malta spitfires

You need a copy of Scale Aviation Modeller International dated April 2002. There is a full article on markings for the Malta defenders. Try SAM Publications on the net. In short, when 185 sqn transfered to Spitfire's from Hurricane's, they kept the GL code, (around Autumn '42) but used roundel yellow. there is a photo of BR126 on it's belly. ( coded GL - E) The 'ortho' film shows the codes as black (including the airframe number) & the middle stone shows as a dark shade. 229 sqn used a single unit code letter (X), as did 249 (T) both, again, in yellow. 126 used MK in grey & 1435 used V in white. The story is that, against the brown camouflage, in flight, grey codes were difficult to read, white was too stark, but yellow blended well & had enough contrast to be easily read. I've also seen yellow codes used in South Africa, by the way.I hope I've been of some help to you.

This is turning into a book!, here are some a/c & codes from the article, all aircraft are in dark earth/mid stone/azure blue paint . black airframe number, yellow codes.
BR294 GL-E black spinner, Hal far '42, looks like this one replaced BR126
BR329 GL-J " " June '42
EP641 X-J " " Qrendi '42
EP200 GL-T red spinner crashed Aug '42
BR112 coded X behind roundel on left side,shot down Sept '42
EP829 T-N (small T behind N on left to read 'TNT' ! (C.O. of 249 sqn)
And so on.
SAM publications are good for back issues, and full of good info, give them a try.