off-base antics of some of this pilots) whilst the aircraft continued in use.

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There is a picture of one of Beurling's Spitfires, Mk.Vc BR301, in Osprey's Malta Spitfire Aces. As he flew in 249 Sq, there is little doubt that his aircraft was repainted in the blue-grey colour, whatever you might believe that to be. BR301 is usually quoted as UF-S, but UF is the code of 601 Sq. which had left the island by the time, and the codes would almost certainly have been repainted - definitely if the aircraft was! 249's code was a single letter T to the left of the roundel. The Osprey cover shows BR301 still carrying the UF-S code (as S.UF, oddly enough) with a partial repaint from the Desert scheme. As 601 left the island in a calm spell to go the the Western Desert, it seems likely that their aircraft will have been repainted - if necessary - into the Desert Scheme (as originally delivered to Malta). If BR301 was left behind because of unserviceability, then it can be expected to have been in this scheme when taken over by 249. The photo shows that it was at least partially repainted. In the Osprey profiles, BR301 is shown as McElroy's aircraft, and almost completely overpainted but retaining the UF.S codes.

Beurling is represented here by Mk.Vb EP706 T.L, completely oversprayed by the blue-grey. This is more typical of 249's aircraft, judging from a large number of photographs of this period. It is quite likely that Beurling flew a number of other Spitfires of the unit.

He is also represented by Mk.Vc BR130 T.D, is a patchwork scheme that I don't find particularly convincing, looking rather more like the partial overspray of the Mid Stone than the complete overspray seen on aircraft delivered in Operation Calendar.

Edited by agboak
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