Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 'Fishstick-A' - Czechoslovakian Air Force, 1968

CZECH YE-8 FISHSTICK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

CZECH YE-8 FISHSTICK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

One of the new release highlights of my little break from 'Strike Fighters' was this smashing little Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-8 (by 'Logan4') which was intended as a MiG-21 replacement but proved to be a development dead end after some technical difficulties including a Mach 2 engine explosion from which the test pilot miraculously survived. 'Logan4' has created two versions (Ye-8 and Ye-8M) and three skins so I'll get around to showing a few more piccies over the next few days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_Ye-8

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23A 'Fishstick-A' - Luftstreitkräfte, 1980

LSK YE-8 FISHSTICK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LSK YE-8 FISHSTICK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LSK YE-8 FISHSTICK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LSK YE-8 FISHSTICK.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

No input from me on these apart from taking the screenshots spread over two missions which explains the different weapon loadouts!

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23A 'Fishstick-A' - 968th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Air Force, 1976

SOVIET YE-8 FISHSTICK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET YE-8 FISHSTICK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET YE-8 FISHSTICK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Final 'Fishstick' for now (but I will come to it in the near future) and this one uses the stock silver skin with generic Soviet markings.

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Dassault-Breguet Étendard FRS.1 - 806 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1968

RN ETENDARD FRS1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.02 by
Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN ETENDARD FRS1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Hot off the press is this Étendard IVM and I've tinted one of the Aeronavale skins to make it look more like the classic post-war Royal Navy scheme and added some 806NAS markings.

[SPINNERS]

BAC Barracuda FRS.1 - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1982

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN BARRACUDA FRS1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A new Super Étendard was released alongside the Étendard IVM shown a couple of days ago - both by the DAT group of modders. There's some excellent skins in both downloads and this one didn't even need tinting to join the senior service, just some decals. Hope the second piccie isn't too jingoistic 

[SPINNERS]

North American F-86H Sabre - No.2 Squadron, Belgian Air Force, 1961

BAF F-86H SABRE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF F-86H SABRE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF F-86H SABRE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF F-86H SABRE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF F-86H SABRE.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A sweet F-86H was released recently, again by the DAT group of modders, and this excellent late service camo scheme by 'pappychksix' seemed right for Belgian service although it does massively pre-date the SEA camo seen on their Mirage 5BA's. The game includes Belgian Hunter F.6's so I've used the stock serial numbers from those.

[SPINNERS]

North American F-86H Sabre - No.14 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1966

RNZAF F-86H SABRE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNZAF F-86H SABRE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNZAF F-86H SABRE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNZAF F-86H SABRE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNZAF F-86H SABRE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I'm loving the new F-86H's and just tweaked the skin by pasting the metal gun panel from one of the silver F-86H's onto the camo skin. No.14 Squadron, RNZAF is definitely my 'go to' squadron for Kiwi what if's.

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 'Fagot-A' - No. 921 Fighter Regiment, Vietnamese People's Air Force, 1957

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Only a partial 'what if' as apparently a few MiG-15's (single-seat and twin-seat trainers) did find their way to the Vietnamese People's Air Force but No. 921 Fighter Regiment actually introduced the MiG-17 into VPAF service. This is the stock MiG-15 skin and game generated decals.

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 'Fagot-A' - No. 921 Fighter Regiment, Vietnamese People's Air Force, 1958

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF MiG-15 FAGOT-A.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr



There's been a flurry of activity on the early swept-wing MiG jets (i.e. the 15 & 17) over at Combat Ace with new skins by 'paulopanz' including this Chinese camo scheme which makes a great VPAF camo especially with Dizzy's early VPAF star. I've knocked up some 3-digit 'stencil' serial numbers in the same yellow and I think that overall this all works very well.

[SPINNERS]

Israel Aircraft Industries 'Yeger' - Hunter Aggressor Flight, Israeli Air Force, 1982

In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War the Israeli Air Force examined it's aircraft losses (officially 102 aircraft but considered by many to have been higher) and in very much the same way as the USAF and USN had done they decided to embark upon an improved air combat training programme. In early 1974 four unmarked Hawker Hunter fighters in standard RAF camo arrived at Be'er Sheva Airfield where the Israeli Air Force had constructed a small temporary hangar adjacent to the Israel Aircraft Industries facility at Be'er Sheva. Whilst the UK Government consistently denied the supply of the four Hunter aircraft it would later be revealed that the aircraft were drawn from the Hunter wing at RAF Wittering and flown by civilian contractor pilots normally attached to BAC. The Hunter aircraft were refurbished to emerge as the IAI 'Yeger' (Hunter) and equipped the Hunter Aggressor Flight based at the nearby Hatzerim Airbase providing dissimilar air combat training for the Israeli Air Force. In 1976 the Hunter Aggressor Flight was boosted by the arrival of two ex-Kuwaiti Hunter FGA.57's and operated the type until 1991 when the unit disbanded.

IDF HUNTER 82.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I did look at some of the new MiG-17 and MiG-19 camo schemes with a view to creating an IDF aggressor but settled on the Hunter - using one of the three Omani Air Force skins that come with the Hunter FGA.73 and creating a new lo-viz roundel, a new aggressor patch and some stencil serial numbers.

[SPINNERS]

Israel Aircraft Industries 'Yeger' - Hunter Aggressor Flight, Israeli Air Force, 1979

IDF HUNTER 82.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF HUNTER 82.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the second camo scheme that comes with the stock Omani Hunter Mk.73 (1982) and I've gone for standard IDF roundels with my new aggressor patch on the fin.

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Hawker Hunter F.6B - No.74 (Reserve) Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1979

RAF HUNTER F6B.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER F6B.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER F6B.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Whilst the Hawker Hunter is really well covered in 'Strike Fighters' (Third Wire have 18 versions in total - ranging from the F.Mk.1 to the FGA.73) I couldn't quite get what I wanted with this one as I really wanted an F.6 with the 230-gallon inboard drop tanks but without the brake chute and with outboard missile pylons. The Dutch F.6 is the closest match but has the smaller tanks.

[SPINNERS]

Helwan Ha-2000 'Khopesh' - 76th Squadron, 222nd Tactical Fighter Brigade, Egyptian Air Force, 2002

The abandonment of the Helwan HA-300 single-seat jet fighter in 1969 seemed to have brought an end any hope of Egypt fielding an indigenous combat aircraft but in the aftermath of the short 1977 Libyan-Egyptian War the Egyptian Air Force issued a requirement for a single-seat multi-role fighter to replace the Su-7's and MiG-21's and also supplement the newly introduced MiG-23's. The Camp David Accords of 1978 saw a sudden lurch in Egyptian foreign policy towards the West and away from Egypt's Arab backers including Saudi Arabia who abruptly cancelled it's previous agreement to purchase a batch of 50 Northrop F-5E's and transfer them to Egypt. Whilst the US State Department had agreed to supply Egypt with 35 ex-USAF F-4E Phantom's (under the project name of Peace Pharaoh) Egypt's President Anwar Sadat was anxious not to become totally reliant upon one political block and authorised several project studies for indigenous weapons for the Egyptian Armed Forces including a new main battle tank and a new single-seat multi-role fighter.

The German engineers who had assisted the Egyptian General Aero Organisation in the design and production of the Helwan HA-300 had gone back to Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) in Ottobrun in 1969 and had continued to work on various project studies including the TKF-90 single-seat delta wing twin-jet fighter aircraft being developed for the Luftwaffe. However, this could be seen as being slightly too big and also too expensive for Egypt's requirements so MBB assembled a new project design team led by Günter Ludwig Bölkow tasked with designing a small multi-role lightweight fighter for the Egyptian Air Force with a planned in-service date of 1990. Bölkow's team produced the innovative ECA90 (Egyptian Combat Aircraft for 1990) a small, single-engined design with a delta-wing having 50 degrees of sweepback at the wing root leading edge but with 63 degrees of sweepback on the outer wing leading edge providing better high-alpha performance characteristics than conventional wing designs. MBB needed to look no further than the excellent Turbo-Union RB199 afterburning turbofan that was ideally sized for the ECA90 and had been running since 1972 under the test Vulcan bomber and had accummulated plenty of flight hours in the Panavia Tornado test programme. By early 1981 the ECA90 design had met with the approval of the Egyptian Air Force and at the insistence of President Anwar Sedat the design was re-designated as the Helwan HA-2000 'Khopesh' with orders placed with the Helwan Aircraft Factory (a division of the Egyptian General Aero Organisation) for 90 aircraft.

The assassination of President Anwar Sedat in October 1981 might have created a hiatus in the HA-2000 programme but incoming President Hosni Mubarak was previously a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force (indeed, a former air chief marshal) and was a keen supporter of the HA-2000 programme. Whilst Mubarak's support for the programme was solid he did allow for a slight stretching out of the programme calling for a first flight in March 1987 and a service entry date of April 1992. Mubarak considered that this would give the Helwan Aircraft Factory sufficient time to better marshal it's industrial resources, recruit personnel, create infrastructure and understand which advanced technologies could be developed locally and which advanced technologies would need to be imported. Undoubtedly, the MBB team imbedded into Helwan's Factory 36 facility helped smooth out any difficulties and Helwan and MBB worked miracles to meet the prototype first flight deadline but some slippage crept in to the flight test programme to delay the entry into service. The HA-2000 'Khopesh' entered service with the 76th Squadron of the 222nd Tactical Fighter Brigade based at Cairo-West Air Base in May 1993 and eventually equipped six tactical fighter brigades and also the 'Silver Stars' aerobatic team who performed a flypast at the funeral service of former President Hosni Mubarak in late February 2020.

EAF HA-2000 KHOPESH.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EAF HA-2000 KHOPESH.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EAF HA-2000 KHOPESH.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EAF HA-2000 KHOPESH.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EAF HA-2000 KHOPESH.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the Indian HAL Tejas by 'BANIDOS' an Argentinian group of modders who do great work for 'Strike Fighters'. It's a bit of a beta that never really got finished after being released in 2015. I first used it just after it came out to create an indigenous Argentinian fighter (page 110) and today it struck me that it resembles the Helwan Ha-300 but without the horizontal tail surfaces. Anyway a few stock Egyptian decals and I think it looks quite smart!

[SPINNERS]

Northrop Talon T.2 - No.79 Squadron, No.1 Tactical Weapons Unit, RAF Support Command, 1978

RAF TALON T2.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TALON T2.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TALON T2.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TALON T2.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TALON T2.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TALON T2.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A really nice NF-5B was released recently with a veritable anthology of Dutch skins by 'soulfreak'. I've overpainted the RNLAF markings and added some No.79 Squadron markings whose Hunters made regular overflights over the area I grew up in as an aviation mad teenager. I've been up to my eyes with admin for my sport (cycling) and this will continue for at least another week so bear with me.

[SPINNERS]

Vickers Vedette Mk.I - No. 77 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1937

RAF VEDETTE B1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VEDETTE B1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VEDETTE B1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VEDETTE B1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VEDETTE B1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VEDETTE B1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Hope you are all well and keeping safe!

Despite being in 'lockdown' for nearly two weeks now I've not really been in the mood for adding new content. I got laid off from my part-time job two weeks ago to the day (so it's back to being retired instead of semi-retired  ) and I've been really getting stuck into updating my family tree on Ancestry and taking my one bit of exercise per day with some nice bike rides.

Anyway, I was asked to do some Marineflieger Tonka loading screens for a friend over at Combat Ace and it came as a welcome re-introduction to Strike Fighters and a chance for a bit of a catch-up. So, hopefully getting back into my stride, this is a lovely model of the Curtiss A-12 Shrike by 'Geezer' that was released by the DAT group of modders and I've done a quick NIVO green skin that really needs new panel lines but the markings make it look quite passable.