Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Thinking about it, if I'd used the F-111C I could have had a backstory based on the Aussies rejecting their F-111C's and Sweden picking them up cheap.

F-111C's as delivered...

FLYGVAPNETF-111S07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-111S08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-111S09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr


And after their first major overhaul...

FLYGVAPNETF-111S10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

F-111C 3D model and a skin with revised (darkened) tones and a larger splinter pattern.

[SPINNERS]

Convair-Saab F-106S (J36) - F13 Flygvapnet, 1974

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-106SDELTADART06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

@ Scooter - I don't have a proper template for the 'Six' (one of my faves too) so this is a bit of a lash-up and has a few issues but hopefully it gives a good impression of what a splintery Swedish Six would look like.

[SPINNERS]

Would it be possible to do the F-100D or the Vark in a two tone green/blue scheme similar to the one the RSAF Drakens had in the 60's - 70's please?

FLYGVAPNETF-100SSUPERSABRE21 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-100SSUPERSABRE22 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-100SSUPERSABRE23 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-100SSUPERSABRE24 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter F Mk 83 - Escuadrón 113, Ejército del Aire, 1982

'What If' Spanish Aggressors!

EDAHUNTERMK8201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDAHUNTERMK8202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDAHUNTERMK8203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDAHUNTERMK8204 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDAHUNTERMK8205 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

One wears an 'Iberian Splinter' camo by me and the other wears the stock 'Third Wire' Omani skin with my decals including a semi-fictional set of 113 Escuadrón nose bars. The scabbed on chaff and flare dispensers needs a bit of paint slapped on them 

[SPINNERS]

Bristol-Boulton-Paul Vagabond SR.4 - No.543 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1959

The Boulton-Paul Vagabond was Britain's first nuclear-capable bomber and the first of the V-bombers. Designed by the newly merged Bristol and Boulton-Paul companies it gained some benefit from the former's unsuccessful Brabazon transport aircraft. Powered by four Bristol Phoroneus turboprop engines the Vagabond had the longest unrefuelled range of the four V-bombers but also the lowest speed and ceiling and was soon relegated to recconnaisance duties.

RAFVAGABONDSR401 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR402 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR403 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR404 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR405 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Strike Fighters 2:North Atlantic introduced the Tu-95RT 'Bear-D' as one of the many new non-flyables which, thankfully, can be made flyable in less time than it take to type this sentence.

[SPINNERS]

Bristol-Boulton-Paul Vagabond B(PR).2 - No.9 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1955

RAFVAGABONDSR406 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR407 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR408 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVAGABONDSR409 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This 'anti-flash' white skin was made a bit quick and is less than perfect but when decaled up it does give an impression of what a V-bomber Bear would have looked like.

[SPINNERS]

Grumman F-14C Tomcat - 171st Fighter Interceptor Squadron, USAF, 1977

USAFF-14CTOMCAT02-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-14CTOMCAT03-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-14CTOMCAT01-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-14CTOMCAT04-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

If you've getting a sense of déjà vu it's because I've shown this one before. Well, one very similar. This is basically the same decals but applied to the new Third Wire F-14A Tomcat which is the centrepiece of the new Strike Fighters 2:North Atlantic game. 

[SPINNERS]

Douglas A-4D Skyhawk - 416th TFS, 37th TFW, USAF, Phu Cat, 1966

During the Spring of 1961 the incoming Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara left no stone unturned in his search for efficiencies in procurement and operational costs and his attention soon turned to the successful Douglas A4D 'Skyhawk' programme. Douglas had already transformed their 'bantam bomber' by replacing the Curtiss-Wright J65 engine with the Pratt & Whitney J52-P6A engine and the forthcoming A4D-5 (A-4E) version was chosen as the baseline for a minimum-change version for the USAF. Known as the A-4D (after the introduction of the tri-service designation system) the USAF Skyhawks saw extensive service at home and abroad and, in particular, served with distinction in Vietnam where it replaced a variety of tactical aircraft.

USAFA-4DSKYHAWK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-4DSKYHAWK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-4DSKYHAWK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-4DSKYHAWK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the stock Navy A-4E model but with a skin adapted from the 'Kiwi' A-4K (available as a DLC).

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-18S - F21, Swedish Flygvapnet, 1986

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETF-18SHORNET06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I didn't intend to place this one onboard a carrier but it does look rather striking... so just go with it (good advice for this thread  ).

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom Mk.1 - No.234 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1970

Cue the music from 'Battle Of Britain'....

RAFPHANTOMMk101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMMk102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMMk103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFPHANTOMMk104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This skin was released by James Fox over at Combat Ace but as a modern FGR.2 skin with contemporary 'B' type tactical markings but as the upper surface colours are very BoB-ish I thought I'd stick some retro decals on it. My first problem was that I wanted the fuselage roundel and codes to be to the rear of the fuselage but the British Phantoms have that auxilliary intake door for which I don't have the mesh name so I had to switch to the F-4J. N3277 was a Spitfire Mk1 of No.234 Squadron flown by Pilot Officer Richard Hardy which was captured by the Germans after he crash-landed on the beach at Cherbourg in August 1940.

[SPINNERS]

North American (Rockwell) F-100G Super Sabre - 131st TFS, 104th TFW, Massachusetts ANG, 1982

President James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter started his presidency in January 1977 with a detailed review of the US military budget and his most high-profile decision was the cancellation of the Rockwell B-1A bomber programme in June 1977. But many smaller programmes were cut or cancelled too along with the postponement of the re-equipping of TAC and ANG units with new aircraft types. F-16A and A-10A production was slowed down and many TAC and ANG units were instructed to hold on to their F-100's and F-105's for an indefinite period. In a genuine (but actually insulting) compensatory gesture Rockwell were given a $45million contract to upgrade 90 F-100D's for continued service with the ANG with the aircraft emerging from their Columbus, Ohio plant as F-100G's with refurbished engines, partially re-skinned wings and minor avionics upgrades.

The first unit to receive F-100G's was the 131st Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Barnes Municipal Airport in Westfield who had been scheduled to convert from the F-100D to A-10A's but instead received F-100G's which served until 1986.

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I quite like this one myself!

I like the 'Euro One' camo scheme seen, for example, on F-4D's and wondered what it would look like on something from an earlier generation. As the F-100 comes with such a good template (created by hgbn over at Combat Ace) I've used that but just kept my 'Euro One' scheme to the upper surfaces only instead of wraparound as it's an absolute bugger to match up the bitmaps. For markings, I just flicked through the old World Air Power book on the ANG by Rene J. Francillon and decided to use the 131st TFS and thus deny them swapping their F-100D's for A-10A's in 1979.

[SPINNERS]

North American (Rockwell) F-100G - 125th TFS, Oklahoma ANG, 1985

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-100GSUPERSABRE10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The 'Tulsa' fin stripe seen on the 125th's F-16C's seemed a good fit for my second F-100G ANG unit. The RAF style nose marking is fictitious but uses the card playing beaver (wtf) seen on their squadron patch and the colours seen on their fin stripe.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed F-104E - 112th TFS, Ohio ANG, 1983

Whilst, officially, USAF interest in the F-104 programme began to ebb (leading to only 77 F-104C's being built) they kept a watchful eye on Lockheed's progress into transforming the original hot-rod interceptor fighter into a multi-mission tactical fighter for export to selected 'free world' nations. As negotiations with Federal Germany reached a critical phase in 1958 concern was expressed by the Bonn government that Lockheed were attempting to sell an aircraft no longer wanted by it's home nation. Lockheed cleverly took these concerns back to Washington and claimed that lucrative export orders were at jeopardy leading to a token order for a new version of the Starfighter for the USAF.

Designated F-104E this new version represented a halfway house between the F-104C and the forthcoming F-104G. Only 60 F-104E's were planned to be produced but the success of the F-104C flown by Capt Charles Tofferi in the 1962 William Tell tactical weapons meet, against strong competition from F-100 and F-105 pilots, led to continued low-rate production followed by a larger batch of 240 F-104E's making an eventual total of 336. F-104E's were deployed to Vietnam and surviving aircraft were refurbished for ANG use with the type being finally retired in 1988 when the 112th TFS re-equipped with F-16A's.

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've badged up my screenshots as F-104C's but as that variant is associated with the SEA camo and that ugly refuelling probe (and me from the land of the Victor - lol) I've switched to the F-104E designation.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed Starfighter F-104E - 162nd TFS, Ohio ANG, 1985

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-104CSTARFIGHTER11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Me 262 A-1a/R-1 - JG27, Luftwaffe, 1946

LUFTWAFFEME-262P09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEME-262P10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEME-262P11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEME-262P12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A nice diversion from Cold War jets!