Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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BAC Strikemaster FGA.1 - No.208 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1966

In the so-called 'Aden Protectorate' (today part of Yemen) during the early 1960's various disparate anti-British guerrilla groups slowly formed into two larger organisations consisting of the Egyptian-supported National Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen. Attacks against the British began at a relatively low level but suddenly escalated on December 14th, 1963 with a National Liberation Front grenade attack at Khormaksar Airport that killed two people and injured another fifty including the British High Commissioner. Later on the same day a state of emergency was declared in Aden. Attacks against British forces by the National Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen continued and relied mainly on grenade attacks on off-duty British officers and policemen. In 1964 the British 24th Infantry Brigade arrived to conduct land operations against the rebels and the RAF station at Khormaksar was quickly expanded, eventually operating nine squadrons including the Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers of No.208 Squadron who had been previously based at RAF Muharraq in Bahrain.

Air strikes by fighter-bombers against the mobile guerilla forces were often ineffective and Army commanders considered that with complete air superiority then perhaps a slower aircraft with an observer assisting the pilot in identifying targets might be a more accurate combination in supporting British ground forces. BAC had already proposed an armed version of the Jet Provost to the RAF for weapons training without success but tried again towards the end of 1964 and were rewarded with a production contract for 50 armed Jet Provost trainers in January 1965. With the Jet Provost T.5 still on the BAC production line and BAC already developing the private venture BAC 167 Strikemaster for export customers then the new aircraft was developed very quickly. Essentially an armed version of the Jet Provost T.5, the Strikemaster FGA.1 featured an uprated Rolls-Royce Viper turbojet engine, four underwing hardpoints, two machine guns under the intakes and new communication and navigation gear.

Entering service in February 1966 with No.208 squadron at RAF Khormaksar the Strikemaster force was expanded when No.8 Squadron re-equipped with the type in April 1966. Both units flew armed reconnaissance sorties in the Radfan and Dhala areas a difficult task as the rugged terrain aided concealment and camouflage. The Hunter FR.10's of No. 1417 Flight and the Shackleton MR.3's of No.37 Squadron helped with pre-strike and post-strike photographs and during the Autumn of 1966 the rebel forces in the Radfan area increasingly used caves to store arms and ammunition. These difficult targets were successfuly attacked by both the Strikemaster ground-attack squadrons often under FAC control. However, repeated guerrilla attacks against British forces by the National Liberation Front continued (and subsequently increased after the 1967 Six-Day war) causing the British to leave Aden by the end of November 1967. Following the British departure, the National Liberation Front managed to seize power and establish the People's Republic of South Yemen. The Radfan Strikefighter wing returned to the UK to form a new Tactical Weapons Unit at RAF Brawdy operating the type until 1991.

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF STRIKEFIGHTER FGA1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There's been a little flurry of Jet Provost and Strikemaster activity over at Combat Ace with revised 3D models adapted from the FSX version and skin packs. For this RAF Strikemaster I've married together two different skins (a desert camo skin and a plain grey skin that I lightened by 30%) to give a desert camo with light grey undersides and then added some No.208 Squadron markings with stock Lightning serial numbers that roughly belong to the mid-60's. The JP is a lovely looking aeroplane and I had no idea that so many are now in private ownership.

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BAC Strikemaster Mk.85 - No.1025 Squadron, Royal Libyan Air Force, 1968

LIBYA STRIKEMASTER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA STRIKEMASTER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA STRIKEMASTER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA STRIKEMASTER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA STRIKEMASTER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Incredibly, this is my first ever Libyan 'what if' in the 12 years of this threads existence... but it certainly won't be the last! I'll definitely get a Lightning and a Hunter done during the coming week and then there is the Canberra and Buccaneer to consider. Anyway, I've used an Omani medium sea grey skin that was lightened and tweaked a bit to look more like NMF and added my new Royal Libyan Air Force markings with a speculative squadron badge adapted from the LIbyan Air Force emblem with generic arabic serial numbers. Info on Libyan squadrons is sketchy so I've used No.1025 Squadron a real world MiG-25 unit.

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BAC Lightning F.57 - No.1040 Squadron, Libyan Arab Republic Air Force, 1978

LIBYA LIGHTNING F57.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA LIGHTNING F57.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA LIGHTNING F57.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA LIGHTNING F57.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Lightning F.53 is an absolute beauty and I've previously used it to create multi-role Lightnings for the RAF, Spain, Marineflieger and Egypt and possibly others. Anyway, this is the stock silver skin with the easiest of roundel decals to make! The four-digit serials have all been seen on Libyan MiG-25's.

BTW the loadout is quite rubbish and really I should have ditched the tanks and the Red Tops and included the Microcell rocket pack.

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BAC Canberra B.65 - No.1124 Squadron, Libyan Arab Republic Air Force, 1970

LIBYA CANBERRA B65.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA CANBERRA B65.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA CANBERRA B65.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA CANBERRA B65.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LIBYA CANBERRA B65.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Whilst the game/sim has the Canberra B.2 and B.6 we're lucky in having two superb B(I).8's and I cannot actually remember which one this is but it's a beauty and the lovely Peruvian skin just needed a bit of overpainting to allow me to use the Libyan markings used in the early Gaddafi era (1969-1977) and I've created a fictitous 'Fennec Fox' squadron badge for the real world No.1124 Squadron.

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McDonnell Douglas F-4G Phantom - No.69 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1982

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-4G PHANTOM.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AKA Kickin' Kurnass!

The Phantom/Kurnass is well covered by Third Wire with the exception of the Recce Rhino's, the F-4S and the F-4G. Thankfully, all these gaps are covered by The Mirage Factory group of modders and this what-if combines their F-4G with a Kurnass skin by 'sundowner' with a couple of tweeks by me to cater for the fincap and undernose AN/APR-47 electronic warfare equipment.

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BAC Lightning F.Mk.51 - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967

IDF LIGHTNING F51.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF LIGHTNING F51.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

For an Israeli Lightning then the multi-role F.Mk.53 makes much more sense but I can do that one at another time! Anyway, this early israeli Lightning uses the F.Mk.2 with the stock silver skin and I've added the fin 'arrowhead' (or whatever it's supposed to be) directly onto the skin bitmap and also onto the specular map which ensures that it isn't as shiny as the NMF. After that I just added decals using stock Shahak (Mirage IIIC) serial numbers. The game/sim has the Shafrir 2 missile but it didn't actually see service until 1971.

LightningF51_Loading by Spinners1961, on Flickr
(Crikey! My first upload to Combat Ace for 13 months!)

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Westland Whirlwind Mk.2D - No.6 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1943

RAF WHIRLWIND FB2D.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WHIRLWIND FB2D.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WHIRLWIND FB2D.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WHIRLWIND FB2D.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF WHIRLWIND FB2D.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A golden oldie from February 2009 and one of the very first skins I ever made. This was for Veltro2K's Whirlwind and it's still a blast to fly!

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Nakajima Ki-117 'Pike' - Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, 1946











This is the Tempest II by the DAT group of modders masquerading as the Nakajima Ki-117 (Allied Code Name: 'Pike'). I took the grey specular bitmaps, masked off the undersurfaces and added a blurry green leafy layer to look like those sprayed on camo schemes seen on WW2 Japanese aircraft. A red spinner, yellow wing leading edges and some fictional IJAAF markings finish it off. I have absolutely no clue on IJAAF squadron/wing/air army structures so haven't named the squadron and the '4' within an arrow on the fin is a marking straight out of my own head! I love the Hawker Tempest but much prefer the 'chinny' versions.

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Northrop Talon FRS.1 - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1978

RN TALON FRS1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN TALON FRS1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN TALON FRS1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN TALON FRS1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RN TALON FRS1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A 'what if' Bundesmarine F-5GN was released recently by 'Gepard' a German modder who has added a proper tailhook to the F-5E 3D model and also created two smart-looking Bundesmarine skins for it. One skin is blue with grey undersurfaces and the other is an overall grey colour (see piccie below). Anyway, I've adapted the former skin into something that resembles an early (pre-Falklands) Sea Harrier scheme and added my favourite 899NAS markings.

SeaTiger by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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McDonnell Douglas Condor F.1 - No.5 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1984

RAF CONDOR F1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've been given a new toy to play with! Apparently, this was a McDonnell Douglas study into a single-engine delta wing F-15. It's a lovely 3D model by 'Cocas' who has christened it Condor F.1 and he envisionages it as a Lightning replacement for the RAF. Cocas has generously given me a basic template so I've done a nice simple skin to start with and used some No.5 Squadron markings and serial numbers from (ironically) an RAF Eagle I did a while back and a No.11 Squadron version will follow. I can see F-15, F-16, Vigilante (intakes) and Sukhoi Su-15 (fin) in this shape!

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Condor F.1 - No.11 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1984

RAF CONDOR F1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CONDOR F1.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Binbrook FTW!

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RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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BAC Thunderbolt F.1A - No.74 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Cocas has named his delta-winged Lightning 'Thunderbolt' and I thought No.74 Squadron should introduce it into RAF service first. The skin is by 'Wrench' over at Combat Ace to which I've added the anti-glare panel and the Lightning's distinctive fin tip. As you'd expect, it goes like 5hit off a shiny shovel!

[SPINNERS]

BAC Thunderbolt F.1A - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.14 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF THUNDERBOLT F1A.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Shades of the original 1/72 scale Airfix Lightning F.1A!