"Malta Story" Spitfires

OK, I’ve managed to do some screengrabs from the film.

Unfortunately, they don’t give much away as to which aircraft is which, but they do provide some reference for the camouflage schemes applied. They’re all different!

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]243172[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243173[/ATTACH]

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]243177[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243178[/ATTACH]

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]243180[/ATTACH]

They do show the smaller roundels and fin flashes quite well, however.

Clearest picture I’ve seen yet. The fudged serial is something I’ve managed to do on the model, at least!

Thanks for that.

I’ll need to try screen-grabbing again later.

A closer look at that still shows not only four Spitfires airborne in the middle distance but a further four trailing half mile behind….a composite.

Note the sheen on the lower engine cowl and the fudged under wing serial that looks to be TE241.

Mark

The key to partially unravelling the ‘Malta Story’ Spitfires was a small piece and image in the ‘Times of Malta’. It showed the Spitfires and a Wellington arriving from the UK. The principal Spitfire in the forefront of the image is a low back Mk XVI in standard overall silver finish bearing the serial TE241. An analysis of the movement card details of the prep and departure of TE241 reveals:-

Movement card data base of TE241 indicates ‘Ex ME – 28 November 1952’.
This is means return from the Middle East to the UK and at a date which is in harmony with ‘Malta Story’ filming.
A ‘find’ search of ‘Ex ME’ on the data base reveals three further aircraft with identical entries.

Mk. XVI – RW352
33 MU 04 Oct 1951
Abingdon 30 Oct 1952
1 Overseas Ferry Unit 30 Oct 1952
Despatch Middle East 05 Nov 1952
Ex MEAF 28 Nov 1952
33 MU 18 Dec 1952

Mk. XVI – TB245 (This will be the high back ‘Photo Recce’ Spitfire)
103 FRS 16 May 1951
45 MU 24 Oct 1951
Abingdon 29 Oct 1952
1 Overseas Ferry Unit 29 Oct 1952
Despatch Middle East 05 Nov 1952
Ex MEAF 28 Nov 1952
45 MU 11 Mar 1953

Mk. XVI – TE178
33 MU 13 Mar 1950
Abingdon 28 Oct 1952
1 Overseas Ferry Unit 28 Oct 1952
Despatch Middle East 05 Nov 1952
Ex MEAF 28 Nov 1952
33 MU 15 Dec 1952

Mk. XVI – TE241
103 FRS 26 Jul 1951
45 MU 24 Oct 1951
Abingdon 30 Oct 1952
1 Overseas Ferry Unit 29 Oct 1952
Despatch Middle East 05 Nov 1952
Ex MEAF 28 Nov 1952
45 MU 30 Mar 1953

Whilst it would seem that the RAF supplied four Spitfires for Malta Story, one press still shows one spitfire on the ground in close up with a formation of four in the middle distance. This may be a composite image.

We thus know the Spitfires were painted on arrival and were then devoid of serials.

The lone high back Mk XVI, logically TB245, was painted overall in one colour to represent a PRU Spitfre.

The three low back XVIs were painted in camouflage on their top sides which are assumed to be Mediterranean colours. This was most probably a distemper type wash.

By my judgement the undersides remained silver/aluminium. A feint sheen is can be seen on the underside cowlings in some stills and there is evidence of the small under wing serials being ‘fudged’ out in black.

Any further details from private sources of Malta Story would be welcome .

Mark

I tried taking some B&W photos of the smaller-scale models I built a while ago to see if the colours look anything like the aircraft in the film….

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Sorry to drag this one back up!

I’ve been thinking of adding a larger version of the film aircraft to my collection.

Now, according to Spitfire Survivors Vol.2, the paint scheme worn is a green/brown scheme (see the pic a few replies up).

Mind you, looking at this picture, it looks as though one of the colours is lighter….

[ATTACH=CONFIG]242822[/ATTACH]

Anyone?

Think we are all adept at stealing images – screen grabs are a different matter…

Right click on the image/photo. Depending upon the browser you are using there should be an option to save picture or save image. Left click on that and a window will open for My Pictures. You can then change the place where you want to save the image. Click save and it will be in your folder as a jpeg.

Many thanks for that! 🙂 The screen-grab idea wasn’t a brilliant one – very fiddly!

I kind-of thought the camouflage scheme on these aircraft was a bit of an approximation, so I found something that would suit and copied it to get the end result. I used some sand yellow and dark earth (at best guess!) for the uppers and natural metal (with some grey for the overpainted serial numbers) for the undersides. Worked out not too bad, in the end!

Here you go Darren, RW352, TE178 and TE241. With thanks to Frederick Galaea and Peter Arnold. These are listed in Volume II in the appendix “The Ones That Got Away” … over 500 of them … 🙁