Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Grumman Tigercat Mk.I - No.1 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1943















I made a few decals for a proposed night intruder Typhoon (to replace No.1 Squadron's Hurricane IIC's) and thought I'd preview them on a night intruder Tigercat! Yes, I know I'm at least two years early on the date but hey ho! Last time I looked there were no JMN's here! Anyway, this is an adaptation of the black USMC night-fighter scheme from the newly released F7F-3N which wraps around the single-seater just fine. The later photo's have a bluey-black tint to make it look like a night mission so I'm going to add an extra daytime shot below.

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Grumman Tigercat Mk.I - No.30 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, January 1946

Designed as a private venture for a long-range fighter for the Pacific War against Japan the De Havilland Hornet was sufficiently promising for Specification F.12/43 to be written around the type. However the mixed balsa and plywood construction of De Havilland's earlier Mosquito gave some problems when the type was deployed to the Far East and by November 1944 several crashes had occurred in the Far East which were initially blamed on the deterioration of the casein glue due to the extreme heat and damp conditions but were later attributed to the delamination of the wing upper surfaces due to the heat and humidity. This lead to an urgent reappraisal of the suitably of the Hornet for the Far East theatre and by March 1945 it was decided to keep the Hornet for the European theatre and to seek another aircraft to fulfill the requirement for a long-range fighter aircraft for the Pacific War. In April 1945, Air Command (South East Asia) selected the Grumman F7F Tigercat even though two Tigercats (serialled TT346 and TT349) had been evaluated by the Royal Navy in the UK and had been rejected in favour of a navalised version of the De Havilland Hornet!

Production of a minimum change version of the F7F-1 began in June 1945 with the most notable change being the switch to a fixed armanent of 4 x Hispano V cannon and 4 x .303 Browning machine guns. Entering service with No.30 Squadron in November 1945 the Tigercat Mk.l served in the fighter-bomber role and also as an escort fighter for the RAF's Tiger Force Lancaster bombers. On July 6th 1948 the Tigercats of No.60 Squadron flew the first offensive mission against Malayan terrorists as part of 'Operation Firedog' when they attacked and destroyed a terrorist camp at Perak using cannon and rockets.













Whilst I haven't got a template for the Tigercat I have been given a blank 'white' skin to play with and I thought I'd do a silver SEAC Tigercat with a little backstory to explain why the RAF came to use the Tigercat instead of the absolutely gorgeous De Havilland Hornet. A couple of little problems: the panel lines are a bit heavy, I couldn't get the green anti-glare paint onto all of the windscreen frame and I couldn't get the individual aircraft letter to appear behind the roundel (baffling) but I hope you agree that it does show what a SEAC Tigercat would have looked like.



Edit: Windscreen Frame now fixed

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Hawker Fury II - No.87 Squadron, RAF Air Defence of Great Britain, 1937











Not really a 'what if' as No.87 did operate the Fury II but for only a precious few weeks and I don't think they gave it the full monty with upper wing marking. Since taking these screenshots I've identified the spinner on the bitmap and have coloured it blue. Forecast: More Furies.

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Grumman P-65B Tigercat - 55th Fighter Squadron, United States Army Air Force, 1945













I've been fortunate enough to have been given a nice blank silver skin by the folks over at the SFP1 Dev A-Team site to help me create this late-WW2 P-65B and have added invasion stripes and starbars directly onto the skin bitmaps plus a bit of weathering and the 'plane in group' triangles are custom decals with stock Third Wire Mustang serials. The invasion stripes don't quite reach the leading edge and there really should be squadron codes but it looks pretty neat as it is.

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Hawker Fury IIB - 'Dark Flight', No.41 Squadron, RAF Air Defence of Great Britain, 1936













I enjoyed doing my 'Dark Flight' Bulldogs recently so I thought I'd give the elegant Hawker Fury a more sinister look by giving it the same treatment.

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Gloster P-74B Pioneer - 361st FS, United States Army Air Force, 1943









A 'what if' version of the Gloster E28/39 (Britain's first jet) was released recently by the SFP1 Dev A-Team and remembering that 'Strike Fighters' is a game and not a 'study sim' they've added a pair of Hispano cannon to it. I've just used a blank silver skin and added a simple anti-glare panel plus some pretty generic (i.e. unresearched) markings with 'GW' simply being Gloster Whittle. I've always liked the Pioneer name for Gloster's little gem and will try and do a few more in the near future.

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Polikarpov I-220 - Soviet Air Force, 1943









Not much time tonight so just a decal job on a quickly lashed-up skin.

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Mitsubishi A9M2 'John' - 2nd Koko Sentai, Imperial Japanese Navy, 1942











The He-178 was released today, again by the SFP1 Dev A-Team - who are on a roll at the moment. Anyway, this is a simple 'Zero-esque' skin with some pretty generic markings. I need to try to install some WW2 Japanese carriers because this would look good aboard the 'Soryu'.

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Pfalz Flugzeugwerke D.XIX - Jasta 25, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte, 1938









Looking at a Zero-ised Heinkel He-178 made me look at the Zero itself and I thought I'd give it the old Lozenge treatment with a pink nose and a white tail. It's a wee bit loud!

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Helwan Ha-280 - 1st Squadron, 101st Fighter Brigade, Egyptian Air Force, 1951

The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 required the UK to withdraw all of its troops from Egypt, except those deemed necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings. Although the treaty was not welcomed by Egyptian nationalists (who wanted full independence) it was generally observed - initially due to fears of Egypt being dragged into the Second Italo-Abbyssinian War and then by the rising tensions preceding World War Two and the outbreak of war itself followed by the turmoil of the North African campaign. But even before the end of World War Two, King Farouk and the Egyptian government had demanded the end of a British military presence and a war-weary United Kingdom quickly let go of it's remaining interests before the end of 1945. Riding on the wave of public opinion and popularity King Farouk immediately announced ambitious plans to build up the Egyptian armed forces and these plans included the development of an indigenous jet fighter for the Egyptian Air Force.

Meanwhile back in Germany, Dr. Ernst Heinkel and Robert Lusser (Heinkel's Chief Designer) were frustrated by the restrictions placed on German citizens from undertaking any research or development work related to the any military activity and after being overlooked by British and American aircraft manufacturers both men sought employment elsewhere. By the Spring of 1946 Heinkel and Lusser had been approached by Egyptian Air Force officials and accepted King Farouk's offer of employment to design and build a new jet fighter to enter service before 1950. Both men immediately moved to Helwan in Egypt and were soon joined by Ferdinand Brandner, an Austrian jet engine expert, who had also been approached to develop a new turbojet engine for the new fighter. Right from the start, Heinkel and Lusser knew that a completely new design could not possibly meet the 1950 deadline and quickly agreed to dust off their He-280 design from 1940. This was unfinished business for both men who firmly believed that their design would have been the equal of the Me 262 given the same powerplant and resources. Brandner, who had escaped from the Soviets in Prague during the Spring of 1945, had a design for a slim axial-flow jet engine with a pressure ratio of nearly 5:1 and a projected thrust of 10kN (2,250lbs) and this promised to unlock the He-280's potential.

The 'new' design was officially designated as the Helwan HA-280 and was to be produced by the Egyptian General Aero Organisation from the new test facilities and workshops in Factory No. 36 in Helwan, southeast of Cairo. With an essentially proven airframe the design focus centred on the engine, although in early 1949 the main armament was changed to three of the new Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 cannon supplied by the Soviet Union. There were no prototypes as such and production airframes began to roll off the Helwan production line in February 1949 but it was to be another two months before the first Brandner E-280-A engines could be installed due to problems with the six-stage axial compressor. Ground running and testing took up the remainder of the Spring of 1949 before the first production HA-280 took to the air in June 1949, with No.1 Squadron of the Egyptian Air Force being the first Squadron to equip with the type in September 1949. Production continued until 1952 with a total of 87 HA-280's being produced before production switched to the swept-wing HA-288.

















A superb Heinkel He-280 was released recently, again by the SFP1 Dev A-Team, with a real world prototype scheme and also a 'what if' operational scheme (I'll post a piccie of the latter at some time). The wing reminds me of the Westland Whirlwind so I might make an RAF version at some time but I thought I'd start off with an indigenous Egyptian jet fighter for which I've made some new decals although, thankfully, the Arabic serial numbers are stock decals from the game.

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Fiat G.60 Corsaro - 91st Squadriglia, Regia Aeronautica, 1943













This is, of course, the Vought F4U masquerading as the Fiat G.60 'Corsaro'. I've been asked to do the skin for a real WW2 Italian aircraft and thought I'd start by making some decals and just used the Corsair with a pretty crude digital camo skin slightly blurred a bit to make it less pixelated. Just tinkering really... but I like this one a lot!

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Republic Aviation P-47N Tiếng Sấm Sét - 921st Fighter Regiment, North Vietnam Air Force, 1955

The Viet Minh artillery attacks against the French airbase at Dien Bien Phu on March 16th, 1954  resulted in the destruction of six French F8F Bearcats , five MS.500's and two helicopters. In addition, several French P-47N Thunderbolts, F6F Hellcats, SB2C Helldivers and PB4Y Privateers were damaged and could not be flown out. This setback was immediately compound by a failed air-drop to help sustain the besieged French garrison and before long the Viet Minh insurgents had overrun the garrison despite a very brave defence by the French forces.

Immediately following the Geneva Conference of July 1954, which recognised the 17th parallel as being a provisional military demarcation line dividing the country into two zones, North Vietnam soon started the development of military aviation in the new Communist state by sending a number of trainees to the USSR and China for pilot training and aircraft maintenance training. In September 1954, Vice-Premier Phạm Văn Đồng ordered the immediate formation of the North Vietnam Air Force mainly using aircraft left behind by the retreating French forces but soon bolstered by equipment from the Soviet Union. Sufficient P-47N's were scraped together to form the 921st Fighter Regiment based at Thanh Hoá Air Base who were declared operational in February 1955.









When I tried this camo on the P-47N I immediately came up with the idea of it being a captured French aircraft in service with the North Vietnamese Air Force, although it could possibly have made it to the early years of the Vietnam War in USAF service with mini starbars. Anyway, a superb template made this quite easy and the only other item of note is the Soviet version of the HVAR which is created by duplicating it, changing the nationality and recolouring the skin from white to dark green/black.


Now available for download at Combat Ace!

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Harbin H-3 - People's Liberation Army Air Force, 1953















I've previously shown the Junkers EF-132 as the Harbin H-3 Chinese bomber before but with a much simpler skin. Yes, that is Chairman Mao as nose art!

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Ambrosini SS.4 'Tornado' - Centro Sperimentale Volo, 1939





Sadly, the first prototype crashed on it's second flight in March 1939 so this is a fictional second prototype being evaluated by the Centro Sperimentale Volo.

Edit: I'm open to suggestions on names!

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Ambrosini SS.4 'Tornado' - 97th Squadraglia, Regia Aeronautica, 1942















This 3D model was created by Veltro2K and as a request by me so it was only good and proper that I offered to skin it. I'm really pleased with my 'second prototype' silver skin and this first stab at a camo scheme is OK and the markings bring it to life. In game, it's actually quite good - even on 960hp!