Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Republic F-84M Thunderstreak - No.14 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1966

The swept-wing Republic F-84F Thunderstreak was an important fighter-bomber for the United States and her NATO allies and after a troubled development and delays in production the Thunderstreak programme soon recovered and, with massive orders to fulfill, the Farmingdale production line was supplemented by a second production line outsourced to General Motors at Kansas City. When the last straight-winged F-84G Thunderjet rolled off the Farmingdale production line on July 27th, 1953 production of the newer aircraft stepped up sharply and was boosted by the employment of several subcontractors including Kaiser Metal Products, Servel and Goodyear Aircraft.

Republic Aviation then started a self-financed project to replace the F-84F and RF-84F family and Alexander Kartveli's design team settled on a large, single-engined fighter-bomber initially known as the AP-63FBX (Advanced Project 63 Fighter Bomber, Experimental) but later to become the legendary F-105. Designed primarily for supersonic, low altitude penetration the F-105 was capable of delivering a single nuclear bomb carried in a small internal weapons bay and an enthusiastic United States Air Force soon rewarded Republic with a production order contract for 199 aircraft in September 1952. However, the expected end of the Korean War forced the United States Air Force to reduce their order to just 46 aircraft before cancelling the entire programme at the end of 1953 but then reinstating the programme in June 1954 with a small order for 15 F-105 aircraft (two YF-105A's, four YF-105B's, six F-105B's and three RF-105B's).

Faced with such uncertainty, Republic Aviation looked at ways of keeping the F-84F in production and focused on tackling the F-84F's mediocre flight performance and especially the poor takeoff performance with a more powerful engine. Kartveli quickly dusted down a previous study of fitting the Rolls-Royce Avon engine into the F-84F and with this fine engine being of a similar size as the Sapphire/J65 but now rated at 10,000lbs of dry thrust Kartveli looked no further than an F-84F modified to accept the Avon engine. The new version also incorporated several refinements learned from service experience such as stainless steel control rods and an improved all-flying tail that almost removed the vicious stall characteristics of the F-84F. Designated by Republic Aviation as the F-84M the new aircraft was marketed aggressively as a dedicated tactical fighter-bomber and soon picked up orders from Canada. New Zealand and Australia with the latter operating their F-84M's in action over Vietnam in 1964 and 1965.











Well played New Zealand and hard luck to the Aussies who fought back during the second half. A fitting end to the 2015 RWC Final.

I've repeated my backstory with a little update to include New Zealand.

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Panavia Tornado - No.14 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1984

















There are two Tornado IDS and also a nice Tornado F3 available and this IDS is by a German modder (Florian) who, quite naturally, did the German version including this lovely camo to which I've simply added RNZAF markings but including a new raked fin flash and a tail stripe which takes a bit longer than you might imagine to get the diamonds to fit exactly!


Panavia Tornado - Royal New Zealand Air Force

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Supermarine Spitfire F.24 - Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1947











A bit of a 'speed build' tonight using a BoB style camo adapted to fit the Mk.24 (so don't look to closely) with the lovely Kiwi SEAC roundel designed by Jeremak.

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Supermarine Spitfire PR.19 - 42 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1946







This sweet Spitfire PR.19 was released about a year ago by the SFP-1 Dev A-Team. I've not shown it here before and have gone for quite a simple over-painting of the RAF markings with Belgian national insignia and then spent some time making some spurious RAF style codes using the blue seen on the border of modern Belgian roundels and their normal yellow as an outline.

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Republic F-84K Thunderstreak FG.1 - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1957















I think this falls into the category of highly unlikely but highly entertaining  

This is the F-84F with a simple Royal Navy scheme made from the stock Third Wire silver skin by tinting the upper surfaces black (50% opacity) and the lower surfaces white (again, at 50% opacity) with some parts added back in untinted. It's a bit crude but it's a means to an end.

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McDonnell Dassault F-4F Fantôme - Patrouille de France, 1977















I've knocked this Patrouille de France skin up from a cracking F-4B template adapted for the F-4M. It's a bit rough around the edges and I may tidy it up at some time including adding some paint to the intake splitter plate which is on a separate mesh to the fuselage and nose. Perhaps McDonnell merged with Dassault in 1966 to totally dominate the fighter market with the F-4 and Mirage families available to suit the depth of the purchaser's pockets. Naturally, the F-4F designation would be given to France.

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FMA IA70 Duende - Grupo 6, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 2012











A nice little surprise 'beta' release, this is the HAL Tejas by the Banidos Team from Argentina so it's quite appropriate for me to use it as an indigenous Argentinian multi-role fighter in service with the Fuerza Aérea Argentina. I don't know much about the real Tejas but it manages to remind me of several aircraft all at once! I can see Mirage 2K, Viggen and Fairey Delta in there!

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De Havilland Vampire FB.56 - No.323 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1955















The De Havilland Vampire FB5/FB9/FB52 has been available as an 'AI' aircraft since the release of the Strike Fighters 2 Expansion Pack 1 (and much earlier as a third-party add-on) and this lovely RAF skin with PRU Blue undersides was released recently. I thought I'd try it in Dutch markings but I first had to check if it happened in real life!

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Yakovlev Yak-13 'Fleapit' - Soviet Air Force, 1949











This Yak-13 uses the older third-party Vampire dressed up as the Swedish J 28B and then it's simply stock Third Wire insignia and white Soviet numbers.

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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.24 - Groupe de Reconnaissance 2/33, Armée de l'Air, 1949













Rather surprisingly, for the world's most iconic aircraft, the Spitfire is a non-flyable 'AI' type and whilst it can be made flyable there are a few problems with them to overcome. Thankfully, the 3D models are excellent and the Mk.24 is no exception. This is the stock silver skin with some new Armée de l'Air decals although this particular unit should really operate an 'FR' version.

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I see a VZ-9 Avrocar pack has been uploaded at CombatAce...think you'll add some paints on this to your portfolio?

Avro-Saab J 36B 'Diskus' - F11, Flygvapnet, 1973











Just a bit of fun really! This was quite an easy skin to make as the 3D model is quite basic (the 3D modder admits to doing it as a bit of a speed build) and splinter camo removes the need for lots of detail! Oddly I'm unable to get the port insignia on there and don't want to resort to painting it on as the panel lines aren't quite symmetrical. J 36 - the only hint of a spare Saab designation is used again! I've definitely used it for the F-100 and F-106 but nothing matches Jozef Gatial's J 36 - Saab must have had Gerry Anderson working for them back then!

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Yakovlev Yak-13 'Fleapit-A' - PVO Strany, 1948











Not much time tonight but thankfully the decal positions are already known (I've switched back to the Third Wire model of the FB.5) and the stock silver skin is a beaut! The last shot is the B-30 Exterminator's that the Fleapit's were trying to intercept and they mangled me. This very inventive 'what if' is available at the SFP1 Dev A-Team site.

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Hmmm, a request from the audience: any chance for this one in the current standard Russian Air Force livery (Dark Grey uppers, light blue underside)? 

MiG-37 'Ferret-C' - Russian Air Force, 2011

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Fairey Battle Mk.II - 3 Escadrille, GB II/61, Armee de l'Air, 1940















Whilst the Fairey Battle has hopelessly inadequate I've always liked the shape of it and the Airfix kit of it was one of the few that I built, painted and decaled as per the box (at least 95% of my models were 'what if'). This is the RAF skin with some overpainted national insignia, painted on rudder with weathering plus a tailfin marking as seen on an Armee de l'Air Boston/Havoc.

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Hawker Hurricane IP - 113th Fighter Squadron, Polish Air Force, 1939











A very nice PZL P.11c was released recently and I've taken the colours off it and applied it to the Hurricane I with a new fuselage marking and some numbers I did during my recent Regia Aeronautica burst.