Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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McDonnell Douglas F-4M Phantom - Eskadrille 726, Royal Danish Air Force, 1980













A superb F-4B template by 'sundowner' makes creating this Danish Green F-4M quite straightforward as I've just needed to splice in the Spey nozzles and Marconi ARI18228 RWR and then add my own RDAF decals including some spurious serials.

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Bristol Blenheim Mk.IF - 2 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1940









There's been a lot of WW2 activity in 'Strike Fighters' recently with a big all-inclusive WW2 Europe package released by the SFP1 Dev A-Team. I'm not really into the campaigns side of the game but it does have a wide selection of WW2 aircraft from the ETO so expect more prop stuff. Anyway, this is the Blenheim IF given some Belgian markings.

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Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 - No.1 (Saarbrücken) Squadron, Saarland Air Self Defence Force, 1955

Immediately after World War 1 the League of Nations created the 'Territory of the Saar Basin' (the Saarland) whose inhabitants voted to rejoin Germany in 1935. But after World War 2 Saarland was separated from the rest of Germany to become a French-occupied territory known as the 'Saar Protectorate' later becoming a member of the Council of Europe in 1950. Despite Saarland's status as a French protectorate it was granted US Mutual Defense Assistance Act funds to form an embryonic air defence force known as the Saarland Air Self Defence Force (SASDF) and with US domestic military production committed to the Korean War it allowed the UK and French governments to supply suitable aircraft as part of the US Offshore Procurement Policy.

The first SASDF squadron to form was No.1 (Saarbrücken) Squadron who were equipped with Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8's from 1951 to 1957 operating in the air defence role and only relinquishing this task when the SASDF was absorbed into the recently created West German Luftwaffe when Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany following the Saar Treaty of October 1956.













There's elements of truth in the backstory but it's nice to see the Meteor in any markings! The Saarland flag is real, as is the Saarbrücken coat of arms but the Saarland roundel is fictitious and almost certainly used by some other nation. The stock silver skin has just been tweaked with some checkerboard markings left over from a real-world No.19 squadron Meatbox.

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Avro Canada CF-105J Arrow - 302nd Hikotai, Japanese Air Self Defense Force, 1983











A superb 'what if' RAF Avro Arrow twin-pack was released recently with FGR.3 and FGR.5 versions of the original 3D model by 'FastCargo' and top-notch skins by 'sundowner' including this unusual blue camo which forms the basis for a JASDF Arrow with my favourite JASDF tail marking. More Arrows will follow over the next few days.

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Dassault MD.450 Ouragan - No.1 (Saarbrücken) Squadron, Saar Protectorate Air Force, 1954











You'll notice a yellow outline on the roundels and fin flash - I reckon they'll look good on green/grey camo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saar_Protectorate

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Dassault-Avro Canada CF-105 Super Flèche IIIC - No.2 Escadron, Saar Protectorate Air Force, 1966









A bit cheeky but 'what if' the crafty old Dassault collaborated with the Canadians to develop and produce the CF-105 Arrow.

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Fouga CM.170 Magister - Royal Danish Air Force, 1968





A very nice IAI Tzukit (Fouga Magister) was released recently and I've just added some RDAF markings to the overall green El Salvador scheme to create this Danish Magister.

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McDonnell F-101C Voodoo - Esk 727, Royal Danish Air Force, 1970



















A superb F-101C template was released recently so I thought I'd knock up a quick RDAF Voodoo but, for a variety of reasons, it fought me all the way and took a fair bit of time but it does look impressive and the F-101C is huge for a single-seater!

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Hawker Hunter Mk.55 'J-Plus' - 204th Hikotai, Japanese Air Self Defence Force, 1982

With the passing of the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Law the Japanese Air Self Defense Force, or JASDF, was formed as the aviation branch of Japan's armed forces. The F-86F was initially selected to be the standard fighter of the revived JASDF with Mitsubishi building 300 F-86F's under licence in an ambitious programme scheduled to start in 1956. As an interim stop-gap the UK Government offered to supply 100 Hawker Hunter Mk.55's (essentially a simplified Hunter F.6 without air-to-ground capability) and these entered service with the 204th Hikotai in December 1954 and later equipped the "Blue Impulse" aerial display team who flew the type until 1979.

The Hunter Mk.55's proved to be a popular aircraft in JASDF service and an aggressive rivalry soon developed between the ten JASDF Sabre squadrons and the four Hunter squadrons. Whilst the capabilities of the JASDF Sabres was sharply increased with the arrival of the Sidewinder missile in the early 1960's the Hunter squadrons received no upgrades until the late 1960's when the surviving Hunter Mk.55's were upgraded by a joint Hawker-Mitsubishi team to emerge as the Hunter Mk.55A gaining Sidewinder capability on new outer wing pylons and later being further upgraded by Mitsubishi during the late 1970's to Mk.55 'J-Plus' standard with new LAU-7/A Sidewinder pylons on the inner wing roots and AN/ALE-40 chaff and flare dispensers. Two squadrons continued to operate the type into the early 1980's with the 204th Hikotai being the last squadron to operate this very popular aircraft in JASDF service when they disbanded in December 1983.















This is quite a simple 'what if' that uses the grey camo scheme worn by the Omani Hunters towards the end of the lives and some JASDF decals by me with stock F-4EJ numbers and serials.

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ACF Arrow FAW.4 - No.92 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1965







I can't take any credit for this superb twin-tailed Arrow except for adding the 'Red Echo' missiles which are actually SAM-6's masquerading as a big British radar guided missile!! ACF is, of course, Avro Canada Fairey.

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Hawker Hunter RF-9J - 501st Hikotai, Japanese Air Self Defense Force, 1973















Even with a template I found making a Hunter camo with 3 upper surface colours (as opposed to the normal 2 colours) a bit challenging but the end result is quite passable if you don't look too close! As it uses RF-4EJ colours I thought I'd make my JASDF Hunter a photo-recce bird by simply adding a camera port decal I created a few years ago for my RAF Hunter FR.13 - piccie below.

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Harbin H-9 - Peoples' Liberation Army Air Force, 1967















The B-52D is a stock aircraft in Strike Fighters albeit non-flyable but the later B-52G and B-52H models are well represented with third-party versions and the latter is used here with a PLAAF decal set to produce the Harbin H-9. The B-52H is a handsome aircraft and on two consecutive summers in the 1970's they used to fly over our house in mock attacks on the steelworks. Happy days.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter RF-9J - 501st Hikotai, Japanese Air Self Defense Force, 1970











Just a simple grey and white scheme with the same JASDF markings as the camo version.

Updates will be few and far between for a few weeks.

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Boeing Stirling B.2 - No.617 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1977











Whilst I'm not a fan of the larger aircraft in 'Strike Fighters' (they're a bit unwieldly) I am a fan of the B-52 and especially the B-52H! I've removed the underwing drop tanks as I've always thought they look so puny.

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BAC-Breguet Taranis IIA - EB 2/91 Bretagne, Armée de l'Air, 1971

In late 1963 the Hawker P.1154 programme still continued even after the Royal Navy decided to cancel it's lukewarm interest and order the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II and the P.1154 reverted back to a simpler single-seat fighter with secondary intercept capability for the RAF as a replacement for the Hawker Hunter. However the incoming Labour government, led by Harold Wilson, cancelled the P.1154 on the grounds of cost in February 1965 whilst the TSR.2 survived but would surely face the axe within weeks.

With the RAF still seething about Mountbatten's championing of the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II they purposefully rejected the Phantom and their interest soon turned to the Dassault Mirage IIIE, a multi-role version of the Mirage IIIC, which had recently entered squadron service with the Armée de l'Air. With discussions already having taken place in 1964 between France and Great Britain on collaborative military aviation programs for a light ground-attack/trainer (Jaguar) and a swing-wing multirole fighter project (AFVG) the respective governments announced the immediate development and production of the Mirage IIIE for the RAF as a Hunter replacement and, unexpectedly, continued development of the TSR.2 for both services as a strike/attack aircraft. It would later be revealed that Armée de l'Air officials had serious concerns about the low-level penetrability of the delta-winged Mirage IVA and felt that the TSR.2 better matched their requirements.

Whilst Dassault Aviation would wholely produce the RAF's Mirage IIIE's the TSR.2 would be produced by BAC at Weybridge and also by Bregeut Aviation at Toulouse with all export versions being built by the country responsible for securing the order. Development continued through the mid-1960's during which the aircraft was officially named Taranis after the Celtic god of thunder and in January 1967 initial orders were placed for 75 Taranis 'S' aircraft for the RAF and 75 Taranis 'A' aircraft for the Armée de l'Air with the Taranis S.1 entering service with the RAF in April 1969 and the Taranis IIA entering service with the Armée de l'Air in October 1970.













We're on the approach to the 50th anniversary of the cancellation of Her Majesty's Needle-Nosed Wonderbird so I thought I'd take a look at a few TSR.2 what if's starting with this one that would have Dassault and De Gaulle spinning in their Gallic graves. Sacre bleu!

No requests on the TSR.2 please - you'll get what you're given!