Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

one note, in the 70's one side of the aircraft said "Belgische Zeemacht", while the other side said "Force Navale Belge"

Flinkin' blip! You lot are worse than the Canadians 

BMCF-8ECRUSADER12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BMCF-8ECRUSADER13 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BMCF-8ECRUSADER14 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BMCF-8ECRUSADER16 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BMCF-8ECRUSADER17 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4EU - Various Units, United States Navy, 1970's

By early 1968 the senior Admirals of the United States Navy saw the failure of the F-111B programme as an opportunity to get the green light for their VFX 'back-up' plan and the cancellation of the F-111B in May 1968 was an important step in their plans. In July 1968 the Naval Air Systems Command issued a Request for Proposals for the Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) programme calling for a tandem two-seat, twin-engined air-to-air fighter with a maximum speed of Mach 2.2 with an inbuilt M61 Vulcan cannon and a secondary close air support role but the primary focus remained long-range interception using the AIM-54 missile. Bids were received from General Dynamics, Grumman, Ling-Temco-Vought, McDonnell Douglas and North American Rockwell and such was the urgency of this programme that Grumman and McDonnell Douglas were selected as finalists in December 1968 with Grumman expected to be announced as winners shortly afterwards.

However, the incoming Nixon administration had other ideas. Faced with the highest inflation since the Korean War era, the massive costs of the Vietnam War and the Apollo programme the new administration demanded cost savings in all departments and soon the new Secretary of Defense, Melvin R. Laird, had identified the VFX programme as being ripe for pruning and ordered an urgent cost review. McDonnell Douglas knew that their variable-geometry F-4S was unpopular with the Admirals and was likely to require as much test and development time (and associated costs) as Grumman's exciting 'clean sheet of paper' design and decided to offer a lower-cost solution.  With perfect timing, they met senior Defense Department officials in early February 1969 and reminded Laird that the F-4 Phantom II programme was now benefiting from the economies of scale from high production to such an extent that Phantoms were pouring off the production line at barely two-thirds of their 1962 costs. They proposed a new multi-service version of the F-4E called the F-4EU for 'Universal' and suggested that they could meet 80% of the VFX specification at about 40% of the expected cost and Laird found this hard to resist but delayed cancellation of the VFX and associated AIM-54 programmes until July 20th when he knew that the domestic audience would be watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin taking a giant leap for mankind and Laird calmly considerded that there was no need to announce the 'new' programme as it was just a new version of an existing design.

McDonnell Douglas quickly undertook the detail design to transform the long-nose cannon-armed F-4E for carrier use and smoothly introduced the F-4EU on the production line where it followed on from the F-4J for the Navy with just the first few F-4EU's retaining the 'hard' unslatted wing. Production machines entered service with VMFA-333 and VF-111 in 1972 and service pilots considered that the inbuilt cannon far outweighed any visibility problems caused by the longer nose and VF-111 put their new mount to good use in February 1973 claiming a Mig-17 kill. F-4EU's served until with the United States Navy until 1989 and the United States Marine Corps until 1991.

USNF-4EUPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4EUPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4EUPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4EUPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom - VF-84 'Jolly Rogers' 1943

Shades of 'The Final Countdown'

USNF-4J_43PHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4J_43PHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4J_43PHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-4J_43PHANTOM05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a bit of fun, not to be taken too seriously....

[SPINNERS]

Short B-22C Stirling - 350th BS, 100th BG, United States Army Air Force, ETO 1943

USAAFSTIRLING01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFSTIRLING02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFSTIRLING03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've recycled (pre-cycled?) the B-22 designation (Douglas, let's be honest, your B-22 wasn't going anywhere) to make a Short Stirling for the USAAF (that'll set relations back a few years). Perhaps the USA decided to keep the B-17's and B-24's for the Pacific and use whatever they could get their hands on in Europe. Further back in this thread is a much more realistic USAAF Lincoln

USAAFLINCOLN05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4M - EC1/10 'Valois', Armée de l'air, 1975

ADLAF-4MPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAF-4MPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

ADLAF-4MPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've rediscovered my love for the Phantom in recent days and have a few books on the go at the moment. My earlier 'Jolly Rogers' retro USN scheme has prompted me to try a French Air Defense Phantom and it's not too bad but the blue isn't quite there (short-sightedly, I tend to do this by eye and comparing it to the stock Mirage IIIC in a similar blue scheme shows this up). The big Matra 530 missile doesn't sit too well on the F-4 and needs a deeper pylon to avoid the fins being in the belly of the F-4.

[SPINNERS]

Supermarine Spitfire IXc - 380th Fighter Squadron, USAAF, 1944

FOOLSPARADISE by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFSPITFIRE9C01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAAFSPITFIRE9C02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In about 1974 I can clearly recall spending 19p at the local shop for the classic Series 1 Airfix P-51D 'Fools Paradise' so when I saw a silver Spitfire skin I thought I'd adapt it to make a Spitfire in a Fools Paradise scheme. Sorry about the jet jockey btw!

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4M - Jagdgeschwader 74 Mölders, West German Luftwaffe, 1979 

LUFTWAFFEF-4MPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4MPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4MPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4MPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1A's - 767 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Eagle, Mid Atlantic, April 1982

Training whilst steaming south...

RNF-4K02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNF-4K03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNF-4K04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RNF-4K05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

(Two points - ignore the carrier and ignore the VL fin code).

Another DLC aircraft was released by Third Wire recently and one to excite post-war British aviation buffs - the Phantom FG.1. The download includes three versions (early, mid-70's with fin cap and 1980) and includes this Royal Navy skin (with classic 892NAS markings) plus RAF Camo with No.43 'Fighting Cocks' markings. I've designed a new Yellow Eagle decal to make this 767NAS version and added Royal Navy 'B' type roundels to make it a 'what if'.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1A - 767 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal, Persian Gulf, 1991











'What If' the Phantom FG.1's had served aboard a new HMS Ark Royal (CVA-01) and were about to be replaced by Sea Tornadoes when the Gulf War kicked off?

[SPINNERS]

Gloster F-73C Meteor - 16th FIS, 51st FIW, 1951







I was inspired by jorel62's recent USAF Gloster Meteor and decided to make it for Strike Fighters with just a few changes. I've previously used the P-74/F-74 designation for my USAF Vampire Aggressor (currently on Page 26) so I've used the almost spare P-73/F-73 designation (a story in it's own right - see link below). You'll notice that the trim tab(?) on the lower rudder is missing the checker-board markings, a problem I'm trying to solve.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p73.html

[SPINNERS]

Gloster F-73C Meteor - 51st FIW, United States Air Force, 1951









I've removed the white from the tail 'checkers' and created different coloured bands leaving the original tri-colour for the Wing Commander. Also new Buzz numbers (FM - Fighter Meteor!)


Now available for download at Combat Ace!

[SPINNERS]

[SPINNERS]

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

RSAFF-20ATIGERSHARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RSAFF-20ATIGERSHARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The F-20 Tigershark was released by the prolific Veltro2K today so I've quickly worked out the decal positions and created a rather basic Saudi 'what if'.

[SPINNERS]

Fairchild A-10A(K) - Kurdistan Air Force, 2016

KURDISTANA-10A01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANA-10A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KURDISTANA-10A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There was a request for a Kurdistan Air Force roundel made at Combat Ace so this is my submission and applied to the A-10.

[SPINNERS]

Gloster F-73C Meteor - Exercise Guardian Angel, 1951

USAFMETEORF810 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMETEORF811 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMETEORF812 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMETEORF813 by Spinners1961, on Flickr