Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Dassault Mirage IIIV - No.119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1973









The Mirage IIIV was released quite a few years ago now by 'Veltro2K' and this lovely NMF skin by 'Torno' not long after. I've added IDF markings including the red fin marking and some stock Shahak serial numbers. As soon as I'd made this I realised I'd missed the opportunity of a good backstory as I really should have put it in Egyptian (and other Arab nations) service as the result of lessons learned from the Six-day War and de Gaulle's pro-Arab stance at about that time.

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Dassault Aviation Mirage IIIV - Arab Nations

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Dassault Aviation Mirage IIIVZ - No.2 Squadron, South African Air Force, 1974








I'm a bit busy with real life stuff at the moment but grabbed a few hours yesterday to do this SAAF Mirage IIIVZ making an exact fit rudder decal, painting the airbrakes red and also adding red intakes directly onto the skin - these worked out better than expected and I might retrofit them to my Israeli Mirage IIIV.

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Avia S-190D Luňák - 7th Fighter Regiment, Czechoslovakian Air Force, 1949





I've been a bit busy with sports admin' in recent weeks but kept ticking over in my limited spare time with a few Dhimari Thunderbolts (P-47D, P-47M and P-47N) discovering a new love for Jugs (stop it!) even leading me to buy a book on the mighty Thunderbolt - hope it comes soon. Anyway, a new Fw-190D-9 was released by the DAT boys recently and I thought I'd put it into post-war Parani service by knocking up a quick-ish skin from the speculative layer and tinting it 'Avia Green' like the Czech and Israeli S-199 'Mule' aircraft. This technique loses a bit of line and rivet detail and doesn't quite give the proper saturation of colour (I think the tinted layer was 85% opacity) but I'm quite happy with it - especially as it's just going to be a target for my Dhimari Thunderbolts. Before putting it into Parani service I thought I'd try Czechoslovakian markings and another time saver was the use of stock decals from the S-199. Israeli S-190D's would be another potential spin-off from this.

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Republic P-47B Thunderbolt - 46th Pursuit Squadron, 15th Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Corps, 1941

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2otGFH1]





I'm loving the various P-47's available for Strike Fighters and although this 'B' model is a stand-in (I think it's a modified Razorback 'D' - which was a bit longer) it does have the distinctive forward-sloping mast aerial of the first production model. Anyway, I've knocked up a skin for it with USAAC markings and specifically numbered as '86' which was the number on the fuselage sides of the Curtiss P-36 flown by Lt. Phil Rasmussen on December 7th, 1941. Awoken by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and whilst still wearing his pyjamas, Rasmussan ran to the nearest available P-36 at Wheeler Field and took off to knock-down a Japanese Zero fighter but was attacked by several other enemy aircraft taking considerable damage and landing his bullet riddled P-36 with no brakes, rudder or tailwheel. I've done a couple of alternative 'Rasmussen' aircraft including my Curtiss P-37B Spitfire from 2021 but I probably like this one the best. The first flight of the XP-47B was on May 6th, 1941 but the USAAC placed orders for 733 P-47's on September 13th, 1940 (way before the first flight) so a 'Pearl' P-47 isn't too far-fetched.

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Vought Corsair Mk.II - No.73 Operational Training Unit, RAF Middle East Command, 1944







This Corsair originally had British Pacific Fleet markings that I've neatly overpainted and added decals to give it the look of No.73 OTU's Thunderbolts and I seem to remember that this scheme was used on Hasegawa's 1/72 scale P-47D Razorback boxing. The real No.73 OTU were based at Fayid in Egypt so could well have flown over the Pyramids!

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Convair Columbia B.1 - No.83 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1948






A bit of a quick skin formed from the 'white' specular maps with black tinting to the undersides - it's a bit rough in one or two areas but good enough to give an impression of what a 'Tiger Force' B-36 Peacemaker would look like. I've given it a contemporary bomber 'town' name (the city of Columbia in South Carolina and not the country). The elephant in the room is, of course, the markings. Now there's lots of discussion on the interweb with no real consensus so I'll probably redo this with BPF markings but don't know what the finflash would look like. A simple white and blue like a WW2 Aussie finflash or tall red, white and blue like some Kiwi Corsairs?

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Convair Columbia B.1 - No.83 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1948





Swapped out the SEAC roundels for the BPF 'starbar' and went for a yellow bordered white & blue finflash.

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Douglas Davenport B.1 - No.97 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1947




I've previously called my RAF B-42's as the Douglas Doncaster but have now switched to the Douglas Davenport as there is a Davenport in California (the home of the Douglas Aircraft Company). I quite like the BPF 'starbar' but that white ring on the white uppersurfaces is bugging me!

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I love making these 'profile pages' but unfortunately the bottom two look like they have solid noses.

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Republic Aviation Thunderbolt Mk.IV - No.237 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1947









There are two excellent P-47N models available and this is the DAT version which I've put into 'Tiger Force' service with markings for No.237 Squadron (it's the first time I've used them) who were part of RAF SEAC and ended the war on Spitfire XIV's. I've just read on Wiki that they flew combat missions in December 1945 in support of French forces against the Viet Minh! I've used a tall-ish WW2 Aussie white & blue finflash with (personal choice) starbars on both wings and I've used the red-back spider from No.273's squadron badge on both sides of the engine cowling. The 'N' is not my favourite P-47 but with these markings it's quite a handsome beast!

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I've managed to find the Paul Lucas article on 'Tiger Force - RAF Bombers for the attack on Japan 1945' from the December 2018 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling (I bought the digital copy). It confirms the use of the 'BPF' starbar in four positions (port, starboard, port upper and starboard lower) with no fin flash and red squadron codes. What I wasn't expecting (using the Lancaster as an example) was for the wing insignia to be subtly different (in proportion not size) from the fuselage insignia as the wing insignia is 50% bigger but the thin black outline (which is only on the white outer ring) is the exact same width of 1/2". Similarly, the insignia on the Mosquito XXXV will be subtly different (in proportion not size). It's a great article and the section on Tiger Force insignia is based on information from the National Archive at Kew.

Anyway, I've made my own new Tiger Force insignia (based on the Lancaster fuselage insignia) and will ignore these subtle variations. If anyone wants the template to make your own just ask.

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Vickers Valiant B.1(FE) - No.35 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1954




This skin uses my amazingly simple invert colour technique to turn white into black and it's OK but just a bit scruffy around the intakes. Handsome aircraft the Valiant.

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Supermarine Spitfire F.Mk.24 - No. 453 Royal Australian Air Force, RAF Pacific Command, 1947








I could only see the Spitfire being of any use to Tiger Force in a purely defensive role in a similar way that Lightnings defended V-Bomber bases.

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English Electric Canberra B.2(FE) - No.627 Squadron, RAF Pacific Command, 1949






This 'Tiger Force' Canberra is based on a profile of a Mosquito B.XXXV from the Scale Aircraft Modelling article on Tiger Force markings and I've tried to replicate the high demarcation line and black vertical tail. It would have been so much easier to stick with the low demarcation line and after many hours work it's still not right. I should have been a bit braver by making the upper surfaces whiter but as this uses my tinting technique it does lose detail the more you tint. The lower surfaces use colour inversion from the stock silver skin and I should have used a bit more care as the red nose markings (eject, fire extinguisher, first aid) become neon blue when inverted!