Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Blackburn Shark FGA.1 - 893 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1953















Cocas has done it again with his striking 'English Electric Shark' based on an advanced Me-262 variant. I've envisioned it as a Blackburn product (and, of course, they did have a pre-war Shark) and decked it out with 893's distinctive Sea Vixen tail marking, generic markings and stock Canberra serial numbers which fortunately come in black and white versions.

Edited to add some deck landing shots proving that it's a Blackburn product 

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Yakovlev Yak-21 'Fletcher-A' - Soviet Air Force, 1952











This is the third of Cocas' hat-trick of new releases his lovely Yak-21 based on the Focke-Wulf FW-252 design. I've used 'Fletcher-A' as the NATO name for this little gem.

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Blackburn Shark FGA.1 - 763 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1954







I do like this!


Additional shot of an 803NAS machine

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Chengdu J-9 Léigōng - People's Liberation Army Air Force, 1975









A new grey skin for the F-105D and some Anab missiles makes for a pretty convincing J-9 perhaps using the same backstory as my recent Vietnamese Thud (current page 114). The real J-9 looks quite nice!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu_J-9

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Yakovlev Yak-21 'Fletcher-A' - 945 Squadron, Syrian Arab Air Force, 1956









I'm not the greatest at doing camo schemes, especially when not having a pattern to follow, but this one has worked out not too bad. Incredibly, despite doing this for eight years now this is my first Syrian 'what if'.

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Supermarine Skylark F.1 - No.11 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1959

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Dassault Super Mystère B.2 - 1ste Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1966















I've rediscovered the sweet Super Mystère thanks to a new cockpit for the stock aircraft which is normally a non-flyable 'AI' type. This is the stock silver skin with some new Belgian decals by me but utilising the stock Belgian Hunter code numbers.

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Westland Winchester PR.3 - 1 PRU, Royal Air Force, 1951

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Gloster Glory FB.2 - No.134 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1945

The Gloster F.5/34 monoplane fighter was the last design schemed by Henry Folland for the Gloster Aviation Company and was developed in response to Air Ministry Specification F.5/34 for a fighter aircraft using an air-cooled engine and to be suitable for "hot climate use". However development was slow due to the production demands of the Gladiator biplane fighter and by the time the first prototype was flown in December 1937 the basic design had already been overtaken by superior designs and in early October 1938 the requirement was quietly postponed amid the turmoil of the recent Munich Crisis.

Despite it's victory in the Battle of Britain the RAF entered the Autumn of 1940 with the bleak prospect of fighting on two fronts (at home and in North Africa) and dusted off their earlier requirement for an air-cooled fighter for the hotter climate of North Africa. Hawker Aviation appeared to be in the front running with their proposed interim solution of the 'Hercules Hurricane' followed by their 'Centaurus Typhoon' (later to become the Tempest II). But Gloster's had continued to work on their F.5/34, by now designated as the Gloster G.C.400 - an informal reference to their Chief Designer, George Carter, and the design's maximum speed of 400mph. Carter had refined Folland's early F.5/34 design to accept the Bristol Hercules VI radial engine rated at 1,650hp but shoehorned into a smaller, lighter airframe featuring a cut down rear fuselage giving the pilot excellent visibility and with the F.5/34's projected armament of eight wing-mounted .303 Browning machine guns being replaced by four 20mm Hispano cannon. First flown by Gerry Sayer on October 2nd, 1941 development moved slowly with the first prototype having the older Hercules II engine and having no armament fitted. But in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Singapore the programme received a fresh impetus albeit with a challenging longer radius of action being cranked in by Air Ministry officials to meet the expected demands of the war in the Far East. George Carter removed the four wing-mounted cannon to make room for integral wing tanks and relocated two of the four cannon into the upper front fuselage, the reduced firepower being deemed acceptable as early indications were that most Japanese aircraft lacked self-sealing tanks and armour plating.

Officially designated as the Gloster Glory a production order for 400 aircraft was given in April 1942 and the pace of development picked up with the second prototype taking to the air on June 4th with the revised wing but still with Hercules II engines and without the fuselage guns. The third prototype flew in August with a revised engine air intake and a modified forward fuselage with the Hispano II cannon whilst the fourth prototype introduced the definitive Hercules VI engine in October and was later modified to accept the Hispano V cannon. The initial production variant was the F.Mk.I which entered service in March 1943 with No.79 Squadron at Fairwood Common in South Wales a location chosen to keep the aircraft away from the RAF's fighter squadrons based near the English Channel due to the perceived high risk of misidentification with the Fw190. Only 30 F.Mk.I's were built before production switched to the FB.Mk.II version with all deliveries going to the Far East to serve with RAF South East Asia Command in the Pacific War and seeing action post-war in the Battle of Surabaya in November 1945 with No.60 and No.134 squadrons being particularly effective with rocket attacks in the Ambawara and Kampong areas.















This is the DAT's Lavockin La-5FN given the Spinners' NMF/SEAC treatment! Whenever I put 'foreign' aircraft into British service I like to think about which company would make it and plumped for Gloster for this one and linked it in via a ropey backstory with the cute Gloster F.5/34 prototype eight gun fighter (which really is bigger than the La-5FN btw but lighter) which I'd love to see in 'Strike Fighters' all dressed up for the 1938 Munich Crisis.

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Supermarine Swift FR.55 - Esk 724, Royal Danish Air Force, 1963















My first Swift from a new fairly basic template I knocked up on Sunday afternoon but I lost a bit of interest after twice suffering power cuts with my last 'save' being about 30 minutes previous

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McDonnell F-74C Sprite - 36th FBS, 51st FBG, United States Air Force, 1950









Just playing around with Cocas' FW-252 and trying a new type of brushed metal texture.

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Supermarine Swift FR.Mk.55 - 202 Squadron, 'The Swifts', Israeli Air Force, 1956















I've had another look at my Swift template and knocked up this IDF camo scheme - one of my favourites probably because it's so odd! Blue and brown? How very Heston Blumenthal! The 202 Squadron tail marking is out of me own head.

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Supermarine Swift F.6 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1960















This is the Swift FR.5 3 model painted up to look like an operational Firestreak equipped Swift, cheekily in the clothes of the most famous Lightning F.1A squadron - well, amongst Airfix afficionados anyway! I know the F.7 was Fireflash equipped but that looked like a dead end to me so my F.6 is a scheme that run parallel that mated the AI.23 'Airpass' radar with the Swift airframe, Rolls-Royce Avon RA.24 engine and the Firestreak missile. Nurse, my medicene please!

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Supermarine Swift FB.8 - 101 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1958











Really short of time this week so I thought I'd do an Israeli Swift with A2G stores (napes and old 'blunt' bombs). You'll note the nose camera ports have gone and there is a slight gap between the pylon and the stores - just a legacy of the 3D modeller setting his Swift up for AAM adapter rails which are built into the model but hidden when not in use. There is a way of overcoming this but that's for another time.

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BAC Lightning F.6 - No.60 Squadron, RAF Far East Air Force, 1970















Better with the black fin and spine!

I did this by locating the fin and spine on two of the bitmaps and inverting the colours on those parts but just dampening down the brightness by adding a layer of black at 50%. Works like a charm. The 3D model has specular mapping built in to it so the specular maps were amended and this stops the black fin and spine from being shiny and reflective.