Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Fairchild A-11C Jaguar - 81st Tactical Fighter Squadron, USAFE, 1980

USAFA-11CJAGUAR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-11CJAGUAR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-11CJAGUAR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFA-11CJAGUAR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

An IAF grey 'Shamser' skin has been used here with some USAF decals to create this 'lo' asset in the 'hi-lo mix' talked about in those days (not to be confused with the J-Lo mix or pic 'n' mix).

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Grumman F-111B Bobcat - VF-1 'Wolfpack', USN, 1977

USNF-111BAARDVARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've made a new skin for my USN F-111B by using the superb F-111 template but the nose mapping is just a bit wobbly. Anyway, whilst the F-111 has always been a favourite of mine I've never liked the F-111B but I am enjoying this book;

F-111B_Book by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USNF-111BAARDVARK08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Scottish Electric Lightning F.6A - No.111 Squadron, Scottish Air Force, 1974

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SCOTTISHLIGHTNINGF6A06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a wee bit late for Burns Night but this is my Scottish Lightning F.6A (A for Alba) with the 'Lion Rampant' from the Scottish Standard on the fin with the same yellow on the fin and spine with my 'Thistle' roundels. Perhaps No. 43 and No.111  squadron were transferred to the new Scottish Air Force when Scotland declared Independence in 1974!

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell F3H-2M Demon - Flotille 12F, Aéronavale, 1962

The McDonnell F3H was one of the most promising fighter projects of the early 1950's but by 1954 the programme had virtually ground to a halt with a three-month grounding due a spate of crashes and inflight explosions stemming from the Westinghouse J40 engine problems that were also affecting other US Navy aircraft projects. By 1955 early F3H production aircraft were coming off the assembly line without engines and used as ground instructional training aircraft but the first flight of the Allison J71 powered F3H soon injected some confidence in the programme and, although the J71 was not exactly trouble free, it was a vast improvement over the J40.

Despite this turmoil Aéronavale officials visited St. Louis with a view to purchasing the F3H for their forthcoming Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers and as a replacement for the SNCASE Aquillon (De Havilland Venom) on which they had cut their jet teeth a few years earlier. Initial plans to similarly licence-build the F3H were quickly shelved however due to a scaled-down order for just 36 aircraft and all Aéronavale F3H's were produced by McDonnell and delivered during 1957 and 1958 where they equipped Flotille 12F and Flotille 14F. However, delays in the French aircraft carrier programme meant that they were not embarked aboard the Clemanceau until 1962 and the Foch until early 1964 but remained in Aéronavale service until 1969 a full five years after the type was retired by the US Navy.

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The Demon is one of several 3D models built by 'Foxmonter' a good few years ago but they're still really good and his excellent template has allowed me to make an Aéronavale Demon is a scheme similar to the later Étendard and Super Étendard although I couldn't quite get the port wing fence (or strengthening rib?) painted in the correct colour. I have previously done a Royal Navy Demon in 899NAS markings and might revisit it again.

AERONAVALEF3H-2MDEMON07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr
Cross-deck operations

[SPINNERS]

General Dynamics F-111A - 428th Tactical Fighter Squadron, USAF Tactical Air Command, 1964

USAFF-111AAARDVARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-111AAARDVARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-111AAARDVARK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-111AAARDVARK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Only a partial 'what if' based on the swing-wing research carried out by Vickers during the mid-1950's being passed to NASA's Langley Laboratory earlier than reality (i.e. before 1959) and then a corresponding earlier drafting of SOR-183 and the resultant TFX competition predating McNamara and the distraction of 'commonality' and the Naval F-111B. I'm not sure an earlier TF30 would have done it much good though!

F-111A_2 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

F-111A_1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

General Dynamics F-111N - 6° Stormo 'Diavoli Rossi', Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 1990

Once the USAF's SOR-183 'Tactical Strike Fighter' mission and the USN's 'Fleet Air Defense' mission had been banged together to create the TFX competition, eventually won by General Dynamics, there was immediate interest from many air forces due to the dazzling performance promised by the F-111. In turn, General Dynamics were encouraged by the US Department of State to propose export versions to allied nations so as to realise further cost savings from a larger production run. Indeed, the likely production run was estimated to be in excess of 1,500 for the USAF and USN plus another 1,000 for export to US allies and by 1964 this had prompted General Dynamics to actively market a baseline F-111X export version based on the F-111A.

When the UK Government cancelled the outstanding TSR.2 strike aircraft in April 1965, General Dynamics realigned the F-111X to create the F-111N meant as a NATO standard type with the UK announced as a launch customer for a new version based on the Australian F-111C with long-span wings and strengthened landing gear and subsequently revised to incorporate the Triple Plow II intake and the TF30-P-12 engine rated at 20,250lbs thrust. Whilst initially only ordering 50 F-111N's the UK Government gave every indication of a total requirement of 220. In early 1966 Italy become the second customer for the F-111N when they ordered 90 aircraft for the Aeronautica Militare Italiana and the first of these entered service in 1969 with 154º Gruppo at Ghedi.

AMIF-111NAARDVARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMIF-111NAARDVARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMIF-111NAARDVARK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMIF-111NAARDVARK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMIF-111NAARDVARK05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This cracking RAF wraparound skin is from the F-111K pack to which I've added AMI roundels, 6° Stormo codes and a Tornado-esque fin marking plus a Devil's Fork nose marking.

A couple of shots showing the earlier style of roundel... and Martels!

AMIF-111NAARDVARK06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AMIF-111NAARDVARK07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

General Dynamics F-111N - 2 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1977

BAFF-111NAARDVARK01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

BAFF-111NAARDVARK07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Quite a few years ago now I was lucky enough to have been given the template for the F-111 created by the 3D modeller and this uses the SEA upper surfaces but with grey undersides and I've tried to replicate the fin HF shunt aerial and the nose dielectric (?) panels seen on the 'Combat Lancer' detachment F-111A's but also on a few F-111E's. Stock Mirage 5BA codes are used.

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SOVIETIL-10BEAST01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETIL-10BEAST02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIETIL-10BEAST03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANS-9904 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARANS-9905 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Not much time tonight so just a couple of screenshots showcasing the new Il-10 'Beast' and also a new Desert terrain which you'll be seeing a lot more of as it's an absolute cracker! The Parani Avia S-99's have been shown before and are a real favourite of mine.

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin Il-10 'Beast' - 1st Attack Regiment, Afghan Air Force, 1954

In 1953 Mohammed Daoud Khan became  President of Afghanistan and soon looked for a closer relationship with the Soviet Union and, perhaps unintentionally, this soon led to a more distant relationship towards Pakistan which by 1954 had escalated into border clashes over the disputed Durand Line which had never been amended or ratified since Pakistan's partition from India in 1947. Sensing an opportunity to extend their sphere of influence into the region the Soviet Union quickly supplied military equipment to the Afghan Government including the formidable Ilyushin Il-10 (NATO Codename: 'Beast') which soon became the mainstay of the Afghan Air Force.

AFGHANIL-10BEAST01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AFGHANIL-10BEAST02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AFGHANIL-10BEAST03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AFGHANIL-10BEAST04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

AFGHANIL-10BEAST05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is my first Afghan 'what if' although I must immediately own up to the fact that my Afghan roundels actually belong to the 1937 to 1947 era but these don't quite fit the timing of my short backstory and I really dislike the roundel that came later so a bit of artistic licence has been used - acceptable in 'what if' land don't you think? In game, the recently released 'Beast' is a delight to fly on attack missions.

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin Il-10 'Beast' - Regimiento de Ataque 'Reino de Castilla', Spanish Republican Air Force, 1949

SPREPIL-10BEAST01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SPREPIL-10BEAST02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SPREPIL-10BEAST03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SPREPIL-10BEAST04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I love flying this "beast" - huge fun clobbering ground targets!

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Hawker Hurricane Mk.5 - Irish Air Corps, 1948

The final Hurricane variant was the Hurricane Mk.V proposed as a dedicated ground-attack aircraft for operations in the Far East and powered by a lusty Merlin 32 engine boosted to give 1,700 hp at low level driving a Rotol four-bladed propeller and with a maximum speed of 326 mph at sea level. Two converted Hurricane Mk.IV's and a single Mk.V prototype was built but no production order was gained as there was no appreciable improvement over the preceding Mark IV. In late 1945 Hawker's were given permission to export all three Hurricane Mk.V's to Ireland where they were brought up to a common standard and modified to carry four 0.50-cal M2 machine guns. The three aircraft entered service in March 1946 with the Irish Air Corps at Baldonnel where they served until 1951.

IACHURRICANE501 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACHURRICANE502 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACHURRICANE503 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IACHURRICANE504 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

With Wales playing Ireland today I was always going to do an IAC 'what if' win, lose or draw but the scale of Wales' defeat has shocked me somewhat. Anyway, I know that Ireland operated a few Hurricanes but this is the four-bladed Mk.V with the '139' and '140' serials stolen from the Miles Martinet target tugs.

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Lockheed P-38J Lightning Mk.III - No.33 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1944

In April 1940, the Anglo-French Purchasing Committee ordered from Lockheed 667 examples of the Model 322 P-38 Lightning but, foolishly, asked for the aircraft to be fitted with Allison V-1710-15 engines with right-hand rotation and without turbo-superchargers so as to make the engines interchangeable with those fitted to the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks which had also been purchased by both nations in large numbers. The Anglo-French Purchasing Committee were also aware of the problems being experienced by the U.S. War Department by the slow delivery of turbo-superchargers and did not want to introduce any delays due to the urgency of the war situation in Europe.

Within a few weeks France had fallen so the entire contract for the Model 322 Lightnings was taken over by Britain who soon realised their mistake and amended their order to 143 Lightning Mk.I's with Allison V-1710-15 engines and 524 Lightning Mk.II's with Allison turbo-supercharged V-1710-F5L and -F5R engines. However, early flight-testing of the Lightning Mk.I's at Boscombe Down revealed poor performance and tricky handling and the RAF flatly refused to accept any more deliveries. Whilst the early Lightning Mk.I's were absorbed into USAAF service as fighter trainers the non-acceptance of the 524 Lightning Mk.II's became a long-running contractual issue at Government level.

During 1942 Lockheed became aware of the collaborative efforts of North American and Rolls-Royce to fit the two-stage Merlin 61 engine to the P-51B Mustang and soon offered a Merlin-powered Lightning to an eager USAAF as the P-38K and large production orders were placed for this new variant powered by the Packard V-1650-3 engine based on the Merlin 68 and rated at 1,670 hp (1,245 kW) at 3,000 rpm. By early 1943 massive production of two-stage Merlin engines was underway at both Packard at Detroit and at Continental at Muskegon and Lockheed confidently offered the British Government this new Lightning variant as a multi-role fighter for the RAF in the Far East and the British Government quickly agreed to accept 524 examples as the Lightning Mk.III to settle the simmering contractual dispute.

Entering service as the Lightning Mk.III with No.45 Squadron in Burma in January 1944 the aircraft served with a total of nine squadrons in the Far East and continued in service well past VJ-Day playing an important role in the Malaya emergency where two squadrons (No.33 and No.45) were sent to Kuala Lumper to operate against Communist terrorists as part of 'Operation Firedog' during 1948 and 1949 before being replaced by Meteor FB.6's during 1950.

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFP-38JLIGHTNING06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Being a prolific builder of Airfix kits in my youth (1970's) I had a fascination for the twin-boomers that I could lay my hands on in Woolies and/or the corner shop and remember building their P-38, P-61 and Bronco kits so I've quite enjoyed doing this one although some corners have been cut in so much that some remnants of the USAAF skin remain. I'm redoing my SEAC markings after stumbling upon a note that states that the lighter blue was simply a 50/50 mix of the dark blue and white and I've also altered the proportions to be the same as 'B' type but will still use different proportions for modern SEAC stuff.   

[SPINNERS]

BAC Stilleto FG.4 - No.17 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1969

RAFMiG-21MFISHBED01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMiG-21MFISHBED02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMiG-21MFISHBED03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMiG-21MFISHBED04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFMiG-21MFISHBED05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've previously done the MiG-21F as the Bristol Stilleto F.1 so this is a later version of the Stilleto using the MiG-21M airframe with the stock Luftstreitkräfte skin and new SEAC markings.

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Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HJT-38 Shikra - Indian Air Force, 2002

IAFIA-63APAMPA01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAFIA-63APAMPA02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IAFIA-63APAMPA03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the FMA IA 63 Pampa masquerading as the Shikra advanced trainer or rather something looking like the FMA IA 63 Pampa as the 3D model looks a bit 'plump' and egg plane-ish compared to piccies of the real Pampa.

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Lockheed YF-110 Fishbed - 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron, USAF, 1986

USAFMiG-21bisFISHBED01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMiG-21bisFISHBED02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMiG-21bisFISHBED03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFMiG-21bisFISHBED04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Whilst I haven't got a proper Fishbed template it is possible to 'tint' a skin to reasonable effect quite quickly and this is a quick and dirty Lizard Splinter skin on the MiG-21bis. The 'HL' codes are simply what I had to hand.