Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin IL-2M Sturmovik - 22nd Assault Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1955













It seems that most Soviet client states had retired their IL-2's by 1954 so perhaps they were shipped to the newly formed Vietnam People's Air Force although in my universe that air force was created in 1946 for the specific purpose of giving my SEAC Spitfires something to shoot at  

[SPINNERS]

Avia B-32 Sturmovik - No.105 'Scorpion' Squadron, Israeli Air Force,1948

The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 broke out when five Arab nations invaded territory in the former Palestinian mandate immediately following the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel on May 14th, 1948 but during the war the United States had placed an arms embargo against all belligerents. In defiance of this arms embargo Israeli agents quickly negotiated the purchase of 25 Avia S-199 fighters and 15 Avia B-32 attack aircraft from the Czechoslovakian government. The first aircraft arrived on May 20th 1948, just six days after Israel's declaration of independence and five days after the commencement of hostilities by Egypt. Together. these aircraft formed the backbone of the newly created Israeli Air Force and both types were immediately thrown into service being flown by a mix of foreign volunteers including many World War II veterans who wanted to collaborate with Israel's struggle for independence.

The Avia B-32's first went into action on May 29th, 1948, assisting the efforts of ground forces to halt the Egyptian advance from Gaza northwards striking Egyptian forces near Ashdod and stopping the Egyptian advances and later successfully attacking the Egyptian army between Isdud and the Ad Halom bridge. Whilst the Avia S-199 proved to be unreliable, tricky to fly and performing poorly in combat the Avia B-32's were much more well received achieving high rates of availability and gaining a reputation for ruggedness and survivability. Whilst the Avia S-199 quickly passed from service the Avia B-32's remained in service until 1955.











My final Sturmovik for now taking the green from the Avia S-199 'Mule' fighters supplied by Avia to the Israeli Air Force.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell XP-78 Spirit - First Prototype, 1946







This is the Argentinian FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II masquerading as the fictional McDonnell P-78 Spirit (the real P-78 being a semi-unused designation for the Merlin-engined P-51 before they stuck with P-51B). This one hasn't quite worked out so I might come back to it at another time almost certainly with camo.

[SPINNERS]

Cộng Hòa Aviation F-1 'Fusion' - 3rd Fighter Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1975











The latest creation by 'Cocas' is his MiG-28MF which mixes the F-5 with the MiG-21 hence my NATO reporting name of 'Fusion'!

[SPINNERS]

Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard - Royal Danish Air Force, 1980











Just a simple RDAF Green skin for the Super Étendard an aircraft I find quite attractive whilst being bemused at it being preferred to the Jaguar M (take a bow Marcel).

[SPINNERS]

Dassault-Boeing F-13G Mirage - VMFT-401 'Snipers', United States Marine Corps, 1985











This is the Mirage IIICZ with a stock aggressor skin from the F-21A. It should have been easy peasy lemon squeezy but no less than three of the five bitmaps (parts of the skin) had to be altered and I wish I'd used the longer IIIO or 5F now. Those with good eyesight will notice the F-21A stencils on the Mirage's and also the Star of David's on the C-47's!

[SPINNERS]

Dassault F-19A Mirage - VMFT-401 'Snipers', United States Marine Corps, 1990













Just added some stock F-21A Lion decals to the Greek Mirage F-1CG.

[SPINNERS]

Dassault Mirage F.1A - No.5 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1983







A little bit rushed and a little bit untidy.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed F-104C Starfighter - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967

The end of the Algerian war in 1962 saw General de Gaulle begin to mend France's relationship with the Arab world and this put it's previously strong relationship with Israel under increasing strain. For a short while, France tried to balance it's relationships with the Arabs and the Israelis but during the Summer of 1963 things took a turn for the worse culminating in an unexpected and immediate arms embargo on Israel announced on September 1st, 1963. Whilst not known at the time, it was later discovered that this was due to the discovery of a major Mossad intelligence operation being conducted at the heart of the French government.

With barely one-half of it's 70 Dassault Mirage IIICJ's having been delivered the Israeli Air Force began urgent talks with several fighter manufacturers expressing strong interest in the BAC Lightning and the Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger before a surprise political intervention was made in early November 1963 by President John F. Kennedy which saw the donation of 36 F-104C's all transferred from USAF stocks. Entering service in March 1964, the F-104C's equipped two squadrons of the Israeli Air Force seeing action in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur war before being retired in 1975.













Not a perfect skin but OK for illustrating what an early Starfighter would look like in the unusual blue/brown camo IDF camo scheme. 'Strikefighters' has three versions of the F-104C and this is the F-104C_66 version with fixed refuelling probe and quite a few lumps and bumps.

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Meteor T.7 - No.60 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1957













A nice Meteor T.7 was released today with a 3D model by 'Veltro2K' and some sweet skins by 'Paulopanz' covering all users of the T.7 including a rather bright yellow Swedish scheme. This is the RAF camo version with some SEAC markings for No.60 Squadron.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed F-104I 'Kohav' - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967









I've shown this one before but needed to take some new screenshots for an updated download and thought I'd share them here.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed Starfighter F.1 - No.74 Squadron ('The Tigers'), RAF Fighter Command, 1960









Not the first RAF Starfighter I've done over the past eight years but the first with a black fin created quite simply by duplicating the skin and inverting the colours on the fin & rudder, adding a 50% opacity black section to dampen the colours down and then removing the unwanted section and pasting it all together. I might do another RAF one but with a proper black radome.

LOL no one notice my deliberate mistake?

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed Starfighter F.2 - No.92 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1969















Nice to see the Canberra B(I)8's in the background of the top piccie!

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed-Canadair Starfighter S.1 - No.214 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1966

In 1963, with the Mark 2 versions of the Vulcan and Victor becoming the spearhead of Bomber Command, four Valiant squadrons (49, 148, 207 and 214) were assigned to SACEUR forming a powerful strike wing based at Marham in Norfolk. But during the summer of 1964 fatigue cracks were discovered in the front and rear wing spars of several aircraft and whilst consideration was given to a rebuild programme the estimated cost of this was close to the original price and the rebuild programme was postponed but with further cracks being discovered the RAF reluctantly grounded the Valiant in December 1964. In January 1965, this lead to Denis Healey (Minister of Defence) declaring that the Valiant situation was "causing considerable embarrassment for us with our NATO allies" and that an interim solution was being sought "to restore our missing strike power and commitment to SACEUR".

With President Lyndon Johnson already critical of Harold Wilson's refusal to commit British troops to Vietnam, Wilson and Healey needed a quick solution and in February 1965 they pulled off a deal with Lockheed and Canadair to take 50 CF-104 Starfighter aircraft straight off the Canadair production line to a build standard approaching that of the F-104G but optimised for the nuclear strike role and equipped with R-24A NASARR radar and associated avionics dedicated to the air-to-ground role. Entering service with No.207 squadron in June 1965 the Starfighter force built up at RAF Marham before being transferred to RAF Geilenkirchen during the Spring of the following year.
 















A nice template for the F-104G allowed me to do this anti-flash white scheme including toned down stencilling and national markings.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Phantom F.1 - No.74 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1965















It would probably be silver paint rather than a true natural metal finish Phantom but I thought I'd give a NMF Phantom a go (been meaning to for a while).