Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hurricane VC - No,20 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1945

RAFHURRICANE5C01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHURRICANE5C02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHURRICANE5C03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHURRICANE5C04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHURRICANE5C05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHURRICANE5C06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is a real one-off as it combines the Hurricane IIC wing with the Hurricane V fuselage (four-bladed prop) to make a Hurricane VC and I'm ever so grateful to 'Raven' the 3D modeller who has previously helped me create my Wright Aeronautical F4W-1 Hurricane (Page 78). Either ignore the 'enemy' T34/85 or make up your own backstory! Actually, the T34 wiki page gives some ideas and is a good read, especially the 'Symbolism' section.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34

[SPINNERS]

Avro Canada CF-105F Arrow - EC 10/1 "Valois", Armée de l'Air, 1977

ALAARROW01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ALAARROW02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ALAARROW03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ALAARROW04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ALAARROW05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ALAARROW06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A bit rough around the edges but it hopefully gives a good impression of what an air defence 'bleu' Arrow would look like. Apart from national insignia (rarely used by me as I prefer to use my own) the game has other types of built-in markings and I've used those from the Mirage IIIC to get some numbers on the nose and squadron markings on the tail. The most time consuming job was the rudder decal, quite ironic as not many blue Mirages had the tricolour rudders.

[SPINNERS]

Westland Whirlwind Mk.1 - Escadrille 2/I/2 "Le Chardon", Belgian Air Force, May 1940

BAFWHIRLWIND01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFWHIRLWIND02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFWHIRLWIND03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFWHIRLWIND04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFWHIRLWIND05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFWHIRLWIND06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A very nice Whirlwind was released recently with the two classic Fighter Command camo schemes. I've overpainted markings onto the earlier 'BoB' scheme to make this Belgian export version meaning that I've had to add fin flashes to overpaint the RAF fin flashes but I note that the Belgian Hurricanes did not have them. Artistic licence also extends to the Whirlwind entering service earlier!

[SPINNERS]

Avro Canada Arrow F.2 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

RAFARROWF201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFARROWF202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a couple of shots showing the 'Skyfire' (ex- 'Blue Blossom') semi-active homing missile used by the RAF's Arrow force. It's actually the Soviet SA-6 'Gainful' converted to A2A use  . I've previously done the same with the SA-8 'Gecko'.

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Lockheed B-30D Exterminator - United States Air Force, 1950

USAAFB-30EXTERMINATOR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFB-30EXTERMINATOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFB-30EXTERMINATOR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFB-30EXTERMINATOR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

An 'off the peg' what if from the guys at the DAT site this is their interpretation of the B-30, a real world Lockheed proposal for a bomber version of the Constellation. From wiki "Lockheed proposed the model L-249 as a long-range bomber. It received the military designation XB-30 but the aircraft was not developed." I'd have liked it to have had a NMF skin as this Vietnam era scheme seems a bit late but it's very inventive!

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Grebe FAW.2 - No.19 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1972

RAFMIG-17PMFRESCO16 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMIG-17PMFRESCO17 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMIG-17PMFRESCO18 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMIG-17PMFRESCO19 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMIG-17PMFRESCO20 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A wide variety of MiG-17 skins was released recently and this Soviet green/grey skin makes a good RAFG Lightning scheme. In the post-war era, did the RAF ever use this scheme on anything else? It's almost as if some Brasshat declared, "Don't bother with the grey camo on the uppersurfaces because we won't be keeping them for that much longer".

[SPINNERS]

Myasishchev M-4/3M 'Bison-B' - Soviet detachment to Paran, 1961

SOVIETM-4BISON01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETM-4BISON02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETM-4BISON03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETM-4BISON04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETM-4BISON05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Leaf it out! A bit wild and wacky so I might revisit this one at another time with grey undersides. No updates tomorrow night.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Typhoon 1B - 335th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, United States Army Air Force, October 1942

Following the Dieppe Raid in August 1942 there was excitement amongst the RAF's three 'Eagle' squadrons following a strong rumour that they would soon all re-equip with the new Spitfire IX but this excitement turned to disappointment when Hawker Typhoons began to arrive in early September. Initially equipping No.121 squadron, Typhoons had soon replaced the Spitfire Vb's of No.71 and No.133 squadrons just in time for all three squadrons to be officially handed-over to the fledgling Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces becoming the 4th Fighter Group. In the hands of the 4th Fighter Group the Typhoons gained a fearsome reputation for aggression when used offensively on fighter sweeps but by the Spring of 1943 there was a more pressing need to fly escort missions for which the P-47 Thunderbolt was deemed better suited and the Typhoons were soon phased out of service.

USAAFTYPHOON1B01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFTYPHOON1B02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFTYPHOON1B03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFTYPHOON1B04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFTYPHOON1B05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFTYPHOON1B06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The two distinct versions of the Hawker Typhoon IB (car-door and bubble top) were released recently and I've been fortunate enough to have been given a blank skin for the earlier version making this USAAF 'Tiffie' quite straightforward although I fretted about the use of the yellow outer ring on the roundels before deciding to have it on the fuselage but not on the wings and to have roundels on both wings - upper and lower. It looks as if the instruction to switch to a single roundel (port upper and starboard lower) came in February 1943 so that's OK with me.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Typhoon IB - Irish Air Corps, 1947

IACTYPHOON1B01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACTYPHOON1B02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACTYPHOON1B03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACTYPHOON1B04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

As an aviation mad teenager in the 1970's, one of my favourite books was 'Typhoon & Tempest at War' (taken out of the local library by me so many times until I bought a copy as an adult) which includes an evocative photograph, taken at Gloster's Brockworth airfield in 1945, of the last production Typhoon with test pilot James Moss touching it's huge four-bladed prop. The picture comment ends with a sad note that, by then and with the war won, Typhoons were coming straight off the production line to be dismantled on the other side of the airfield. How sad!

'What If' the final Typhoons were stored and then sold to foreign air forces in the immediate post-war period? I'm starting with Ireland and might add India and Pakistan to the export list.

[SPINNERS]

British Aerospace Hawk 207 - HävLLv 31, Ilmavoimat, 1988

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20001 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20002 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20003 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20004 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20005 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ILMAVOIMATHAWK20006 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is a new experimental scheme made by me from the simple blob shape pictured below. Basically, this blob was duplicated many times over in random positions using three different camo colours on six separate layers (two per colour) before merging them together onto a square before using four squares to tile a bigger square. Still awake? Good! It's not too bad so I might try it again perhaps on one of those Soviet bombers.

SHAPE by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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Douglas F-6J Skyray - 203rd Hikotai, Japan Air Self Defense Forces, 1970

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF4D-1SKYRAY06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

You'll have to ignore a couple of glitches on this one but it gives a good idea of what a JASDF Skyray might have looked like and I might well revisit the striking looking 'Ford'.

[SPINNERS]

Douglas F-6S Skyray - F21, Flygvapnet, 1973

FLYGVAPNETF-6SSKYRAY01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-6SSKYRAY02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-6SSKYRAY03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-6SSKYRAY04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-6SSKYRAY05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I'm loving the Skyray at the moment and it's reminded me of the 'wow factor' I had when seeing my Airfix Skyray take shape all those years ago (I think I whiffed that too). Anyway, whilst not perfect, this splinter skin does give that immediate look of a what a Flygvapnet Skyray would look like (not that they needed it!) and is helped by the Swedish Rb24 and Rb27 missiles.

[SPINNERS]

Vickers Vengeance B.3 - No.9 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1970

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

An excellent new template for the Blinder was released recently and it's allowed me to make a Vickers Vengeance in the camo scheme adopted by the V-Force when they went low-level in the mid-1960's. I spent a bit of time doing a new fin flash to match the rudder line and will try and get a mid-70's version with B-type roundels posted tomorrow. All I need now is a code name for the 'Kitchen' missile...

[SPINNERS]

Vickers Vengeance B.3 - No.27 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1977

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTU-22KDBLINDER13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Red Kettle away!

[SPINNERS]

Dassault Mirage F-1CG - JG71, German Air Force, 1984

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

GAFMIRAGEF-1CG06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A series of super detailed Mirage F-1's are currently being released as freeware whilst Third Wire's promised Mirage F-1 appears to be vapourware. Anyway, a really nice Greek Mirage F-1CG was released recently and includes a 'Ghost' camo scheme which is very reminiscent of late German Phantoms so I've oversprayed the Greek markings and just placed stock decals on it.