Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Mikoyan MiG-21bis - United States Air Force, 1983

USAFMiG-21bis01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMiG-21bis02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've given my Croatian skin a little tweak to make it more 'Hillesque' and added some new lo-viz grey decals.

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Northrop F-5AY - 123rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, Yugoslav Air Force, 1980

YUGOF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

YUGOF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

YUGOF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

YUGOF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

YUGOF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

My recent Croatian MiG-21 made me take a look at that troubled region but I also wanted to get back on track with the F-5A so I've combined the two with a Yugoslav 'Freedom Fighter'. It's quite fascinating to see the way that the Yugoslav Air Force started off in 1945 with a largely German-Soviet mix of aircraft, then swung to the West before swinging back East.

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Canadair BF-5A 'Freedom Fighters of the Belgian Air Force

During the first half of the 1960's, Belgium and the Netherlands both started looking for a replacement for their F-84F Thunderstreak fighter-bombers and the Lockheed T-33 advanced trainer for delivery around 1970. After both countries had written their individual requirements 12 potential aircraft were studied resulting in a shortlist consisting of the A-7 Corsair, the A-4 Skyhawk, the CL-984 (a version of the F-104), the Mirage 5 and the F-5A. In the mood of the times, Europe was awash with joint requirements and collaborative programmes so it was quite appropriate for the two nations to work together for maximum standarisation so the BAF and KLu issued 'Specification TFT70' a joint requirement for a tactical fighter and advanced trainer.

After exhaustive testing and evaluation both air forces reported to their respective Ministers of Defence that, with some adjustments, the F-5A fighter-bomber and the F-5B advanced trainer were their preferred choice. However, the Belgians had a problem in that Wallonia (the French-speaking part of the country) preferred a French plane (i.e. the Mirage) but after protracted political discussions including the promise of a good share in the license production of the airframe by SABCA and the engines by FN (both based in Wallonia) the F-5 was chosen. In the Netherlands Fokker was chosen to participate in the manufacturing program.

However, during this time Northrop had increased the price of the baseline F-5A by no less than 11% leading both countries to make a deal with Canadair who had recently acquired a production license for their CF-5 derivative. With its more powerful Orenda J85-15 engines and a more sophisticated navigation system this was a step in the direction the BAF and the KLu needed. With further modifications including more advanced avionics, moving-map navigation, radar altimeter, SAAB BT9 bombing computer, bigger underwing droptanks, a two-position nose wheel strut, extra auxiliary louvre-type air inlets for take off and manoeuvering flaps it resulted in the most advanced F-5A ever produced. Compared to the F-5A the more advanced BF/NF-5A promised to be a superb multi-role tactical fighter with a useful air-to-air capability due to it's 50% increase in turn rate over the baseline F-5A.

In early 1968 both Belgium and the Netherlands each ordered 80 single-seat BF/NF-5A's and 20 two-seat BF/NF-5B's advanced trainers for delivery during 1970 and by the beginning of 1972 both countries had 4 front-line squadrons and an OCU operational in service. The aircraft were generally popular with pilots and ground-crew alike and served both airforces well before slowly being retired during the latter part of the 1980's and by the early 1990's most BF/NF-5's had been retired with most being sold on to Greece, Turkey and Venezuela.

BAFNF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
No.1 and No.2 smaldeel

BAFNF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
No.42 and No.8 smaldeel

I'm revisiting the Belgian 'BF-5A' as I'd like to share the excellent backstory written by 'Derk' with you.

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Vought A-7A Corsair - 2 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1979

BAFA-7ACORSAIR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFA-7ACORSAIR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFA-7ACORSAIR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

After an absence of a few months another DLC was released today the Portuguese A-7P Corsair. The wraparound skin is used here the Belgian decals from the BF-5A and 'real world' Mirage codes from the Mirage 5BA.

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Vought A-7A Corsair - 522nd Fighter Squadron, Vietnam Air Force, 1974

Following the signing of the Kissinger-Tho accord in Paris on January 28th, 1973 all US air operations over North and South Vietnam ended although operations in Laos continued into the following month and operations over Cambodia continued right up until the August 15th cut-off date stated in the Cooper-Church amendment. As a prelude to the South being effectively on their own a massive amount of US equipment had been transferred over to the South and whilst the Vietnam Air Force had welcomed the A-37 Dragonfly and F-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft President Thieu had repeatedly asked for the more capable F-4 Phantom but was repeatedly denied.

During early 1974 the Vietnamese Air Force began the return to service of many of the stored A-1 Skyraiders but these, and the Cessa O-1 Bird Dog, were becoming increasingly vulnerable to the shoulder-mounted SAM's now being used against them and Vietnamese Air Force commanders made a desperate plea for better tactical aircraft to support the hard-pressed ARVN forces. With the scaling down of US forces the Nixon administration allowed the free transfer of 50 A-7A Corsairs from the US Navy to the Vietnamese Air Force and these were hastily transferred during March 1974 in an operation optimistically entitled 'Peace Piper' by Pentagon officials.

VNAFA-7ACORSAIR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFA-7ACORSAIR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFA-7ACORSAIR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFA-7ACORSAIR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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Northrop F-5A - No.1 Connacht Squadron, Irish Air Corps, 1977

IACF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACF-5AFREEDOMFIGHTER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

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Northrop F-5K Firenza FGA.1 - No.1 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1968

Even before the 1964 General Election the Labour Party were developing a pathological hatred of the British aviation industry and despite the narrowness of their election win (by just five seats) they soon went into overdrive by cancelling virtually every advanced aircraft programme within weeks of coming to power. Out went the TSR.2 strike aircraft, P.1154 V/STOL fighter-bomber and AW.681 V/STOL transport with all three to be replaced by 'cheaper' aircraft from the United States namely the F-111, F-4 Phantom and C-130 Hercules respectively. Just days later they ordered a stop-work notice on the Hawker P.1127 leading to a complete abandonment of the RAF's hopes of having a small V/STOL force.

Not content with that they then studied the RAF's requirements for a Hunter replacement and queried why the RAF were demanding an aircraft of the size and complexity of the Phantom. In early January 1965 McDonnell Douglas received a small taste of what the British aircraft companies had endured when the planned Phantom order of 170 aircraft was slashed to just 50 aircraft for the Royal Navy followed by an announcement that the RAF were to receive "150 advanced supersonic fighter aircraft" to replace the Hunters. This was soon followed by a statement from the Minister of State for Defence, Denis Healey, that the RAF were to receive 150 Northrop F-5K fighter aircraft and 30 TF-5K advanced trainers for delivery during the period 1967 and 1968 which would include substantial work for UK companies in undisclosed 'offset' agreements. Mercifully, this did not include re-engining the F-5 but the British F-5's did have uprated J85 engines, stronger landing gear, anti-skid brakes and a more advanced avionics package than the basic F-5A.

Entering service as the Firenza FGA.1 with No.1 Squadron in November 1967 the F-5K's were supplemented by the Jaguar GR.1 in RAF service but not entirely replaced by that type and two UK-based squadrons were still in service during 1990 leading them to be deployed to RAF Germany in August 1990 to replace Jaguars sent to Saudi Arabia during the build up to Operation Desert Shield and the resultant Operation Desert Storm. The last Firenza was retired from RAF service in September 1991 when the RAF's Aggressor Flight at Akrotiri was disbanded.

RAFF-5KFREEDOMFIGHTER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFF-5KFREEDOMFIGHTER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFF-5KFREEDOMFIGHTER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFF-5KFREEDOMFIGHTER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFF-5KFREEDOMFIGHTER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

OK I'll admit it. I've never really been a fan but I have to say that the F-5 family is growing on me! Kudos also to General Electric for their J85 turbojet because I did consider whipping out the puny J85's and installing two afterburning Rolls-Royce Viper but there's no way that they are going to fit in there and the J85 is so much lighter too.

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McDonnell RF-101B Voodoo - 42 smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1973

BAFRF-101BVOODOO01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFRF-101BVOODOO02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFRF-101BVOODOO03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFRF-101BVOODOO04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFRF-101BVOODOO05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

My recent Belgian BF-5A Freedom Fighter reminded me that 42 smaldeel were a famous Mirage recce unit. If the BF-5A was chosen over the Mirage and with no RF-5A then the Belgians would have needed a reconnaissance aircraft. I'll give them the Phantom in another timeline but for now I've chosen the 'oddball' RF-101B Voodoo - these were the original CF-101B's refurbished for USAF use. More info on this rare bird below;

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f101_5.html

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McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom - 522nd TFS, Vietnam Air Force, 1973

The end of the Linebacker campaign on October 23rd, 1972 coincided with the US Government's 'Project Enhance Plus' - essentially the building up of the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) to an adequate level to sustain effective operations after any final ceasefire and, more importantly for domestic politics, to continue the fight after the complete withdrawl of US forces. In a rush effort, 288 aircraft were transferred to the VNAF including 116 F-5's Freedom Fighters, 90 A-37's Dragonflys and 28 A-1 Skyraiders. Not content with that, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu specifically asked for F-4 Phantoms explaining that he felt that the VNAF was being issued with aircraft that were short on range and unable to carry the fight to the North. 

Initially refused, US President Nixon later added an amendment to 'Project Enhance Plus' by allowing the transfer of 36 F-4C Phantoms from USAF stocks. The war-weary F-4C's began to arrive in early 1973 to equip two squadrons of the VNAF based at Tan Son Nhut airbase seeing sporadic action during the uneasy truce and scattered skirmishes of 1973 and 1974. However, when NVA forces burst through the crumbing South Vietnamese defences during April 1975 they quickly captured Bien Hoa airbase to the north of Saigon and immediately swung west to capture Tan Son Nhut airbase catching most the surviving 27 F-4C's of the VNAF on the ground. The Phantoms were inspected and overhauled by Chinese technicians before entering service with the 927th Fighter Regiment of the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) who operated the type until 1982 when they were grounded by a chronic spares shortage.

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In my recent 'VNAF' A-7A Corsair I hinted that the US refused to supply F-4's to South Vietnam but in this alternate 'what if' scenario they did! The fuselage bands are a nightmare to apply as my normal simple technique of using decals doesn't work at all well across curved surfaces (the F-16 is particularly bad in this respect) so I've had to apply my decals directly onto the skins bitmaps where they work much better but not quite perfect.

VNAFF-4CPHANTOM07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Altered the sizing of the checkers to compensate for the Phantom's curves (what do you mean you didn't know it had curves?!!)

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McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom - 927th Fighter Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1980

When NVA forces burst through the crumbing South Vietnamese defences during April 1975 they quickly captured Bien Hoa airbase to the north of Saigon and immediately swung west to capture Tan Son Nhut airbase catching most the surviving 23 F-4C's of the Vietnam Air Force on the ground. The Phantoms were inspected and overhauled by Chinese technicians before entering service with the 927th Fighter Regiment of the Vietnam People's Air Force who operated the type until 1982 when they were grounded by a chronic spares shortage.

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-4CPHANTOM06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

As a nod towards those VPAF MiG-21's that flew with a two-tone green camo on their uppersurfaces I knocked up a couple of leafy shapes and stencilled then onto a slightly lighter green base skin and used a fairly light grey for the undersurfaces. I've done worse!

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North American F-100D Super Sabre - 929th Fighter Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1976

VPAFF-100DSUPERSABRE01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-100DSUPERSABRE02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-100DSUPERSABRE03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-100DSUPERSABRE04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFF-100DSUPERSABRE05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The uppersurfaces are a bit experimental in so much that I've used a scaled-up terrain tile with a few tweaks but I think it works really well on the Super Sabre (one of my favourites).

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Douglas A-4E Skyhawk - 913th Fighter Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1978

The building up of the Vietnamese Air Force during 1970 and 1971 as part of President Nixon's 'Vietnamization' process saw it become the world's sixth largest air force and in August 1971 it's capability was given a boost by the transfer of 40 A-4E aircraft flown by USN pilots from carriers positioned around Dixie station who delivered them to Bien Hoa airbase near Saigon. Bien Hoa was itself being handed over to the Vietnamese Air Force at that time but a US presence was maintained to help with the handover of the aircraft and a four-month conversion course for air and ground crew commenced alongside the establishment of the two squadrons chosen to fly the Skyhawks.

During early 1972 the Skyhawks saw limited action until late March when they were pitched against the North's 'Spring Offensive' but they were hampered by the poor weather under which the North stormed forward and with the switch to strategic attacks on the North by the USAF the Skyhawks were withdrawn as Linebacker 1, and the more concentrated and effective Linebacker 2, took centre-stage until the bombing was finally halted and an uneasy ceasefire was introduced after the Kissinger-Tho Peace Accord.

During 1974 the drastic reduction in financial assistance from the US began to hurt the Vietnamese Air Force who retired many aircraft to flyable storage condition including the remaining Skyhawks and with limited funds they preferred to reactivate the elderly A-1 Skyraiders for close air support when skirmishes between NVA and ARVN forces began to become more frequent. NVA advances during late 1974 had been slow but steady but the North had continued to build up their forces until they were unleashed in early January 1975 and advanced quickly to capture Ban Me Thuot and the nearby military airfield where the mothballed Skyhawks were discovered although at least six were damaged by NVA shelling.

Like many Vietnamese Air Force aircraft the Skyhawks were pressed into service with the Vietnam People's Air Force who were quick to show the aircraft in service for propaganda purposes but who also found the Skyhawk to be a useful attack aircraft and used the type in the border conflict with the Khmer Rouge forces of Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea) and the invasion of Cambodia in December 1978 quickly followed by attacks against invading Chinese forces in February and March 1979 during the short Sino-Vietnamese war. These actions and the deteriorating spares situation led to the grounding of the remaining Skyhawks in the early 1980's but it is believed that spares were soon obtained covertly to keep them in service until 1990.

VPAFA-4ESKYHAWK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFA-4ESKYHAWK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFA-4ESKYHAWK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFA-4ESKYHAWK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAFA-4ESKYHAWK05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is another skin derived by a terrain tile and it makes for a quite effective camo scheme over certain parts of the terrain.

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BAC/Fairchild F-112G Lightning - 563rd TFS, 37th TFW, USAF, 1987

USAFF-112GLIGHTNING01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-112GLIGHTNING02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-112GLIGHTNING03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-112GLIGHTNING04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-112GLIGHTNING05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Not even J.K. Rowling could write a backstory for this! Anyway, the current Page 35 shows the 'original' BAC/Fairchild F-112B Lightning's as point-defense interceptors so I guess this is a highly developed version!

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Panavia Tornado - Ala 11, Ejército del Aire, 1988

EDATORNADOIDS01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDATORNADOIDS02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDATORNADOIDS03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDATORNADOIDS04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

EDATORNADOIDS05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A request for one of the Spanish guys at Combat Ace. The tail marking has been cannibalized from my Lightning and hasn't quite got the right shape to it but it's passable.

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McDonnell Douglas F-4H Phantom - Fliegerstaffel 16, Swiss Air Force, 1970

The Swiss Air Force's search for a new fighter to replace the Vampire and supplement (and eventually replace) the Venom and Hunter was a three-year long study that led to the announcement in December 1960 that the Dassault Mirage IIIS was their preferred choice in what had eventually boiled down to a close-run battle against the excellent Saab 35H Draken. However, the Swiss Air Force then implemented so many expensive changes into the Swiss Mirage programme that they were eventually only able to procure about half as many as planned and at twice the unit cost.

By September 1965, even before a single Swiss-built Mirage IIIS had flown, the Swiss Air Force demanded an off the shelf purchase of a suitable fighter aircraft to offset the reduced size of the Mirage force and initiated a six-month contract study for a requirement of 40 aircraft and in early February 1966 they announced that a minimum change version of the McDonnell (later McDonnell Douglas) F-4D Phantom was the winner and that a slightly reduced order for 36 aircraft was to be placed. Desginated F-4H (Helvetia) the Phantoms entered service in April 1967 and were delivered to Fliegerstaffel 6 at Payerne and Fliegerstaffel 16 at Stans and served until 1999 when they were replaced by the Saab Gripen.

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SWISSF-4DPHANTOM07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've always planned to do this one at some time or another and with Fabian Cancellara winning his third Paris-Roubaix today I felt the time was right. It was quite easy too as the 'British' camo of the F-4M wraps around the F-4D with just a bit of work and, to speed up the process, I've used stock Swiss Hunter serials with my own Swiss insignia and Fliegerstaffel 16 markings (left and right are different). I'm aware that the F-4H designation was not used to avoid confusion with the original F4H-1 but I'm sure that the Swiss wouldn't have minded...