Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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One of only two models I've shown here;





Lightning F.6 with 1/48 scale MiG-21 wings and a Foxbat Radome.

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McDonnell Douglas A-4Ö Skyhawk - Fighter Squadron 1, Austrian Air Force, 1982

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AUSTRIA A-4G SKYHAWK.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Way back in the midst of time I remember reading about the Austrian Air Force's Saab 105 'Fighters' and the magazine author questioned whether this jet trainer could even intercept a stray business jet so this 'what if' gives the Austrian's the ex-Royal Australian Navy's A-4G's in 1978. Now these didn't become available until the early 1980's (and went to the Kiwi's) but we won't let that get in the way of a good story!

Anyway, the A-4 Skyhawk is well covered by Third Wire with 9 different variants (A, B, C, E, F, G, H, K and L) with no less than 20 sub-variants and the Aussie A-4G's and Kiwi A-4K's are really well covered. For the Austrian Skyhawk (my first Austrian 'what if') I've used the humpless A-4G as it has outboard AIM-9 pylons built in to the 3D model on which I've used Swedish Rb74's for a touch of colour and to maintain the link with Sweden. The skin uses the overall green seen on the Kiwi A-4K's and I've simply tinted the undersides to grey which actually took some time as I had to mask off 6 skin bitmaps with some trial and error. After that, the decals were a doddle. There's not a lot of info to be found on Fighter Squadron One so I've given them a tiger emblem simply because they have attended various 'Tiger Meets'.

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Sukhoi Su-23 'Flagstone-A' - 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO, Soviet Air Force, 1973

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET Su-23 FLAGSTONE.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another Cocas creation - a delta-winged Phantom! I saw this as a contemporary of the Su-15 Flagon so kitted it out with Anabs and Atolls but it's a pity that those Sparrow recesses are unused. I suppose if the Soviets had copied the Phantom then they could have copied the Sparrow too!

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BAC Lightning FGA.7 - No.38 Group, RAF Air Support Command, 1967-1971

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.14 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A lot of piccies in this set, let me explain.

I love making decals and especially for my RAF What Ifs. For many years now, I've had a template that helps me make 'fuselage bars' decals with the RAF roundel flanked by the squadron colours and the RAF roundel can be substituted with the squadron badge/disc to then make 'nose bars' like those seen on the Hawker Hunter. These decals are fine for 95% of all aircraft and work well on Starfighters, Super Sabres and Thunderchiefs, etc but for the Lightning they don't really work well as they are too long. When I scale them down to fit, the roundel ends up too small and is pushed too far forward. This has now started to bug me! In RAF service (before the tactical markings era) the nose roundel on the Lightning was in exactly the same place just touching the front part of the fuselage ducts. I was making a four-squadron wing of Lightning FGA.7's for No.38 Group and started with the colourful nose markings but OCD kicked in so I've switched to a plain roundel in the correct place. However, it's just not the same without the flash of colour so I'll just have to bite the bullet at some time and make a Lightning specific decal template.

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BAC Lightning FGA.7 - Air Fighting Development Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1966

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.15 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.16 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.18 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF LIGHTNING FGA7.17 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

First time I've done a AFDU/AFDS 'what if' and for the nose markings I've carefully scaled the proportions off a real photo of XM137 but gone a bit more freestyle on the tail fin.

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BAC Lightning F.Mk.54 - Marinefliegergeschwader 1, 1970

The first rumours of an alleged bribery scandal surrounding the purchase of the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter by the West German Government coincided with the ferociously high attrition rate of the Starfighter in Luftwaffe and Marineflieger service. With the end of Lightning production on the near horizon BAC submitted a brochure to the Bonn Government and Marineflieger Officials for a proposed multi-role Lightning based on the F.53 and this proposal was accepted leading to a modest production order for 60 Lightning F.54's which entered service in late 1968 with MFG1 and MFG2 before being retired in 1987.

MFG LIGHTNING F54.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG LIGHTNING F54.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG LIGHTNING F54.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG LIGHTNING F54.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG LIGHTNING F54.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I have shown this one before (back in 2010) but needed to refresh the upload requiring new screenshots so this is a new photoset.

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McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom - Marinefliegergeschwader 2, Bundesmarine, 1977

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

MFG F-4F PHANTOM.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

i can't think why I've taken so long to do this one! You could use the same backstory for the Marineflieger Lightning (bribery scandal and/or crashes) but there would also be economies of scale when combined to the German Air Force purchase (I'll overlook the twin engine fuel burn and the extra crew costs  ). There's a few hours gone into this one starting with making a hybrid template combining the Third Wire F-4F skins cutting out the parts and leaning heavily on the amazingly detailed 'sundowner' templates - just look at those lines and stencils! The colours proved a bit tricky too - even when using the FS and RAL numbers (FS16473 and RAL7012) as the difference when viewed on Google 'images' are just so variable. The font for 'MARINE' and the white outlined code numbers look OK but are very time-consuming to make so I just made a small batch of four code numbers to get it in game!

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English Electric Lightning F.3 - Air Fighting Development Squadron, English Air Force, 1964

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ENGLAND LIGHTNING F3.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I hate that flippin' IFR probe!

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Lockheed F-19A 'Sniper' - VMFT-401, United States Marine Corps, 1985

USMC F-19A SNIPER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USMC F-19A SNIPER.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is a new photoset of a whif I did back at the end of November 2018 when I was temporarily using the first generation of Strike Fighters (SF1). I wanted to release it in SF2 so re-created it using the stock Egyptian two-tone grey wraparound camo for the Marines F-19A and the stock Syrian camo for the Navy F-19A (seen in piccie 6) with both having a false canopy painted on the undersides.

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Gloster Galant FAW.1 - No.92 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1962

During the late summer of 1956 with the English Electric P.1B Lightning programme steadily falling behind schedule, General Alfred Gruenther (the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Air Forces in Europe) expressed his deep concern that it's bases in the UK could not be adequately defended by the "subsonic limeys" so the F-102 Delta Dagger was selected for RAF Fighter Command under the Offshore Procurement Plan with 100 F-102's ordered in November 1956. However with Convair stretched to the max with the F-102, F-106 and B-58 programmes Gloster Aviation were selected to licence build the F-102K as the Gloster Galant FAW.1 with initial deliveries being made to No.19 Squadron and No.92 Squadron at RAF Leconfield in April 1958.

RAF GALANT FAW1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF GALANT FAW1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF GALANT FAW1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF GALANT FAW1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF GALANT FAW1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF GALANT FAW1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This one, including the slightly tweeked backstory, is another one from the archives but does use a different 3D model (payware - from Razbam) and new decals on an ADC Grey skin. I'd liked to have used silver/NMF but there you go. A JASDF version will follow at some time in the future as will a 'close support' version that is mentioned on the F-102 wiki page.

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McDonnell F3H-3G Super Demon - 'Blue Angels' Flight Demonstration Squadron, United States Navy, 1961

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the latest creation by my Portuguese amigo 'cocas' - McDonnell's F3H-3G, although he's called his creation the F-110B 'Sprite' and also done C, D and E models! It's a real mix of Voodoo, Demon and Phantom II and, indeed, photo's of the F3H-3G mock-up turn up in many books on the F-4 Phantom. I've gone for a Blue Angels skin and the underwing lettering took me hours to do and is still not anywhere like what it should be. There's a lot going on there and chapeaux to those who designed and painted it on the real Blue Angels (a wing fence would be a doddle in comparison). I tried using the perspective tool but results were poor and I guess the real solution would be to use the perspective tool on every single letter to preserve the character width and give that constant slope. My method was to make a placement grid (for each wing - left wing shown below) but whilst this looks, superficially, good it lacks the constant slope of the real world version. The final four piccies have extra decoration.

USN F3H-3G SUPER DEMON.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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Bristol Buckley Mk.1 - No. 73 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1938

RAF BUCKLEY.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUCKLEY.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUCKLEY.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUCKLEY.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUCKLEY.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A nice change of pace! This lovely Curtiss Hawk 750 was released by the DAT group of modders and makes a smashing pre-war RAF interceptor and a nice canvas for Gladiator-esque markings!

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Gloster F-73C Meteor - 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, United States Air Force, 1951

USAF F-73C METEOR.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-73C METEOR.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-73C METEOR.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-73C METEOR.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-73C METEOR.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I make no apologies for this repeat!

I'm continuing with my on-going programme of slowly updating the what if's I've uploaded to Combat Ace which can sometimes be as little as adding a screenshot to the listing as they had an unfortunate data loss whilst having a reshuffle many year ago now. Anyway, the Meteor is one of my favourite aircraft of all time and the Third Wire 3D model is a cracker! Only thing is - it flies too well and certainly doesn't "wallow like a sick cow above 30,000 feet when doing anything other than a Rate 1 turn" as one RAF pilot memorably stated.

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Dassault Super Etendard - Belgian Marine Component, 2003

BZ SUPER ETENDARD.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BZ SUPER ETENDARD.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BZ SUPER ETENDARD.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BZ SUPER ETENDARD.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a short photoset for another revised upload.

[SPINNERS]

British Aerospace Condor Mk.50 - 201 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1982

IDF CONDOR.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF CONDOR.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF CONDOR.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Cocas' Condor with a lovely IDF camo scheme by 'Nyghtflyer' and decals by me. Loads of fun!