Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 - 'Yankee Squadron', Spanish Republican Air Force, 1938

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SpRAF HURRICANE 1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Hawker Hurricane is well covered by the Strike Fighters community and especially by 'Raven' who has not only covered all the main variants but also covered a 'what if' radial engined version shown a few pages back and he also made the Hurricane V with a four-bladed propeller that I've shown in SEAC and Irish Air Corps colours. Raven generously includes templates for his Hurricanes and I've used his Hurricane Mk.1 with the two-bladed Watts propeller to make this Republican Hurricane in service with 'Yankee Squadron'. I'm undecided about who paid for the Hurricanes but the Hurricane didn't enter RAF service until December 1937 so a bit more artistic licence than normal is required to see it in Republican service before the end of the SCW.

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Fokker D.XXI - Portuguese Air Force, 1942

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PoAF FOKKER DXXI.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I'm still on the Iberian Peninsula! This is the Fokker D.XXI exported to Portugal and in service with 'XY' Flight at Ota Air Base. I made my own template for the D.XXI and I've based this skin on the Mohawks used by Portugal and it's an amalgam of two colour plates seen in the book 'Portuguese Fighter Colours 1919-1956' where one shows a fin flash but no fuselage roundel whilst another shows a fuselage roundel but no fin flash!

[SPINNERS]

Fokker D.XXI - 1 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1940

BAF FOKKER DXXI.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF FOKKER DXXI.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF FOKKER DXXI.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF FOKKER DXXI.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAF FOKKER DXXI.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I did consider an RAF D.XXI in a Buffaloe or Mohawk stylee but have plumped for a Belgian machine. For a Belgian D.XXI even to create a small squadron of just eight aircraft requires 20 decals and I've deliberately chosen to make 1:3:5 ratio roundels (like RAF Type A) although many profiles and piccies show otherwise. Anyone know what the underwing 'H' is all about? H for Hurricane perhaps?

[SPINNERS]

North American Mustang PR.1A - No. 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit, RAF Coastal Command, 1942

RAF MUSTANG PR1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MUSTANG PR1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MUSTANG PR1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MUSTANG PR1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MUSTANG PR1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MUSTANG PR1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A lovely A-36A Apache was released recently by the DAT and whilst I was playing with it my mind turned to Geoff's request for "an army co-operation Defiant in low altitude recce pink" so as I'm unable to do the Defiant I thought I'd do the A-36A in a sort of 1PRU Spitfire scheme. I suppose any Mustang would have been better than the Apache for a PR bird but I got a bit carried away and used my familiar 'cheat' of cutting the parts out of the original skin and using the generally white specular map with a 35% opacity pink layer and a bit of weathering and exhaust staining. The camera port hole is a pretty unconvincing decal and I've used Type A roundels on the fuselage and upper wings but not positioned like the 1PRU Spitfire PR.1G which just looks plain wrong. Some 'LY' codes and a new taller finflash complete the look.

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Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien - 2nd Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1943

Signed in September 1940 the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan was soon expanded to include Hungary and Romania before the end of the year with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Paran joining during the following Spring. Whilst Paran expected some immediate material support from Germany and Italy, both were fully commited to the North African campaign and Hitler had blocked any non-urgent exports due to his build-up of forces ready to unleash upon the Soviet Union later that year. However, Hitler did still want to play a disruptive role in the Middle-East so he cannily persuaded Japan to supply weapons to Paran to use against Dhimar in the ongoing border disputes centered on the Mazadran Desert.

The first aircraft to reach Paran were 18 Nakajima B5N attack aircraft, 12 Mitsubishi G3M bombers and 30 Kawasaki Ki-45 heavy fighters all arriving during June 1941 and entering service during July and August with Japanese engineering teams working alongside the Parani ground crew. In early skirmishes against the Royal Dhimari Air Force the twin-engined Ki-45's proved to be inferior to the Dhimari Vultee P-66D Vanguard fighters and in February 1942 General Ahmed Wajai, the Commander of the Parani Army Air Force, demanded a superior fighter to allow the Ki-45's to assume a ground-attack role. Whilst General Wajai hoped that Paran would receive the Mitsubishi A6M he was disappointed when told that this would not happen due to high demand by the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service but he was promised the Kawasaki Ki-61 fighter for delivery during 1943 allowing him to plan an all-out attack on the Valley of Kerman.

An initial batch of 20 Ki-61's entered service with the Parani Army Air Force in May 1943 with several experienced Imperial Japanese Army Air Force pilots from the 23rd Chutai serving alongside the Parani pilots until the 2nd Fighter Regiment was declared fully operational in late July 1943. When Paran's senior Commander, Brigadier General Abolqasem Mossadegh, launched Operation Whirlwind in September 1943 the Ki-61's came as an unwelcome shock to the fighter pilots of the Royal Dhimari Air Force as it totally outclassed their P-66D's and Hurricane IIC's. With Paran gaining air superiority over the Valley of Kerman it's land forces pushed onwards towards the industrial oil center at Al'Qatan in an audacious attack on the wider Mazadran oil fields.

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-61 TONY.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I just love tossing these WW2 Japanese aircraft into my Paran v. Dhimar install as 'enemy' targets and I thought I'd come up with a ropey little backstory to explain why!

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Nakajima B5N1 - 6th Attack Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1943

PARAN B5N1 KATE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN B5N1 KATE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN B5N1 KATE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN B5N1 KATE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN B5N1 KATE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN B5N1 KATE.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In my Parani Ki-61 backstory mention was made of Paran's B5N's so I thought I'd better make them! As previously mentioned the official Parani insignia is a Soviet style star but as the Japanese hinomaru is painted onto the skin I've created a new WW2 Parani roundel that I can use to overpaint the hinomaru. Thankfully, the game generates 3 digit arabic serial numbers (in black and white) and for this attack unit I thought I'd create a squadron marking for them consisting of a black jackal silhouette on a sand coloured oval. Simples!

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Tachikawa Ki-36 'Ida' - 4th Attack Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1943

PARAN Ki-36P IDA.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-36P IDA.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-36P IDA.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-36P IDA.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-36P IDA.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I can't say that I'm too familiar with the Ki-36 but it's another WW2 Japanese aircraft to put into my Paran v. Dhimar install and whilst it's meant to be another target I always give these target aircraft a whirl and this one really packs a punch with it's 10 x 30lb bombs - I took out 4 Sherman tanks with 8 bombs before beating a retreat from Dhimari Hurricane IIC's. Lots of fun! BTW the T-34's belong to Paran which rather goes against my earlier Ki-61 backstory so I'll have to see if there's a way to give them Japanese tanks although in the post-war world Paran are firmly on the Soviet side. I've chosen the cute little Jerboa to be the squadron badge for the 4th Attack Regiment and I will try to give Paran more squadron markings after previously creating no less than 13 Dhimari squadrons.

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3M - 1st Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1944

PARAN MiG-3M.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN MiG-3M.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN MiG-3M.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN MiG-3M.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Final Parani 'what if' for a while.

Apart from Raven's excellent radial engined Hurricane there are at least two other 'what if' radial engined conversions of inline types and both are by the DAT group - The Yak-3 and the MiG-3. I think I've previously shown them before but this is the latter in Parani markings on a skin I knocked up this afternoon. It's not brilliant and after putting some effort into getting a pretty decent fabric effect on the control surfaces I just lost a bit of patience with the lines and rivets and bailed out. Well, it's only a target for my desert Hurricanes! The underfuselage radiator was removed with a simple edit. BTW there actually was a one-off radial engined MiG-3 as well as the I-211 prototype high-altitude fighter developed from the MiG-3.

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Martin-Baker Valente FR.II - No.680 Squadron, RAF Mediterranean and Middle East Command, 1947

The first flight of the Martin-Baker MB.5 prototype took place on May 23rd 1944 with Bryan Greensted (chief test pilot for the propeller manufacturer Rotol) at the controls. Greensted would fly the first prototype on several occasions and his view that it was a superb aircraft was echoed by the test pilots of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at RAF Boscombe Down who enthused over its overall performance as it was both a highly maneuverable fighter for dogfighting but also an extremely stable gun platform. With a top speed of over 460 mph at 20,000 feet, an initial climb rate of 3,800 feet per minute, a service ceiling in excess of 40,000 feet and a range of over 1,000 miles the MB.5 was simply too good to ignore and in December 1944, even though victory in Europe was assured, a production order for 300 MB.5's was given to Martin-Baker Aircraft with the intention that the MB.5 would be deployed to the Far East as the RAF's standard fighter-bomber for 'Tiger Force'.

In memory of company co-founder Valentine 'Val' Baker (who had been killed whilst flying the MB.3 prototype in 1942) James Martin of Martin-Baker asked air ministry officials to consider naming the MB.5 'Valentino' but this was not accepted. However, compromise was reached when air ministry officials announced that it was to be called 'Valente'. Development moved smoothly during 1945 but the sudden end of the Pacific War in August 1945 led to the cancellation of many production contracts and the Valente F.Mk.I order was reduced down to just 60 aircraft. With the Meteor and Vampire programmes both proceding well the RAF decided that it no longer needed a fighter or a fighter-bomber and instructed Martin-Baker to reconfigure the Valente for the photo-reconnaissance role specifying the carriage of two K-24 cameras with an oblique camera in the rear fuselage and a vertical camera placed in the mid-fuselage and just in front of the radiator.

Entering RAF service in early 1946 as the Valente PR.II, the aircraft re-equipped No.208 squadron and No.680 squadron in the Middle East both initially flying surveying missions. No.680 Squadron moved to Ein Shemer in September 1946 and was immediately tasked with searching for ships bringing illegal Jewish immigrants from Europe. No.208 squadron moved to Petah Tiqva in December 1946 to also search for illegal shipping but both squadrons carried out anti-terrorist patrols and armed reconniassance missions in support of the 3rd Infantry Brigade from March 1947 onwards. By the end of the year, the UK Government had announced their intention to withdraw from Palestine as soon as possible with the United Nations susequently deciding to partition the country. From that point onwards both squadrons remained in Palestine to cover the final withdrawal of the remaining British forces until the Union Flag was finally lowered in Palestine on May 14th 1948. A few days later the RAF left Palestine forever.

RAF MB5 VALENTE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB5 VALENTE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB5 VALENTE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB5 VALENTE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB5 VALENTE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF MB5 VALENTE.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Always one of my favourites, for this PR MB.5 I made this skin using white with 15% red as the base colour but probably spent more time piddling about with the camera 'porthole' which looked OK (see profile below) but in game looks wrong. The MB.5 is totally awesome and cruises along at 40,000ft. To me, it always seemed too big for a Griffon engine that only just scrapes over 2,000hp and how sad that R2496 couldn't have been preserved.

RAF MB5 VALENTE.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
Profile view to show the colour before game changes (i.e. different terrains have different light, time of day, altitude, etc.) and post-image processing.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed P-38L Lightning - 101 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1956

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF P-38L LIGHTNING.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

An off the peg 'what if' this one and it's the creation of AC_M over at Combat Ace. I've just made a few adjustments with the decals and taken the screenshots.

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Curtiss Tomahawk Mk.IA - No.264 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, September 1940

No.264 squadron of RAF Fighter Command re-formed on October 30th 1939 with the Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I "turret fighter" but did not commence operations until March 1940 when the squadron started convoy patrols over the English Channel. With no forward firing guns the Defiant crews worked out suitable tactics for air-to-air fighting but after some initial successes, the Luftwaffe soon discovered the Defiant's weaknesses and the squadron suffered such heavy losses that at the end of May 1940 the squadron was withdrawn from Southern RAF Pembrey in South Wales.

In early July 1940 the squadron began to re-equip with the Curtis Tomahawk Mk.IA which had just started to enter service. The Tomahawks were from a large Armée de l'Air order for the Hawk 81A-1 export model but the defeat of France meant that the aircraft were diverted to the RAF in late June 1940 and although testing had shown that the Tomahawk did not have the medium to high altitude performance needed for use as a front-line fighter the Air Ministry simply did not have enough Hurricanes and Spitfires to go around all of Fighter Command's day fighter squadrons. After some teething problems with their new fighter the squadron was declared fully operational at the end of July 1940 but were kept in reserve for most of the frantic month of August. Sharing RAF Pembrey with the Spitfires of No.92 squadron the pilots of No.264 squadron were increasingly frustrated that all emergency scrambles in the western sector of 10 Group were tasked to the Spitfires of No.92 squadron.

However all that changed in late August when, following a raid on Berlin by RAF Bomber Command, Hitler gave the go-ahead to a revenge bombing offensive on London and several other British cities. For RAF Fighter Command the break from Luftwaffe attacks on their airfields allowed them to recover somewhat. On August 31st, 1940 No.264 squadron were transferred to 11 Group moving into RAF Stapleford Tawney in Essex. After a few uneventful days they were in action on September 7th when the Luftwaffe launched a massive series of raids on the East End of London involving nearly four hundred bombers and more than six hundred fighters. No.264 squadron shot down two He-111's but were then engaged by Me-109E's losing two Tomahawks but both pilots parachuted safely. On September 15th, in a decisive action that would later be viewed as being the climax of the Battle of Britain, two massive waves of Luftwaffe attacks were repulsed by Fighter Command with 62 Luftwaffe aircraft being shot down for the loss of 28 RAF aircraft. For No.264 squadron it was another two-all draw with two more He-111's being knocked down for the loss of two Tomahawks to Me-109E's. Two days later Hitler postponed his preparations for the invasion of Britain and agreed to a shift from daylight bombing raids to night bombing. Ironically, this would lead to No.264 squadron converting back to their Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I's in November 1940 and eventually receiving the improved Defiant Mk.II model fitted with AI Mk. IV radar and the Merlin XX engine in September 1941.

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF TOMAHAWK 1A.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There's been a flurry of Warhawk and Kittyhawk activity with the DAT Group releasing a P-40B and a P-40E. This is the P-40B originally in a 'Flying Tigers' scheme but I carefully painted over the painted-on markings, tinted the undersides a bit and recoloured the prop spinner. After that it just needed some new No.264 Squadron codes and standard national insignia decals. Tally ho!

[SPINNERS]

Curtiss P-40E Warhawk - No.2 Squadron (Hawks), Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1943

After the Parani Army Air Forces gained total air superiority over the Mazadran Oil Fields and the Valley of Kerman during 'Operation Whirlwind' the Royal Dhimari Air Force were desperate for replacement aircraft to make good the heavy losses to the Hurricane and Vanguard squadrons. Whilst the UK kept promising to send Spitfires the planned delivery date kept rolling further away. By early October 1943 the situation was desperate leading to an impassioned plea by King Husani Al'Galbhi of Dhimar to US President Franklin Roosevelt for fighter aircraft and Roosevelt agreed to the immediate transfer of 50 P-40 Warhawk aircraft from USAAF Twelth Air Force stocks held in Tunisia. Whilst these aircraft were war-weary veterans of Operation Torch and the Desert War they were gratefully received by the Royal Dhimari Air Force who used the aircraft to replace the last two remaining P-66D Vanguard squadrons with No.2 Squadron becoming the first to become fully operational in December 1943.

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMAR P-40E WARHAWK.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DAT's revamped P-40E Warhawk comes with AVG and USAAF skins and this is the 1942 desert skin with overpainted insignia and a tricolour rudder. I'm inflicting RAF style squadron codes on my WW2 Dhimari aircraft although it doesn't take an Alan Turing to work out the codes and forsee problems ahead as I'm already on 13 Dhimari squadrons!

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Curtiss P-40F Warhawk - No.1 Squadron (The Panthers), Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1944

DHIMAR P-40F WARHAWK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Slightly different as it's the P-40F (Merlin, yay!) with a proper Desert camo and I've made the tricolour cover the whole of the rudder. I don't like the 'D1' code at all as the standard RAF WW2 font shows a '1' as a straight line which would lead to groundcrew sniggers on DlC, DlE, DlK, DlM, etc. so I custom made the '1' but I really don't like it (and it doesn't solve the issue of there being at least 13 Dhimari squadrons).

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Blackburn Firebrand FB.6 - No.135 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1945

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

From the Firebrand Wiki Page - In test pilot and naval aviator Captain Eric Brown's opinion the aircraft was "short of performance, sadly lacking in manoeuvrability, especially in rate of roll". The position of the cockpit even with the trailing edge of the wing gave the pilot a very poor view over the nose, inhibited his ability to view his target and to land his aircraft aboard a carrier, sufficient for Brown to call it "a disaster as a deck-landing aircraft"...

So inflict it on the RAF!!

This is the DAT's Blackburn Firebrand, an aircraft I first encountered in a late 1970's Air International (IIRC they also did an article on the Firecrest). Whilst it may have been a bit of a turkey I've always liked it although I'm amazed that there was six variants as well as the prototype. Anyway, I overpainted the insignia on this RN Camo and added SEAC markings and No.135 Squadron codes (a SEAC Thunderbolt user). Perhaps it could have been used in Operation Firedog too.

[SPINNERS]

Blackburn Firebrand FB.6 - No.45 Squadron, RAF Far East Air Force, 1949

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF FIREBRAND FB3.13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another overpainted skin with a recoloured spinner and No.45 Squadron markings although I'd hate to think that me giving them the Firebrand meant that they didn't get the beautiful de Havilland Hornet. As always, the stock Vietnam terrain is used for anywhere out east.