Hi

Can anyone tell me the correct colour for Spitfire wheel wells? I'm looking at Battle of Britain era MkI's and II's, in both the sky underside and black/white undersides.

thanks
Mike

I think they were probably underside colour- at least the round, deeper part. This area was not completely covered when the wheels were up, so it makes sense that this was counted as part of the exterior.

I have seen some models with the part where the leg goes being interior green. Alternatively, those part where the legs go may have been left in the grey primer that Edgar Brooks recently re-discovered.

This is debated a lot and I'd say the first answer just about sums it up. FWIW on my recent SpitfireIX I did this area grey (after Edgar Brookes) and then,on spraying the underside colour,allowed that to overspray. It seemed like a good compromise,or complete fudge,depending on your point of view.
Cheers
Steve

The wheel wells were the same of the uderside colour, in that era the colour was Sky (Duck Egg Blue - Humbrol 23) - REF: The Supermarine Spitfire Part 1 - SAM Publications.
Here you have a pic of one of my my Battle of Britain Spitfires, this underside style was used around November 1940, hope this help you:

I always worry when I read definitive statements about the wheel wells; the truth is that we just don't know, for sure.
Supermarine's painting instructions say that all internal areas, except for the cockpit and engine bearers, were to be painted silver over the grey primer, so it depends on your point of view as to whether the wells were deemed to be interior or exterior.
Personally, I lean towards interior, therefore silver, but you then have to take into consideration what would/could have happened in repair organisations, M.U.s, and on Squadrons. Would a sprayer, told to repaint the underside (AGAIN,) have bothered to go through the rigmarole of masking, or just sprayed everything he could see?
Peter Cooke, during his researches in the 1950s/60s, was told that the wells, door interiors, u/c legs were all painted silver. At some late (almost certainly post-war) stage, the interior colour changed from silver to green, and, when I got the chance to look at a recently returned, and unrebuilt, Mk.22, I found green wells and door interiors, so it looks as though the wells certainly were not seen as part of the exterior.
Edgar