Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Douglas Skyknight FAW.1 - No.43 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1959

RAFSkyknightFAW101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFSkyknightFAW102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've always liked the look of this seriously underpowered brute and reckon that some good old British jet engines and British missiles would have transformed it and kept it in service into the mid-60's. The Redstorm missiles are actually Soviet Anabs masquerading as something British!

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Meteor F.4 -  No.93 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1949

RAFMeteorF401 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMeteorF403 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMeteorF402 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMeteorF404 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMeteorF405 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMeteorF406 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There are Meteor F.4's and Meteor F.8's available as add-on aircraft and the superbly weathered F.8 skin fits the F.4 so I've added my No.93 squadron markings and worked it into a 1946-1949 timeframe to intercept marauding Parani Me-262's (nurse, my medicene). I love the Meteor!

[SPINNERS]

Consolidated Vancouver B.3 - No.543 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1955

RAFVancouverB301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVancouverB302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVancouverB303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVancouverB304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVancouverB305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just as the ailing RAF received Boeing B-29's in the 1950's what if^TM they'd received the outrageous B-36 Peacemaker? I was going to do the early B-36B (six turning, none burning) but thought I'd do a B-36J and give it V-bomber style pale markings. The silver skin that comes with the amazing add-on is really good and I've just needed to cover up some markings and add the pale blue to the fin tip and front of the engine pods using the same powder blue from the roundels.

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Meteor P-73A - 61st Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, United States Army Air Force, 1945

USAAFMeteor03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFMeteor04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFMeteor05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFMeteor06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

SAAB Lansen FAW.2 - No.63 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1959

RAFLansenFAW201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLansenFAW202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There is a smashing template available for the Lansen so it's made it easy for me to knock-up an RAF Camo scheme although sadly my green camo isn't quite right.

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Convair CF-58 Hustler - No.423 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, 1973

RCAFHustlerF101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFHustlerF102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFHustlerF103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFHustlerF104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFHustlerF105 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Boris will be home late this evening...

[SPINNERS]

Supermarine Skylark F.1 - RAF Fighter Command, 1960

RAFSuperMystereF101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFSuperMystereF102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFSuperMystereF103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFSuperMystereF104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFSuperMystereF105 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A licence-built Dassault Super Mystère manufactured by Supermarine and re-enginned with Rolls Royce Avon engines and armed with 2 x 30mm Aden cannon plus Firestreaks (from 1960). Perhaps it would have made a useful stepping stone between the Hunter and the Lightning but, regardless, it's a fine looking aircraft.

[SPINNERS]

Armstrong-Whitworth Siskin F.1 - RAF Fighter Command, 1958

The early-1950's were a difficult time for RAF Fighter Command. The obscolescent Meteor F.8 formed the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command but was struggling to catch the RAF's Canberra jet bombers and would have been hopelessly outclassed by MiG-15's if the Cold War had turned hot. But just at the time that Fighter Command should have been looking forward to receiving the modern swept-wing Hawker Hunter and Supermarine Swift both programmes hit severe technical problems. Even before the decision to cancel the Swift fighter programme (taken in February 1955) the Air Ministry were looking for an 'off the shelf' purchase of an interim 'stop-gap' type and although the North American F-86 Sabre was procured in substantial numbers the desperately bad balance of payments situation with the US prevented further purchases.

Dassault had previously offered the Mystère IIC and had been turned down but in November 1952 an RAF evaluation team were sent to Istres to evaluate the Mystère IV and submitted an enthusiastic report to the Air Ministry who decided to place an order for 200 Mystère IV's to be licence-built by Armstrong-Whitworth with Rolls Royce Tay engines. Initially armed with two 30mm Aden cannon the aircraft entered service in March 1955 as the Siskin F.1 and was used by RAF Fighter Command until the early 1960's with the subsequent Siskin FGA.2 fighter-bomber serving in RAF Middle-East Command until 1970.

RAFMystereF104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMystereF101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMystereF102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMystereF103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMystereF105 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMystereF106 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter F.6 - German Air Force

LuftwaffeHunterF601 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF602 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF605 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF606 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF607 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF608 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LuftwaffeHunterF609 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The RAF and Danish skins are stock and I'm working on the silver one which needs a bit more weathering and dirt.

I've enjoyed this Luftwaffe Hunter and remember kids, "It's safer than a Starfighter!" 

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter - HävLLv 31, Ilmavoimat, 1961

August 1961 - An Ilmavoimat Hawker Hunter of HävLLv 31 downs a Mig-21 during the infamous Lappeenranta border incident.

FinnishHunter01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishHunter02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishHunter03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishHunter04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

'What If'^TM Finland had bought the Hawker Hunter instead of the Folland Gnat? I believe that Pictures 3 and 4 show the markings for HävLLv 31 and I think that Pictures 1 and 2 show their WW2 marking?

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter F.4 - No.14 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1956

RAFHunterF404 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHunterF403 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHunterF405 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHunterF406 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

On laughter silvered wings...

[SPINNERS]

Lavochkin La-13 'Fireball-A' - Soviet Air Force, 1949

Even before the end of WW2 the Soviets were in a desperate rush to catch up with British and American technologies and particularly in military aviation. Almost all captured German designs were studied with several being pressed into service in the immediate post-war era including the Lavochkin La-13 'Fireball' jet fighter despite it being an essentially flawed design. Based on the Focke Wulf 'Projekt Two' the La-13 was powered by a Klimov RD-10A (a direct copy of the wartime Jumo 004A) and was little more than a FW-190 with an underslung jet engine kept clear of the runway by a stalky and fragile undercarriage.

Whilst this crude 'modified piston-enginned fighter' configuration was also adopted by the MiG-9 'Fargo' and Yakovlev Yak-15 'Feather' the La-13 was heavier and had viscous handling qualities being initially rejected by the VVS evaluation team and heartily loathed by VVS service pilots. First displayed at the Tushino Aviation Day on 18 August 1946 the La-13 entered service in 1948 (later than its home-grown rivals) and was soon dumped on unsuspecting client states. It was later given the entirely appropriate NATO reporting codename of 'Fireball' which became the fate of many La-13's.

SovietFireball02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SovietFireball03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SovietFireball04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SovietFireball05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The 'Projekt Two' is a nice add-on aircraft by an American guy called Timmy from St.Louis and comes with a really good WW2 style Luftwaffe skin that also suits Soviet red stars. Timmy also did the Lansen - one for my revisit list.

[SPINNERS]

Britain's forgotten fighter... the Blackburn Baron!

RAFBaron01-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFBaron02-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFBaron03-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFBaron04-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Can you guess what's been used to 'fake' the Blackburn Baron?

Postscript: This is from the time when I first started skinning and is toe-curlingly bad. Where is the camo on the stabs and what was I thinking about with that fuselage band?!!

[SPINNERS]

Some Blackburn Baron's found their way to the emerging Middle East state of Paran during the late 1940's...

ParaniBaron01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ParaniBaron02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Republic P-47N Thunderbolt - Ilmavoimat, 1951

FinnishP-47N01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishP-47N02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishP-47N03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FinnishP-47N04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Finnish P-47N Thunderbolts - just for Geoff! Once I saw the blue markings on the cowling and tail (on the original USAAF skin) it just to be an Ilmavoimat post-war P-47N!