Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Lavochkin La-13 'Fibber' - Voyska PVO, 1954

Even before the last shell of the Second World War in Europe was fired the race was on to capture as much of the advanced German technology as possible and several partly completed Focke-Wulf Ta-183 'Huckebein' airframes were captured by Soviet forces in April 1945 and moved eastwards finally ending up at the Lavochkin Research and Production facilities in June 1945. Under the direction of Semyon Lavochkin (Lavochkin's head designer) the company copied the overall design of the Ta-183 to create the La-13 interceptor fighter (later given the NATO codename 'Fibber'). Entering service in 1948 the La-13 was an agile and fast-climbing interceptor and, for it's time, quite powerfully armed with 4 NR-23 cannon and, later on, it would introduce the Kaliningrad K-5 (NATO reporting name AA-1 Alkali) a short-range beam-riding air-to-air missile.

SOVIETLA-1301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETLA-1302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETLA-1303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETLA-1304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETLA-1305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETLA-1306 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Ta-183 is available as an add-on aircraft so I created a simple silver skin (with panel lines and weathering) and made some new Soviet star decals (the stock national markings have too high an opacity) and used stock red numbers to complete the Soviet look. For me, the Ta-183 is aesthetically challenged but is quite a performer in the 'Strike Fighters' game/sim!!

[SPINNERS]

Lavochkin La-13 'Fibber' - Vietnam Peoples Air Force, 1952

VPAFLA-1301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFLA-1302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFLA-1303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFLA-1304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Bell D-188A (XF-109) - United States Air Force, 1961

USAFXF-109A01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFXF-109A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFXF-109A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFXF-109A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFXF-109A05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The prolific Veltro2K strikes again! His Bell XF-109 was released today and it's a cracker. Now I've only had time for one flight but I just know that it's going to be a favourite of mine.

[SPINNERS]

Dassault/Dornier Proctor T.1A - Royal Air Force, 1991

RAFALPHAJET02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFALPHAJET03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFALPHAJET04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There really is a big hint of Jaguar in the Alphajet due to it's Breguet lineage. With so many hot new releases I'll come back to the Alphajet in the near future.

[SPINNERS]

SAIA90 Mirlo - Comando de Aviación Naval Argentina, 2002

COANACA9001 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COANACA9002 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COANACA9003 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

COANACA9004 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Torno's superbly weathered COAN skin on AleDucat's SAIA90.

[SPINNERS]

Yak-45 'Fullback' - Frontovaya Aviatsiya, Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily, 1983

SOVIETYAK-4501 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETYAK-4502 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETYAK-4503 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETYAK-4504 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETYAK-4505 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

What if the MiG-29 lost out to a rival design from Yakovlev?? Or what if the MiG-29 was adopted for Frontal Aviation whilst the rival Yakovlev design was chosen for the forthcoming conventional aircraft carriers? The Argentinian SAIA90 design by AleDucat has been a blast and Torno's grey FAA skin can be easily adapted with a bit of overspray to form the basis of a Soviet F-17L 'Cobra'!

[SPINNERS]

Yak-45 'Fullback' - Paran Peoples Republic Air Force

PARANIYAK-4501 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIYAK-4502 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

VHKCT DC-1 'Fishtail' - Vietnam Peoples Air Force, 1979

In the immediate post-war (i.e. Vietnamese War) period Chinese engineers from the Jian company were sent in to form the embryonic Việt Nam Hàng Không Công Ty (Vietnam Aviation Company) specifically to produce an indigenous interceptor-fighter based on the Jian J-7, itself a licence-produced MiG-21. At an early stage it was decided to adopt a simple underslung intake and the new DC-1 (Interceptor No.1) first flew in December 1975 and entered service in March 1977 just in time for the Second Vietnam War of 1979.

VPAFFANTAIL02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFFANTAIL01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFFANTAIL03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFFANTAIL04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the MiG-23PF Fishtail-C a 'what if' by Gepard over at Combat Ace. I've left the canards off and added some VPAF markings. Gepard's backstory for his Fishtail is added below;

This is a "What if" plane. It was not real, but could have been it if the E-8 development line would not have been canceled in 1962. Imagine: A lot of MiG ingenieurs did not agree with Mikoyans decision to stop the E-8 program. They made a proposal to use proven elements of the E-8 and the MiG-21PF to start a new project called E-9. Mikoyan agreed and intended to use the E-9 as gap filler till his favored project E-11, the later swing wing MiG-23 Flogger, was ready. In autumn 1963 the E-9 was ready for flight tests. It was a combination of MiG-21PF engine, wings and avionics with a new fuselage, tail and canards. The E-9 was accepted by the soviet air force in spring 1964 and entered the production line in summer 1964 as MiG-23F.

In 1966 the Soviet Air Force demanded to equip the new fighter with state of the art avionics and to increase the range. So the MiG-23 Fishtail got a bigger fuselageback fueltank, a modified vertical tail, a mirror on the canopy. Other modifications are the more powerfull R-13 engine and the Saphir-21 Radar, but in the version RP-23. It is not widely known, that the Saphir 21 was originaly developed for the E-8. Only with a smaller antenna it could be fitted in the MiG-21 as RP-22. The smaller antenna reduced the detection range of this radar by 10 km. An other welcome addition of the PF is the ability to carry one gunpod under the left wing root.

[SPINNERS]

BAe/Convair Corona FG.3 - No.800 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, 1986

ROYALNAVYC20101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYC20102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYC20103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYC20104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYC20105 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYC20106 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Julhelm's Convair 201 is progressing well and should be released quite soon. Here is my take on a Royal Navy Corona FG.2 (not too happy with the name but I might grow to like it).

[SPINNERS]

Messerschmitt AG Bf-109G-10 - Parani Peoples Air Force, 1945

PARANIBF-109G01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIBF-109G02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIBF-109G03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIBF-109G04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIBF-109G05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIBF-109G06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A whole clutch of Bf-109G's have been released and some Parani decals have been used to create their first post-war combat aircraft. Ever since Expansion Pack 1 introduced the Spitfire and Mustang I've found it great fun to get some propeller driven adversaries into this very flexible and modular game.

[SPINNERS]

Panelli CR.41 'Falcon' - Parani Peoples Republic Air Force, 1940

PARANICR4101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANICR4102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I was digging around in the WW2 section of the Strike Fighters downloads section over at Combat Ace and found this pugnacious little fighter. The Panelli CR.42 is a fictional Regia Aeronautica design by 'Hinchinbrooke' (normally a ship modeller) who created this as a bit of fun and I've added some Parani markings to it and given it the 'Falcon' name.

[SPINNERS]

Arado Ar-234B - No.1 Bomber Regiment, Parani Peoples Republic Air Force, 1947

PARANIAR-234B01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIAR-234B02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANIAR-234B03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

For this Parani early post-war jet bomber (passed on by the Soviets but, ssshhhh! You didn't get that from me, right?) I knocked up a simple silver skin for the Arado Ar-234B 'Blitz' and redrew the panel lines (but not the zillions of rivets!) with some light weathering and added a checkerboard rudder just to break things up a bit. The Parani No.1 Bomber Regiment marking first saw the light of day on my Parani Tu-16 'Badger' and gets another outing here.

[SPINNERS]

Boulton-Paul Orion PR.2 - No.543 (PR) Squadron, RAF 1945

RAFORIONPR201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFORIONPR202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFORIONPR203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFORIONPR204 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFORIONPR205 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There's something about the sleek Arado 234 that screams "PRU Blue" so here is my take on a late-WW2 RAF PRU bird. Not too sure why the name Orion popped into my head but Boulton-Paul then seemed appropriate.

Oops! My starboard fin flash needs to be flipped!

[SPINNERS]

SEPECAT/Mitsubishi Jaguar F-1 - No.3 Hikotai, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, 1988

JASDFJAGUAR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFJAGUAR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFJAGUAR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFJAGUAR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Supermarine Spitfire IXc - No.1 Squadron, Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1947

DHIMARISPITFIREF9C01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARISPITFIREF9C02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARISPITFIREF9C03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARISPITFIREF9C04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Expansion Pack 1 introduced the Mustang (P-51D) and Spitfire (IXc & IXe) as stock aircraft in Strike Fighters and, although meant to be 'AI' only, the Spitfire is especially good with a normal RAF camo scheme plus a Desert Scheme (for Egyptian Spitfires) and a Green Soviet WW2 scheme! This is the Desert scheme with some colourful Dhimari markings from my Dhimari Decal Set.

http://combatace.com/files/file/10394-dhimari-decal-set/