Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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de Havilland Vampire F.Mk.I - No.616 Squadron, RAF Second Tactical Air Force, 1945







I came across a photo of the white Gloster Meteors of No.616 Squadron recently and thought I'd do a Vampire in the same scheme - it is white but doesn't look too different from a silver Vampire. I thought the white Meteor's had squadron codes but they didn't and I also checked for yellow leading edges but they didn't have them either.

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de Havilland Vampire FB.5 - No.322 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1951







A nice easy one this as it uses the stock Vampire FB.5 and stock RAF Camo. When looking at the Vampire Wiki recently I noticed this sentence - "Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. were the only major Western powers not to use the aircraft." Well, let's put that right! I've not given these Dutch FB.5's an export designation in much the same way as the Dutch Meteor F.4's were simply called 'Dutch Meteor F.4'.

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de Havilland F-74A Vampire - 44th Aggressor Fighter Squadron, Ash Fork AFB, North Arizona, 1952

In the opening weeks of the Korean War in 1950 the various UN air forces encountered a wide range of North Korean aircraft and the rather pedestrian looking Yak-17 (later codenamed 'Feather') was an early surprise being tough, agile and available in large numbers. Despite its modest speed the lightweight Yak-17 could turn on the proverbial sixpence and the heavily laden UN piston-enginned fighter-bombers soon fell prey to its twin 23mm cannon armament.

Of course, even more of a shock was the MiG-15 and the USAF soon became increasingly concerned at the steadily worsening kill to loss ratio. Whilst better equipment was on its way, most notably in the shape of the superb F-86A Sabre, visionaries within the USAF quickly realised that better training and tactics were also required.

Led by Colonel Irwin J. Reinhard, 'Project Gunsight' was quickly created to provide air combat training and tactics for USAF fighter pilots and an important aspect was dissimilar air combat training as most USAF fighter-jocks learned by training against their own aircraft type or by the occasional 'bounce' against (or by) another USAF aircraft type. Project Gunsight was formed at Ash Fork AFB in Northern Arizona and whilst, initially at least, nothing could effectively simulate the MiG-15 Reinhard reckoned that the British de Havilland Vampire would make an ideal Yak-17 simulator. Accordingly, 12 ex-RAF Vampire aircraft were quickly dispatched to Ash Fork to form the 44th (Aggressor) Fighter Squadron in February 1951 and these were used until November 1952 when it became apparent that the numbers of Yak-17's being encountered had dwindled to zero. However, the F-74A remained a popular 'check ride' aircraft at Ash Fork for a few years after its operational role had ended.










I did this one many years ago but wanted to re-visit it to change a few little things that were bugging me. In the last piccie, the pupil has clearly become the master!

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When looking at the Vampire Wiki recently I noticed this sentence - "Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. were the only major Western powers not to use the aircraft." Well, let's put that right!

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de Havilland Vampire FB.5 - No.350 Squadron, Belgian Air Force, 1953







I hadn't realised that some Belgian squadrons used their old RAF squadron codes when they reformed and this was the case with No.350 Squadron who used 'MN' on their Meteor F.8's in the 1950's. For the serial numbers, I could see that 'V' was unused so used 'VA' for these Vampires to allow Vampire two-seaters (or Venoms) to use 'VB' and/or 'VC' etc.

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de Havilland Vampire FB.5 - No.349 Squadron, Belgian Air Force, 1949







I'm not too sure how long the 'Type C' Belgian roundels and finflash went on for but I wanted to use them on this Vampire with a standard RAF Camo scheme. Perhaps Belgium and the Netherlands were supplied with Vampires as part of the very short-lived 'Western Union' alliance (between the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) which ran from 1948 to 1954 but for most of that time it ran alongside NATO. There's a little bit of 'what if' potential there and perhaps Luxembourg should have a fighter squadron!

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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXc - No.348 (Luxembourg) Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1943



Before getting to a 'Western Union' era Luxembourg jet fighter squadron I thought I'd give it some background by being formed as a wartime RAF squadron just like the Dutch and Belgian RAF squadrons that moved over but kept their wartime RAF squadron number. I'd noticed that No.348 Squadron were never formed (but had codes allocated) and the squadron number lies alongside the Belgian squadrons shown above. With the squadron codes being 'FR' then there was an obvious candidate for my choice of the aircraft letter...

Flies right off the ground!

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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIVe - No.348 Squadron, Luxembourg Air Force, 1947





Just an interim step with Luxembourg creating their own independent air force in 1946 and operating the Spitfire XIV's that they ended the war with but with modified Type C markings using the colours from the Luxembourg flag - a bit too bright for my tastes but it has a different look that somehow works. This uses the Third Wire Spitfire Mk.XVIII as a stand-in for a Mk.XIVe.

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de Havilland Vampire F.Mk.3 - No.348 Squadron, Luxembourg Air Force, 1948





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For this Luxembourg Vampire I've switched to the earlier F.Mk.3 which is more appropriate for a (pre-NATO) 'Western Union' timeline and given them a yellow bordered roundel but I've also made a black bordered roundel for future use on NMF/Silver aircraft.

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This is, of course, the gorgeous Dassault Super Mystère masquerading as the Aero L.23 Žralok (Shark) with the NATO reporting name of 'Furball'. First, let's get rid of the elephant in the room. I've cocked up the designation haven't I? I think 'L' designations are for trainers and 'S' is for fighters such as the licence-built  MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, etc. Actually, there are no gaps in the S-100 series of designations and it should really go either side of the S-105 (MiG-19) but there's no gaps. Anyway, I made the L.23 way back in 2010 and I've picked it up again today and made the green skin seen above using the same shade of green as seen on the Avia S-199. I've kept things pretty generic by using serial numbers generated by the game/sim and just adding some made up squadron markings although the top profile's red bolt emblem is seen on real world Czech MiG's. Not that you can see them, I've installed the Tumansky R-11F-300 engine (dry thrust 8,600 lbf and 12,680 lbf with reheat) into the L.23 and added two NR-30 cannons.

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Grumman A-6A Intruder - Flotille 12 & Flotille 17, Aéronavale, 1966








A revised repeat! I'm revisiting some of the 'what ifs' I've uploaded to Combat Ace and this one cropped up today but dating back to 2010.

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Hawker Harrier Mk.51 - Escuadrón Aéreo 113, Fuerza Aérea del Perú, 1973






I've done a Peruvian Harrier before but this one uses a slightly different skin using a lighter grey, new drop tanks with green upper surfaces and has markings for a new ficticious Peruvian squadron.

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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19S "Farmer-C" - HävLLv 11, Suomen Ilmavoimat, 1962






Another one from 2010 but a new photoset. I've never found the MiG-19 to be a particularly good-looking aeroplane but, from what I've read, it was highly regarded.

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Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 - Esquadron 20, Força Aérea Portuguesa, 1955








Still one of my all-time favourite aircraft!

Despite using an excellent stock silver skin, two elements of this took up a lot of my time yesterday - the anti-glare panel and the 20 Esquadron unit marking. The anti-glare was a nightmare as it crosses across three segments (imagine a peeled banana skin) and I completely screwed-up on the shape anyway. I'm happier with the 20 Esquadron unit marking which is based on a real-world marking which has the '20' tangled around a F-84G Thunderjet silhouette. Replacing the Thunderjet with the Meteor was easy enough but trying to get the '20' tangled around the Meteor silhouette was trickier and in the end I gave up on the '2'. Anyway, are these Portuguese Meteors over Angola or defending their homeland against MiG-15's flown off one of the Soviet Navy's Stalin-class aircraft carriers? Nurse, my medicene please!