Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Junkers Ju-289 - IV(PZ)/SG9, Luftwaffe, Eastern Front, 1946















Just ignore the Ju-289 designation for a moment, this is the unnamed Junkers ground to air project for a jet powered successor to the Henschel Hs129 and I've been lucky enough to have a play with this one before it gets released - although I've had to sing for my supper by doing the skin for it. Fair enough! I've made good progress today but it's still very much a WIP and some key parts haven't been mapped and/or had textures assigned to them but you'd be hard pressed to spot them. I used the green from my Polish Hurricane and have really had to fight the temptation to show it in Polish markings. There's plenty of 'what if' possible in this one and for many nations.

http://www.luft46.com/junkers/jugap.html

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Aero S-101 Sekera - 311 Squadron, Czechoslovakian Air Force, 1953









I've just been refining the template and skin for the 'Junkers AG' today incorporating some wheel centres (taken from a Spitfire piccie!) and also some metal half-bodies and burnished areas behind the engines. It's been a while since I did a Czech 'what if' so I decided to make it an Aero product slightly predating their licence-built Mig-15's (S-102). The spurious squadron marking simply uses the central part of the RAF squadron badge for No.311 on a red and blue background.

[SPINNERS]

Junkers Ju-289 - IV(PZ)/SG9, Luftwaffe, 1947





This is a version of my Luftwaffe mottled camo but it doesn't really work on this 3D model as the mapping overlaps and causes 'joint lines' so this is probably destined to be a single colour aircraft.

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Republic F-84F Thunderstreak - No.2 (Leinster) Squadron, Irish Air Corps, 1962













I've always had a soft spot for the Thunderstreak and I like to throw in the occasional Irish Air Corps jet from time to time, no matter how unlikely, so this is the stock silver skin with Leinster markings.

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Republic A-47A 'Warthog' - 670th Bomb Squadron, 416th Bomb Group, United States Army Air Force, 1946















A relatively simple silver skin and some markings with a nod towards the Airfix A-26B Invader although I couldn't find decent 'Miss Mildred' artwork.


Normandy 1946: Warthog over the Bocage

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Republic F-84M Thunderstreak FGA.2 - No.92 Squadron 'Blue Diamonds', RAF Fighter Command, 1956















It might not be as pretty as the Hunter but it scrubs up well 

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Lockheed F-104C Starfighter - 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron, United States Air Force, 1968

On January 28th, 1968 Pentagon officials received confirmation that the USS Pueblo was in North Korean hands after being outmanoeuvred by North Korean naval vessels and that all of the crew were being held captive. This left President Johnson with a tricky situation to resolve and not helped with conflicting advice from the various hawks and doves on Capitol Hill.  One such hawk, Mendel Rivers, recommended that the President issue an ultimatum for the return of the USS Pueblo on penalty of a nuclear attack on North Korea and, with no immediate sign of the ship's crew being returned, President Johnson moved towards that direction by ordering the build-up of forces in the area.

With the Vietnam War raging, the United States Pacific Air Forces were reluctant to spare their prized F-4 and F-105 assets but agreed to the transfer of the remaining F-104C's from Vietnam to South Korea. The transfer of F-104C's began in early February, 1968 with the first eight Starfighters arriving at Osan Air Base on February 8th with two further batches of eight aircraft arriving during the month to equip an expanded 435th Tactical Fighter Squadron. All transferred F-104C's underwent inspection by USAF technicians at Osan (an operation believed to include the re-instatement of equipment associated with the carriage and deployment of 'special' stores) and emerging with a fresh coat of green paint and subdued markings. With the crew of the USS Pueblo eventually being released in December 1968 the F-104C's remained at Osan until March 1969 when the 435th TFS re-equipped with F-4D's and returned to Vietnam.











This is the later version of the Third Wire F-104C (with the IFR probe and various lumps and bumps) with a slightly amended Danish skin and some smaller starbars, black tail codes and 435th TFS markings.

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North American F2J-1A Super Fury - 'Blue Angels', United States Navy, 1959















A couple of navalised 'Super Sabre' derivatives were released recently by 'Cocas' over at Combat Ace and I'll start with the earlier 'F2J' dressed in a pretty basic 'Blue Angels' skin by me (updated).


Available for download at Combat Ace!

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Fairey Firedart FGA.1 - No.54 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1966







The latest release by Cocas is the very inventive Dassault Épervier IC which he has envisioned as a lightweight export fighter to complement the F-104G in Luftwaffe service. I see it as a replacement for the RAF's Hunter force within No.38 group and developed by Fairey (of course) who clung onto existence just to make this baby delta for the RAF and for export. Nurse, my medicene please.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

[SPINNERS]

Consolidated P-27C Comet - 18th Pursuit Squadron, 18th Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Corps, 1941

In 1933, and in a departure from it's flying boat traditions, the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation responded to a tentative but far-sighted United States Army Air Corps requirement issued to several manufacturers for a monoplane pursuit fighter with a retractable undercarriage. Boeing were thought to be favourites to win the design competition due to the success of their P-26 'Peashooter' and their preliminary work of an advanced version known as the P-29. However, in March 1934 Consolidated were awarded the contract to produce their P-27 'Comet' design an advanced low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear with a short and stubby wooden monocoque fuselage (then in vogue due to the success of the racing aircraft produced by the Granville Brothers) and wings based around a Reynolds chrome-molybdenum steel alloy wing spar, alloy ribs and aluminium  skinning on the centre and leading edges but with the remaining portions of the wings being fabric covered.

Full-scale work on the YP-27 prototype began in April 1934 and the first flight was made on December 24th, 1934 with Consolidated being given a late Christmas present with an initial order for 150 P-27A's on December 30th. Development at Consolidated's Buffalo plant moved smoothly but production was delayed slightly by Consolidated's planned move to it's huge new 'continuous flow' factory in San Diego but by the end of 1935 production P-27A's were coming off the production line and were soon followed by the P-27B (an export version for China) and the more advanced P-27C equipped with the more powerful Wright Cyclone R-1820-52 engine rated at 1,000 hp (750 kW). P-27C's were still in service with the 18th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii in December 1941.









And the guns go rata-tat-rata! Huge fun doing this Polikarpov I-16 released recently by the DAT and I've just added some colour to the skin and some suitable USAAC decals.

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Svenska Aero J8 Fiskmås - F11, Svenska Flygvapnet, 1939











The Polikarpov I-153 'Chaika' was released recently by the DAT who are on bit of a 'Winter War' kick at the moment producing a good balance of Soviet and Finnish aircraft and including those that fought for both sides. This is a basic silver skin kindly sent to me by the DAT to which I've added suitable Bulldog/Gladiator style markings. I was hoping to get a nice gold colour to the cowling but it hasn't quite worked so I might try copper mext. There are no spare 'J' numbers so I've used J8 meaning that the Swedes didn't buy the Gladiator but built their own design.

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Panavia Tornado F.3 - 341st Squadron, Hellenic Air Force, 2002

















This is the Tornado F.3 by 'bobrock' and made by him a few years ago now. It really does capture the look of the 'ADV' and when the first artist's impressions of the ADV appeared in RAF Yearbooks and Air International (gulp - about 40 years ago now!) I always thought that the IDS should have the same stretched look! I am a huge fan of the Tornado programme but less so of the RAF's ADV and consider that upgraded Phantoms could have held the line until the Eurofighter Typhoon arrived especially if the latter had been on a tighter schedule. Anyway, 'bobrock' also generously released a spiffing template for his F.3 and I've used the 'bleu' from the Mirage IIIC as my colour and did indeed toy with the idea of making it a French Tornado and will probably do so in the future.

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Fairey Farnborough B.I - No.38 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1937











This is the Ilyushin DB-3M bomber masquerading as the Fairey Farnborough. The DB-3M was released yesterday (once again, by the DAT) and a blank 'silver' skin has been used with a NIVO green layer added to give a fair approximation of a pre-war RAF bomber.

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Lockheed J36A Starfighter - F13, Svenska Flygvapnet, 1967

















This is the stock Third Wire F-104G with the stock generic NMF skin and some Flygvapnet markings with some new angled 'FARA' warning markings (these actually took longer to do than everything else and have to be 'handed' also) which set it off nicely. Naturally, my first thought was to do a 'splinter' but, trust me, it doesn't look so good IMHO as the demarcation line is a bit too high - a legacy of my merged templates which really need a good sorting out.

[SPINNERS]

Saab J36C Sparvhök - F11, Svenska Flygvapnet, 1974













This is Cocas' recent Épervier and his template is so good that this Swedish 'splinter' camo was actually very easy to create.

Happy New Year BTW!!


And one from F13