Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4L Phantom - VMFA-333, United States Marine Corps, 1975

With all the considerable design effort being put into the marriage of the Phantom airframe and the Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engine McDonnell Douglas thought it might be a good idea to propose a version to the US Navy to allow the Phantom to operate from the smaller carriers that were limited to F-8E Crusaders. In June 1966 the designation F-4L was given to the proposed Spey-powered Phantom and in October 1966 an initial order for 130 F-4L's (USN/USMC) was made, followed by an unexpected export order of 30 F-4L's for the Royal Australian Navy.

Deliveries to the US Navy commenced in February 1969 with VF-24 becoming the first operational squadron followed by VMFA-333. By this time the wisdom of operating such a relatively large aircraft on the older, smaller carriers was being questioned and most F-4L's served aboard the larger carriers or with land-based units.

When the decision was made not to re-equip the USMC 'fighter-attack' Phantom squadrons with the hugely expensive Grumman F-14A Tomcat, McDonnell Douglas pushed hard for low-rate production of the F-4L to continue specifically for USMC use and they were eventually successful meaning that production continued until 1976 with an eventual  total of 306 F-4L's being built. Apart from Australia, F-4L's also served with the Royal Air Force where 15 ex-USN F-4L's were sold to the UK Government to allow the formation of an additional home-based Phantom squadron to release a squadron for the defence of the Falkand Isles.






New screenshots but a hoary old backstory from 2010!

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4M 'Kārearea' - No.2 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1992

During the build up to Operation Corporate (the UK's military operation to retake the Falkland Islands) the UK Government were overwhelmed at the support given by the countries of the Commonwealth and, in particular, the response of the Australian and New Zealand Governments who provided ships to maintain the UK's NATO commitments and thus allow the Royal Navy to maximise the number of ships it could send to the South Atlantic.

In the following years there were many reciprocal deals made and favours given to the Commonwealth nations (and even Chile!) and one such 'favour' was the transfer of 18 ex-RAF Phantom FGR.2's in 1988. The 18 FGR.2's, only recently withdrawn from RAF service, were ferried out to New Zealand (most still in their dirty grey camo scheme) during Operation Saddleback before arriving at Ohakea for refurbishment by a joint McDonnell Douglas/RNZAF team that saw the aircraft eventually emerge in a new 'Forest' style camo scheme and with digital INAS, upgraded RWR and new outer wing panels. Entering service with No.2 squadron in early 1989 (supposedly as the Karearea but they were always simply called Phantoms) the aircraft gave good service to the Royal New Zealand Air Force during the 1990's until finally being retired in December 2001 when, indeed, all 'Air Combat Force' aircraft were sadly withdrawn from service.







It only seems like yesterday that I first did this Kiwi Phantom but it was actually 14 years ago... and just like 14 years ago I've forgotten to edit out the boom receptacle on the Rhino's spine! For this revision, I had to knock up some green coloured tanks and also made a new green skin for the SUU-23 gun pod. Final Phantom for now but I will come back to do some RAF Phantoms in a few weeks or so.

[SPINNERS]

Bristol F2B 'Brisfit' - Everytown Air Force, 1970

From the Wikipedia page for the 1936 film 'Things to Come'.

In 1940, businessman John Cabal, living in the city of Everytown in southern England, cannot enjoy Christmas Day as the news speaks of possible war. His guest, Harding, shares his worries, while another friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy, believes that it will not come to pass, and if it does, it will accelerate technological progress. An aerial bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilisation and then global war with the unnamed enemy. Cabal becomes a Royal Air Force pilot and serves bravely, even attempting to rescue an enemy pilot he has shot down.

The war continues into the 1960s, long enough for the people of the world to have forgotten why they are fighting. Humanity enters a new dark age. Every city in the world is in ruins, the economy has been devastated by hyperinflation, and there is little technology left other than greatly depleted air forces. A pestilence known as "wandering sickness" is inflicted by aerial bombing and causes its victims to walk around aimlessly in a zombie-like state before dying. The plague kills half of humanity and extinguishes the last vestiges of government.

By 1970, the warlord Rudolf, known as the "Boss", has become the chieftain of what is left of Everytown and eradicated the pestilence by shooting the infected. He has started yet another war, this time against the "hill people" of the Floss Valley to obtain coal and shale to render into oil for his ragtag collection of prewar biplanes...








A nice change of pace! I watched 'Things to Come' this morning (it was on Talking Pictures last week but it's also on YouTube) and I glimpsed the odd-looking fictional emblem of the Everytown Avro 504 so I thought I'd do something similar but I've had to use the 'Brisfit' as there is not an Avro 504 available. I did nothing to the skin except overpaint the RAF three-colour rudder and added slightly distressed roundels (which are way too neat compared to the hand-painted roundels shown in the film) and a made up serial number. Some of the fictional aircraft in the film are pretty amazing and, for 1936, the special effects are really good.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed Starfighter F.2 - No.56 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1966








I've been revamping the RAF Starfighters I did many years ago (2009 and 2010) and spent a bit of time doing this 'Firebirds' Starfighter where the difficulty was the fact that the fin and rudder were on seperate parts of the skin 'map' but a bit of trial and error got the checkers lined up. However, I don't like the partial red squares on the leading edge of the fin and it just shows how neat the No.56 Squadron chaps did with the checker tails on their Lightning F.3's although it helps to have a constant 45-degree angle on the leading edge. The arrow in front of the roundel is based on that seen on the No.56 Squadron Lightning but without being an exact copy.

[SPINNERS]

Lockheed Starfighter F.2 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1968







The 'Treble One' Lightnings had lovely black and yellow tails on both the witches' hat F.1A and square top F.3 and this scheme is a nod in the direction of the latter but as the Starfighter fin is broader I've swapped things around and made a yellow bordered finflash decal that aligns with the trailing edge. I quite like this!

[SPINNERS]

Guess the odd man out?

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.3 - No.6 Squadron, RAF Middle East Command, 1970







Don't stress about the FGR.3 designation! Over the past 16 years I've done so many RAF Phantom what if's (some with Speys, some with J79's and some with the Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Sequanna) I don't know my arse from my elbow!

[SPINNERS]

Northrop F-5D Freedom Fighter - No.75 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1968

The New Zealand Government's decision to send troops to Vietnam in 1964 was highly controversial but was simply an escalation of the previous position of New Zealand assistance via various support structures such as the Civilian Surgical Team and the supply of a small non-combatant military force of engineers. The Royal New Zealand Air Force had provided transport assistance since 1962 and this had begun to increase when a sufficiently large airstrip to accommodate the Bristol Freighters of No.40 Squadron was built at Nui Dat. American pressure on both Australia and New Zealand to increase their support to US Forces in Vietnam continued and on March 31st, 1966 Sir Keith Holyoake, the New Zealand Prime Minister, announced that the Royal New Zealand Air Force would contribute to a joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing consisting of three squadrons (two RAAF and one RNZAF) operating a version of the F-5A 'Freedom Fighter' which had just finished a succcessful five-month combat evaluation during 'Operation Skoshi Tiger'.

On April 30th, 1966 No.75 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at Ohakea was disbanded and a new No.75 Squadron was formed on the following day at Bien Hoa Air Base in South-Central southern Vietnam operating a handful of F-5A's and F-5B's loaned from USAF stocks. Experiences gained from 'Skoshi Tiger' were incorporated into a new version of the basic F-5A designated as the F-5D and initial deliveries were made to No.75 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force during August 1966 and the squadron were declared operational at the end of September 1966. The joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing at Bien Hoa operated in ground-attack operations over South Vietnam and gained an enviable reputation for bombing accuracy and aircraft availability. When the joint RAAF/RNZAF combat wing finally ceased operations at the end of 1971 only eleven F-5D's had been lost over Vietnam - nine to enemy ground fire and two due to an unfortunate collision at take-off. All remaining aircraft were handed over to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in 1972 in a move financed by the Nixon administration as part of the wider policy of 'Vietnamization'.







This particular F-5A is widely regarded as being one of the best 3D models ever made for 'Strike Fighters' and I've just pasted on my Kiwi roundels onto a Greek F-5A skin and recoloured the finflash. I made the serial numbers for my recent RNZAF Phantom and have re-used them to save time but I did make a set of 18 three-digit nose numbers that repeat the last three of the serial number. I was surprised to learn that the F-5D designation was never used so I've nabbed it!

[SPINNERS]

Bless me father, for I have sinned. My last submission was 9 months ago...

Weddel-Williams P-34A Cardinal - 48th Pursuit Squadron, 15th Pursuit Group, United States Army Air Force, December 1941

When the USAAC announced a competition for a new single-seat fighter in 1935 the three main contenders appeared to be the Curtis P-36, the Seversky P-35 and the Vought V-141. Whilst all three featured all-metal construction, retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit there was concern that none of these radial engined fighter aircraft would meet the projected performance of the sleek inline monoplane fighters then under development in Europe.

There had already been some USAAC interest in the successful Weddel-Williams series of private racing aircraft earlier in the 1930's leading to the XP-34 but this did not proceed further than the drawing board. However, in early 1936 the USAAC asked Wedell-Williams to design a new fighter aircraft utilising the Allison V-1710 V-12 liquid-cooled engine. Chief Designer Jimmy Wedell quickly schemed a new streamlined low-wing monoplane design around the V-1710-19 inline engine and, favouring manoeuvrability over speed, his radical new design had a smaller wing area than the contemporary Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire with an unusually short fuselage. Whilst the design was known as the Wedell-Williams Model 46 for obscure budgetary reasons the USAAC continued to use the XP-34 designation.

The Model 46 prototype first flew on August 15th 1937 and development and testing moved swiftly. When tested against P-35 and P-36 pre-production aircraft (in the USAAC trials held in March 1938) service pilots concluded that the Model 46 had several advantages over both - including being more manoeuvrable in level flight thus enabling it to quickly get behind its opponents by making tight horizontal turns. These trials led to an order for 240 P-34A's which first entered service with the 20th Pursuit Group at Barksdale Field in Louisiana in April 1940.

In February 1941 forty-two P-34A's were delivered to Hawaii after being loaded on to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and flown off the carrier's deck by USAAC pilots when the Enterprise approached the coast of Hawaii. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8th, 1941 only a handful of the 39 remaining P-34A's at Pearl Harbor were able to take off during the attack. One of the few pilots who managed to engage enemy aircraft was 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen of the 46th Pursuit Squadron. He was woken up when the attack began and, whilst still wearing his pajamas, Rasmussen raced towards the flight line where most of the P-34A's were either damaged or destroyed. Rasmussen jumped in to aircraft number '86' (belonging to the 48th Pursuit Squadron aircraft) and took off with another three pilots heading for Kaneohe Bay where they engaged eleven Japanese fighters in battle. After shooting down one Japanese aircraft, Rasmussen was attacked by two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. Bullets and cannon shells shattered the canopy, destroyed the radio and severed his aircrafts hydraulic lines and rudder cable forcing Rasmussen to seek refuge in nearby cloud cover before flying back toward Wheeler Field. Landing without brakes, rudder or tailwheel his P-34A was riddled more than 500 bullet holes.








In my long break away from Strike Fighters this lovely little Rogožarski IK-3 (a late 1930's Yugoslav monoplane fighter) was released by the DAT boys and I've used the speculative maps to create a silver/NMF skin and, once again, placed the result into service as a Pearl Harbor defender!

[SPINNERS]

Bristol Blenheim Mk.I - 2-VLG-III, Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force, 1940






Another DAT release was this Blenheim Mk.I (and also a Blenheim Mk.IF) with RAF, Greek and Yugoslav skins and I've used the latter here to create a NEI Blenheim although these colours might have been better used on a 'European' Dutch machine.

[Rheged]

How nice to see you again!   It has been a while since you were last here.     I hope to see you more regularly (life events permitting) from now on..............and a Happy New Year to you!

[PR19_Kit]

In my long break away from Strike Fighters this lovely little Rogožarski IK-3 (a late 1930's Yugoslav monoplane fighter) was released by the DAT boys and I've used the speculative maps to create a silver/NMF skin and, once again, placed the result into service as a Pearl Harbor defender!

That looks remarkably like a Hurricane.

Good to see you back Spinners. 

[Gondor]

Very strange, I was thinking about some of your images just the other day. Welcome back and Happy New Year

Gondor

[Sport21ing]

  X100

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Fury II - F8, Flygvapnet, 1938





A Hawker Fury Mk.II with Yugoslav camo & markings was released by the DAT boys just before Christmas and I thought it would look good in silver and with Swedish markings similar to their silver Gloster Gladiators.