Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Gloster F-73D Reaper - 604th Special Operations Squadron, Vietnam, 1964

USAFF-73DREAPER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73DREAPER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73DREAPER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73DREAPER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73DREAPER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73DREAPER06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've resurrected the 'Reaper' name for this Meteor ground-attack fighter and made it look a bit like a Vietnam era USAF machine by adding another tone of green to the camo and adding EK tailcodes. Tip tanks are from the A-4 Skyhawk but it really needs 8 or 10 pylons to give it more of a Dragonfly look!

[SPINNERS]

Northrop F-20B TigerShark - Royal Saudi Air Force, 1991

RSAFF-20BTIGERSHARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RSAFF-20BTIGERSHARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Veltro2K has followed up his F-20A with the two-seater. Whilst I'm not a fan of the F-5 family I do much prefer the looks of the two-seaters, especially the F-5F.

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Sea Meteor FB.6 - 800 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal, 1955

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB601 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB602 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB603 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB604 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB605 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ROYALNAVYSEAMETEORFB606 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
Bolter!


The commissioning of the Ark Royal in 1955 has tied me in to that year when, in reality, the Hawker Sea Hawk was firmly in service and would have run rings around any navalised Meatbox but, equally, the Sea Meteor would have better than the Supermarine Attacker in the 1950-1954 era! I have a real affection for the Meteor probably because the local library in the mid-1970's had the Putnam 'Gloster' book and, even better, the Edward Shacklady 'Meteor' book. Those books, and Gunston's 'Attack Aircraft of the West' probably shaped my aviation interests more than anything else in my formative teenage years.

Anyway, this skin has been created by seperating the various important 'bits' from each of the five main skin bitmaps and then tinting the residual parts of the stock silver skin with layers of EDSG and a very light grey at opacities that still allow some panel line details to remain with the 'bits' as the uppermost layer. It's still a longish process but infinitely quicker than completely starting from scratch and drawing in every panel line and rivet and good enough to give an impression of how the Meatbox would have looked in Fleet Air Arm service.

[SPINNERS]

Supermarine Attacker FB.2 - No.805 Squadron, Royal Australian Navy, 1955

RANATTACKERFB201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RANATTACKERFB202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RANATTACKERFB203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Sukhoi Su-24MRK 'Fencer-E' - Kurdistan Air Force, 2012

KURDISTANSu-24MRKFENCER-E01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANSu-24MRKFENCER-E02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANSu-24MRKFENCER-E03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANSu-24MRKFENCER-E04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANSu-24MRKFENCER-E05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

It's not the prettiest of aircraft but the Fencer does look good from certain angles. This uses my fictional Kurdistan roundels and fin flash.

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23BN - Kurdistan Air Force, 2012

KURDISTANMiG-23BNFLOGGER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANMiG-23BNFLOGGER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANMiG-23BNFLOGGER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANMiG-23BNFLOGGER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This Kurd Flogger (not a person who sells Kurds ) uses the stock Syrian skin and Jeremak's Kurdistan roundel.

[SPINNERS]

Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer - Israeli Air Force, 1991

IDFSu-24MRFENCER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFSu-24MRFENCER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFSu-24MRFENCER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFSu-24MRFENCER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFSu-24MRFENCER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23MLDK - Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1994

DHIMARIMiG-23MLDKFLOGGER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARIMiG-23MLDKFLOGGER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARIMiG-23MLDKFLOGGER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In game, Dhimari are firmly on the 'Blue' side but I wanted to see the Flogger in Dhimari markings. The terrain is the stock Israeli terrain - by far the best of the stock Third Wire terrains.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4KJ Phantom - No.69 Squadron, 'The Hammers', Heyl Ha'Avir, 1970

Even after their stunning successes in the 1967 Six-Day war the Heyl Ha'Avir did not rest on it's laurels and immediately issued a request for a Vautour replacement. Hopes of acquiring the Dassault Mirage IV had already been dashed by the French arms embargo and McDonnell Douglas proposed a simplified version of the Spey-engined F-4K which offered long-range at low level plus a useful offensive payload. Entering service with No.69 'The Hammers' in March 1970 the F-4KJ's bore the brunt of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and losses were heavy causing the Heyl Ha'Avir to later standardise on the F-4E Kurnass with it's improved ECM capabilities.

IDFF-4KPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFF-4KPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDFF-4KPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Mitsubishi-Valmet F-2X - HävLLv 31, Ilmavoimat, 2012

FINLANDF-2A01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-2A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-2A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-2A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-2A05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I don't know much about the F-2A but can see that it has a noticeably bigger wing than an F-16. The F-2A add-on comes with two JSADF skins and I've just oversprayed the Hinomaru markings and added Finnish decals.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FR.3 - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1982

The adoption of the Rolls-Royce Spey for the British Phantoms led McDonnell Douglas to offer a range of Phantoms powered by the British turbofan including the F-4L for the US Navy and the swing-wing F-4S but the only extra variants to see production were the RF-4K (Phantom FR.3) for the Royal Navy and the similar RF-4M (Phantom FR.5) for the RAF. The total production of the two new variants was a meagre 50 aircraft and which also saw a small reduction in the RAF's F-4M order to 100 aircraft.

RNRF-4K02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNRF-4K03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNRF-4K04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNRF-4K05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNRF-4K06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNRF-4K07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This wonderfully innovative 'RF-4K' was created by 'The Mirage Factory' and I've been able to produce an overall EDSG skin for it thanks to a set of five templates being available for their F-4S model which just needed a bit of manipulation to fit the Spey-powered Recce Rhino. I've used 'B' type roundels and reckon that the EDSG would have been applied to the undersides whilst steaming South in April 1982...

[SPINNERS]

Gloster Meteor F.8 - Various Night Fighter Units

RAFMETEORF801-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMETEORF802 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMETEORF803 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMETEORF804 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Only mildy 'whiffy' these as I'm using the F.8 as a placeholder for some new decals for a forthcoming Meteor NF.14 by the prolific Veltro2K.

[SPINNERS]

English Electric Lightning F.1B's - Various Units*, RAF Fighter Command, 1961-1962

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B14 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFLIGHTNINGF1B11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

(* 46, 60, 64, 72 and 85 Squadrons)

I've been knocking up some new decals for the Gloster Meteor NF.14 and thought they'd look good on early Lightnings with camo. Fortunately, the Third Wire Lightnings come with all the classic RAF Lightning schemes and (incorrectly, but who cares?) has the grey/green camo seen on the square-tailed F.3/F.6 available for the 'witches hat' F.2 meaning that it will also fit the F.1A with a simple edit. Perhaps the Lightning programme had gone a bit faster meaning that some Meteor and Javelin 'all-weather' units might have transitioned to the Lightning F.1B and adopted camo due to their long-standing night-fighter background.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom F.3 - No.229 OCU, RAF Strike Command, 1985

RAFPHANTOMFGR504 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMFGR505 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMFGR501-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMFGR502-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMFGR503-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is Spey-engined F-4M with the nose of an F-4E and, for me, this was the Holy Grail of my modelling life eventually achieved by using the Frog F-4K with the nose of an Hasegawa F-4E and just a little PSR. Thinking about it, that must have been about 30 years ago! Anyway, this unique 3D model was gifted to me along with some suitable templates by 'sundowner' so I thought I'd knock-up a Tornado-esque Phantom F.3 in service with No.229 OCU but probably not with the infamous 'Blue Circle' radar!

[SPINNERS]

Gloster F-73N 'Night Meteor' - 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, United States Air Force, 1955

USAFF-73NMETEOR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73NMETEOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73NMETEOR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-73NMETEOR05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I hope you all had a nice Christmas folks! Anyway, I've been a bit busy skinning a real world Meteor NF.14 (it's the first project I've ever skinned from scratch) so this morning I thought I'd get back in the saddle with a new 'what if'. I've done a couple of USAF Meteors in recent weeks and wondered if the NF.14 might have been procured for overseas use perhaps to keep those F-94 Starfires for Continental use only. I know the real world timeline and the Meteor's obselescence doesn't favour this but what the hell!

Edit: Added two shots with U.S. AIR FORCE on nose.