Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Here is the original CAC CA-15 (in RAN colours!) with the planned Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine.



I like both!

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CAC CA-15N Kangaroo - No.808 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Australian Navy, 1951









Not much input from me on this 'what if' from the DAT site. It's quite an elderly model that's quite tricky to fly in SF2 but it looks good with Korean War era RAN markings and, yes, it is taking off from HMAS Sydney - a very good wiki read!!

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Republic Thunderbolt FB.3 - No.33 Squadron, RAF Far East Air Force, 1949

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It's prop's all the way for me at the moment with some excellent Spitfire and Hurricane activity recently over at the DAT site. However, this P-47N took my fancy and I thought I'd dress it up in a scheme similar to No.33 Squadron's Tempest II's in the early days of Operation Firedog.

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FMA I.Ae.29 'Avoceta' - Grupo 2 de Caza-Bombardero, Fuerza Aerea Argentina, 1952







Well done if you spotted this as being the Gloster CXP-1001! I was torn between making it a Gloster export (perhaps when the Republic of China pulled out of the CXP-1001 project) or making it an indigenous Argentinian fighter. Or, perhaps, it could have been a licence-built CXP-1001?

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Polikarpov I-189 'Groza' - Fighter Aviation Regiment, Soviet Air Force, 1946













Ever since seeing the MB.5 in an 'Air International' about four decades ago I've loved the look of it! This was quite a simple skin to create but it's actually unfinished as the undercarriage doors are green from when I made a RDAF version a while back. For sheer speed I've used stock insignia and stock Soviet white numbers but I'll have to get some numbers with a bit more of a Cyrillic look to them. Due to work and other RL stuff there'll be no updates for at least two weeks.

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Polikarpov I-189 'Groza' - "Normandie-Niemen" 303 Air Fighter Division, Soviet Air Force, 1946















A quick attempt at a "Normandie-Niemen" I-189 (M.B.5!!) based on a profile view of a Yak-3. They had a variety of markings but whilst the fuselage lightning flash is usually seen the French flag colours on the  rudder seem less common and I couldn't quite get it right.

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-2?PFM "Faceplate-D" - Mongolian Air Force, 1971











This is the Ye-2 Faceplate - a 3D model done a few years ago by my old mate 'Cocas' from Portugal with a simple silver skin I knocked up today from a template by our mutual friend 'Coupi' from France - Jeux sans frontières! The 3D model shows a developed production machine and not the Ye-2 swept-wing prototype and I like the GSh-23 cannon in an underbelly pod - just like the MiG-21PFM.

I'll let you decide if this took the MiG-21 designation or ran alongside the MiG-21 as an alternative MiG-23.

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Top: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23PFM "Faceplate-D" - Mongolian Air Force, 1972

Bottom: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23PFM "Faceplate-D" - Egyptian Air Force, 1967

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Bristol Beagle Mk.II - No.29 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1938

After a poor start the Bristol F.2 'Brisfit' reconnaissance-fighter was successfully developed into the robust and manoeuvrable F.2B two-seat fighter - an aircraft capable of holding its own against most single-seat fighters during the latter part of WW1. In the immediate post-war period the aircraft was further developed into the F.2B Mk.II equipped with desert equipment and a tropical cooling system for army co-operation and air policing duties. During the 1920's Bristol developed and introduced numerous variants and derivatives of the aircraft with revised tail units and strengthened undercarriages. Even after production finished in 1927, Bristol enjoyed several years of manufacturing spares and refurbishing the aircraft for continued service into the 1930's.

In late 1927, as a private venture, the board of the Bristol Aeroplane Company asked their chief designer Frank Barnwell to design and develop a multi-role successor to the F.2B for the decade ahead - naturally stipulating that the new aircraft should use an 'in house' Bristol engine. Barnwell was aware that Roy Fedden was working on the nine-cylinder Pegasus radial engine as a follow-on to the successful Jupiter engine but using a shorter stroke to increase the revolutions per minute and including a supercharger for added power. On the expected power output of the Pegasus engine (635h.p.) Barnwell schemed a much larger aircraft than the F.2B with a near doubling of the all-up weight to 5,600lb making the new aircraft suitable for a variety of roles such as light bomber, reconnaissance-fighter, army co-operation and night fighter.

Designated as the Bristol Type 119, Frank Barnwell designed a single-bay biplane with staggered wings braced by wires in the centre section only. The fabric-covered fuselage was of metal construction using members built up from rolled high-tensile steel strips riveted together and essentially similar to the earlier Bristol Bulldog single-seat fighter. The Pegasus engine installation was neatly cowled with a Townend ring. Under the fuselage the strong undercarriage was divided and attached to the fuselage with streamlined legs and struts. The pilot's cockpit was positioned below a shallow cutout in the trailing edge of the upper wing with the observer's cockpit positioned behind the pilot and featuring a twin Lewis Gun installation mounted on a Scarff ring. Bombs could be carried on three external hardpoints under the fuselage and the lower wings carried a pair of podded .303 Browning machine guns that were belt-fed with 400 rounds per gun.

Development moved swiftly and the first prototype took to the air at Filton on January 18th, 1931 piloted by Cyril Uwins. Bristol's bold private venture investment soon paid off with almost immediate Air Ministry interest in the Type 119 during the Spring of 1931 soon followed by an order for 90 Type 119 aircraft to the specially created Air Ministry Specification G.3/31 calling for a two-seat general-purpose light bomber. These were manufactured as the Bristol Beagle Mk.I and entered service with No.35 Squadron at Bircham Newton in April 1933. As an almost parallel programme, Bristol were awarded a contract for 60 aircraft to the new Air Ministry Specification F.6/31 calling for a two-seat general purpose fighter and these were manufactured as the Bristol Beagle Mk.II differing only in the deletion of the three external hardpoints. Entering service with No.29 Squadron in June 1933 the Beagle Mk.II's also served with No.64 Squadron as Home Defence night-fighters and were still in service at the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1938.















Can you guess the aircraft masquerading as the Bristol Beagle Mk.II?

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Very impressed guys!



I've added some more red XXX's in front of the roundel (I couldn't work out how to do it earlier). It's a superb 3D model by 'Monty CZ' and it handles very sweetly indeed.

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Supermarine Spitfire Vb - Ilmavoimat, 1948













This lovely 'what if' Finnish Spitfire skin was released recently and it's an absolute cracker. No input from me except for taking the screenshots.

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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1 - Groupe de Chasse II/5 'La Fayette'

When the first Spitfire prototype took to the air in March 1936 it made the majority of contemporary interceptor fighters obsolete overnight and its performance and potential represented such a leap forward that rival nations would need to invest huge sums to design and develop similar aircraft. Even though France, with its large and diverse aircraft industry, realised that their fighter aircraft were not as advanced as this new benchmark so it came as no surprise that the French Air Ministry wanted to purchase Spitfires. However, by November 1938 there were no less than thirteen countries on the Supermarine order book for Spitfires and whilst the Foreign Office had placed France at the top of the priority list the initial French order for just three aircraft was so pathetically small that Supermarine publicly made it a lower priority to the Belgian request for 15 aircraft and a licence to build at least a further 30 aircraft.

Baron Amaury de La Grange, the vice-president of the French Air Commission, was a personal friend of US President Roosevelt and La Grange managed to convey to Roosevelt the urgency of France's position and asked for military help. With war clouds brewing in Europe, Roosevelt was forthcoming and instructed the US War Department to sell the most modern American airplanes to France and also persuaded Neville Chamberlain (the UK Prime Minister) to place France back at the top of the priority list - a request to which Chamberlain agreed but only providing that the French order was increased to 50 aircraft. Initial deliveries were made to the Armée de l'Air in June 1939 with Groupe de Chasse II/5 'La Fayette' based at Toul-Croix-de-Metz becoming the first operational French Spitfire squadron later in the following month. The aircraft of this famous squadron were painted with the same 'Chief Sitting Bull' insignia used by the American volunteers of the 'Lafayette Escadrille' during the First World War before the entry of their country into the conflict. Only sixteen aircraft had been delivered at the outbreak of war in September 1939 and whilst deliveries continued for a short while no other Armée de l'Air squadrons were formed and the UK Government requisitioned the final nineteen aircraft before they were delivered.

















Once again, there has been a lot of Spitfire activity with lots of the early Spitfires (I, II and V) covered across 18 variants (mainly wing shape, wing armament type and filter type). This is the French Mk.I as delivered in RAF camo and I've just added the 'Chief Sitting Bull' markings and some ropey French numbers (I don't know the real font). These would look even better in the three-tone upper camo but they'll do for now.

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Hawker Hurricane Mk.Ia - Groupe de Chasse II/7, Armée de l'Air, 1940











There has been loads of Spitfire, Seafire and Hurricane activity recently and I just can't get enough of it as I'm really enjoying the WW2 era at the moment. When I did my 'Lafayette' Spitfire a few days back I knew that adding rudder serial numbers (in that unique French way) would improve it so I made loads of them (50!!) and added a new squadron also - GCII/7 (piccies below). I thought I'd use the same Panther and black circle numbers marking on a French Hurricane and this is the result. Unfortunately, there is a slight tear in the rudder on the port side that distorts the serial number decal so I've had to snap them from the starboard side.





Top: Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia - Groupe de Chasse II/7, Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Sud, April 1940

Bottom: Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia - Groupe de Chasse II/5, Zone d'Opérations Aériennes Est, May 1940

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Some gratuitous action shots using a different 3D model;

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Paran's attack on Dhimar's Najahafi oilfields, 1940

The Battle of France that began on May 10th, 1940 gave Shah Mushani of Paran the perfect opportunity to invade the Kingdom of Dhimar without interference from France and the United Kingdom who were now massively distracted by the war on the western front. Despite this distraction, Shah Mushani waited until the Italian invasion of France on June 10th to launch an all-out attack on Dhimar led by his trusted General Halani Khomar.

Supported by the Parani Army Air Force, Khomar's 1st and 2nd Armoured Divisions swept north and west reaching Najahafi on June 14th. Flying from the P2 forward airfield the Parani Army Air Force's Mitsubishi Ki-15P monoplane scout bombers were particularly effective, being considerably faster than the Dhimari Gloster Gladiator fighters and able to deliver their relatively light 250kg bomb load with great accuracy. It was only the introduction of ex-RAF Hawker Hurricane Mk.I's in Dhimari service in October 1940 that saw the Parani Ki-15P's require fighter escort.











I've had a lot of fun with the whole Dhimar v. Paran thing over the past year or so and I especially like putting WW2 'axis' aircraft in service with Paran. This is the Mitsubishi Ki-15 'Babs' - a remarkably fast aircraft for it's time (300mph) on quite a modest powerplant.