Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Bell Aircraft Company F-109C Airacobra II - VF-1 'Wolfpack', United States Navy, 1974

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F-109C AIRACOBRA.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The carrier shots were taken on three different sorties and, yes, those are carrier-based TSR.2's! I'll come back to these at some point. For the Airacobra II, I've used the silver skin that comes with the F-109 but just tinted it a bit darker and added some US Navy style white undersides (with a fairly crude wavy line) and white control surfaces.

[SPINNERS]

Grumman E-2K Hawkeye AEW.1 - 849 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1982

RN HAWKEYE AEW1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN HAWKEYE AEW1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN HAWKEYE AEW1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN HAWKEYE AEW1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN HAWKEYE AEW1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The E-2C is a non-flyable aircraft from the excellent 'Strike Fighters:North Atlantic' and it can be made flyable with some simple edits to give it a surrogate pit. I've added RN markings to a late USN skin by 'pappychksix' but my new and original fin marking, based on 849's official shield has proved to be problematic as it goes where three meshes come together and doesn't quite work as a decal or when painted directly on the skin. I'll probably have to move it down below where the end of the horizontal tail breaks through the fin and the rudder. I'll switch to 'V' for HMS Vindictive one of the super carriers the Senior Service got during the 1980's.

Nurse! My medicine please!

[SPINNERS]

Republic P-72C Superbolt - 51º Stormo, Aeronautica Militare, 1948

AMI P-72A SUPERBOLT.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI P-72A SUPERBOLT.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI P-72A SUPERBOLT.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI P-72A SUPERBOLT.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMI P-72A SUPERBOLT.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the P-72 Superbolt by the DAT group of modders and I've used the NMF skin by 'Charles' with some over-painting of the USAAF markings and added my own AMI decals. I've visited the Superbolt a few times now (including USAAF with invasion stripes, SEAC and post-war German Air Force) and will certainly come back to it again.

Sadly, I have to report that my external hard drive that had about eight years of my Strike Fighters stuff on it is now officially dead. I've tried everything to get the data off it and studied all the relevant YouTube clips, etc,  culminating in me carefully opening it up and fiddling... but it's just not working. I've tried everything but now I have to accept that it's a goner. It's quite ironic that when I knew my old PC was about to go t*ts up in 2016, I transferred all my stuff onto this (then) new 1TB Seagate external hard drive so I wouldn't lose my data not thinking that it would fail to work. But 18 months of idleness during my time away from Strike Fighters clearly did it no good. About 80-90% of my decals have survived thanks to an earlier back-up onto CD's but all of my aircraft and aircraft templates have gone.

[SPINNERS]

Martin-Baker Vortex FB.2 - No.6 Squadron, RAF Middle-East Command, 1949

RAF MB-5.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another DAT classic that I've revisited a few times since it was originally released. For this one I've just added No.6 squadron 'JV' codes and their iconic 'Flying Canopener' motif. It runs rings around the stock 'enemy' aircraft (Spitfire Mk.9's).

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19SK "Farmer-N" - 3 Escuadrilla de Caza y Ataque, Comando de la Aviación Naval, 1970

COAN MiG-19SK FARMER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COAN MiG-19SK FARMER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COAN MiG-19SK FARMER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COAN MiG-19SK FARMER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COAN MiG-19SK FARMER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is another cracker by 'Cocas' with a really nice Soviet Navy skin by 'Nyghtfall' (one of six he did for it actually) and I've placed it in service with the Argentine Navy. I did look at a possible backstory and went to the wiki page on Argentine relations with the Soviet Union and whilst there are entries for 1946 and 2010 there's nothing inbetween! What I did learn was that there are 170,000 people of Russian descent living in Argentina. Who knew? Anyway, back to the MiG-19SK - I'm sure you'll agree that the front end would pass for a Supermarine design so I'll take a look at doing a Fleet Air Arm bird at some point in the future.

Additional Note From Weaver

Just worth noting that this is based on a model by our very own Dizzyfugu, used with full permission and credit by the Combat Ace guys:

https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91076-caf-team-mig-19sk/

[SPINNERS]

TSR Tuesdays (Two's days) 

I've been looking through some of the new stuff released during my 27-month absence from SF2 and there was a veritable TSR.2 anthology released by 'sundowner'. There's 13 different versions and with an average of 4 camo schemes in each version I plan to show one per week on a Tuesday evening for the rest of the year. I've chosen a Tuesday as this my admin' day for my other hobby/sport (cycling) and I can just use these ready-made what-if's and just take some screenshots.

Look out for the first one this evening!

[SPINNERS]

Boeing F-112J Thunderstrike - VMFA-232, United States Marine Corps, 1972

USMC TSR2.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC TSR2.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is 'Sundowners' VMFA-232 TSR.2 that popped up on one of my carrier shots upthread and picture 2 really shows off some of the mods he has envisioned for this TSR.2 development which has seen Boeing team-up with BAC to develop and market 'Her Majesty's Needle-Nosed Wonder Bird' although this is mild compared to some of the later developments.

[SPINNERS]

BAC Lightning F.56N - Ala N° 12, Ejército del Aire de España, 1972

EDA LIGHTNING F56.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDA LIGHTNING F56.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDA LIGHTNING F56.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDA LIGHTNING F56.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A bit of a repeat this but at least they are all new screenshots.

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle -  Grupo 1 de Bombardeo, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1961

FAA IL-28 BEAGLE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA IL-28 BEAGLE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle -  Grupo 2 de Bombardeo, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1967

FAA IL-28 BEAGLE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA IL-28 BEAGLE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a couple of new screenshots of my previous Argentinian Beagles.

[SPINNERS]

Republic F-105H Thunderchief - 340th & 341st Fighter-Bomber Squadrons, Hellenic Air Force, 1974

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

HAF F-105H THUNDERCHIEF.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In SF2 the stock Third Wire Thunderchief is superb and comes with NMF and camo skins both having sharkmouth options making four different skins in total.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter FGA.9D - No.33 Squadron, RAF Far East Air Force, 1972

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9D.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Not every version of the game has the Hunter but Third Wire really do it justice with most single-seater versions covered including export versions with such exotic optional extras like extra pylons for Sidewinders and scabbed on AN/ALE-40 Counter Measure Dispenser System 'bumps' near the tailpipe. This Hunter FGA.9D uses a later version of the Third Wire Omani Hunter FGA.73 and I'm pretty sure that the last front-line RAF Hunter squadrons would have liked these toys!

[SPINNERS]

Supermarine Spitfire F.24 - No.303 (Polish) Squadron, RAF 2TAF, 1946

RAF SPITFIRE F24.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF SPITFIRE F24.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I watched the 2018 film 'Hurricane' last night about the famous No.303 Squadron (one of two films about them released last year) and whilst it's not a good film at all it has inspired me to give No.303 Squadron the mighty Spitfire F.Mk.24 to swoop over their newly-liberated homeland in a Luft'46 scenario where Germany had a far slower retreat on the Eastern Front. After taking a few screenshots I thought I'd add yellow leading edges which have worked out OK (I can do them better next time) so I took a few more screenshots with them on. The two Spitfire versions I wish the game had are the XII and the F.Mk.21, especially the former.

[SPINNERS]

Martin-Baker Vortex FB.Mk.II - No.303 Squadron, RAF 2TAF, 1946

RAF MB-5.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB-5.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Before I put away my No.303 Squadron codes I thought I'd try them on the DAT's MB.5 which has this superbly detailed camo scheme. I've called it Vortex because of the contra-prop but also because of the 'V for Victory' thing and I understand that the Spitfire Mk.21 was apparently going to be called Victor before commonsense prevailed.

[SPINNERS]

Saab-Hindustan J29H 'Gada' - No.1 Squadron, Indian Air Force

IAF J29H TUNNAN.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF J29H TUNNAN.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF J29H TUNNAN.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAF J29H TUNNAN.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I haven't forgotten that it's TSR Tuesday but I thought I'd slip these in as I've been updating my previous upload over at Combat Ace. Also, I've tweaked the game with a ridiculously simple edit to give a bit more of a telephoto compression effect to my screenshots - something I did in the past but had forgotten how to do it when I came back after my long break.