Our own Mal Mayfield famously commented that "you can't have too many Spitfires" and, apart from its sheer beauty, one of the factors that make it such an enduring modelling subject is the variety of markings it sported in the course of its long career. Arguably the most intriguing among these are the locally devised colour schemes that Spitfires were painted in for the defence of Malta against the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica.

Far from the disapproving eyes of UK officialdom, squadrons were free to experiment with colour combinations to suit the conditions in which they operated. Hence the use of a variety of shades of blue to produce a totally unique palette of Spitfire camouflage schemes.

Ray Horwell has released a set of Euro Decals depicting nine of the Malta Spitfires, either based on the island or as recorded whilst being transported to the Mediterranean on board USS Wasp.

The decals are superbly printed, with precise registration and minimal carrier film around the glossy items. Previous experience with Ray's decals has shown they respond extremely well with standard setting solutions.

The set includes sufficient markings to complete all the featured aircraft. Each colour scheme is shown in  a full-colour 4-view drawing that includes original paint names/codes and matches for Humbrol, Xtracolour, Xtracrylix, Mr. Color Aqueous, MRP and Vallejo Model Air model paints.:

1. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop, BR586, 'T.M', 249 Squadron, RAF, Malta, 1943.

2. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop, BR124, 'U.2', USS Wasp, 20 April, 1942.

3. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop, BRI26, 'GL.E', Gibraltar, June, 1942.

4. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop, BR344, '3.M', USS Wasp, April, 1942.

5. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop, JK715, 'SN.A', 243 Squadron, RAF, 1942.

6. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop, BRI90, 'A.2', 603 Squadron, RAF, Malta, April-May, 1942.

7. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop, EP691 , 'X.A', 229 Squadron, RAF, Malta, 1943.

8. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXc, EN479, 'N', 126 Squadron, RAF, Malta, June, 1943.

9. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop, EP200, 'GL.N', 185 Squadron, RAF, Malta, July, 1942.

Conclusion

This is one of those decal sets where you really want to build all the featured aircraft! Obviously, this would be ideal for a group/club build, but it would also be realistic as an individual project in 1:72 in terms of both display space and cost.

Item #ED-72141 is available now from Fantasy Printshop - Price: £15.95

Many thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample.

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