Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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de Havilland Vampire F.Mk.I - Grupo 4 de Caza, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1949





Pretty simple this one and I quite like the square fins on the F.Mk.1.

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Bell Airabonita Mk.1A - No.611 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1941





I've shown the DAT's Bell XFL-1 Airabonita before and, as a reminder, it was a parallel development of the P-39 Airacobra but designed as a carrier-based interceptor using a tailwheel undercarriage. I made a template for the Airabonita a couple of years ago initially for a Fleet Air Arm machine and I later did a SEAC Airabonita with green and brown uppersurfaces so this just needed sky undersides, fuselage band and spinner which puts it in a narrow time window of the Spring/Summer of 1941.

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Bachem Ba 349 Natter - Luftwaffe, 1947







A little gem tucked away in the DAT's 'Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe' pack is the Bachem Ba 239 Natter. Interestingly, the wiki page on the Ba 239 mentions Japanese interest in the project...

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Mitsubishi Ki-204 'Kōsoku Jōshō' (Fast Ascent) - Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, 1946

Facing similar air defence problems as Germany, Japan considered that only radical solutions could give them any hope of intercepting the B-29 Superfortress bombers that were beginning to roam far and wide over the Japanese mainland during the summer of 1944. Japan had already sent military attachés to Germany to evaluate the Me-163 rocket-powered interceptor at the Bad Zwischenahn airfield of Erprobungskommando 16 and they had also visited the Bachem-Werke GmbH to evaluate the Ba-239 project (also rocket-powered) still on the drawing board but of equal interest to the Japanese who liked the fact that it was designed to be built by unskilled labour with inexpensive 'non-strategic' materials. At considerable expense, Japan negotiated the rights to licence-produce both the Me-163 and Ba-239 aircraft and their Walter HWK 509A rocket engine and in August 1944 Japan's new Prime Minister, Kuniaki Koiso, entrusted this work to the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company. Whilst the Me-163 would be produced for the IJN and the IJAAF, Kuniaki Koiso insisted that the Ba-239 would only be produced for the IJAAF under the designation of Ki-204.

With the design already completed by Bachem and requiring very little modification to accept Japanese equipment the Ki-204 progressed quickly and essentially mirrored the German Ba-239 programme by using towed unmanned glider flights before moving on to manned glider flights and then successful unmanned vertical take-offs from the experimental launch tower at Mitsubishi's Nagoya factory. However, using lessons learned from the unfortunate death of the Bachem test pilot Lothar Sieber (during the unsuccessful first vertical take-off flight of the Ba-239 in March 1945) the first vertical take-off flight of the Ki-204 prototype was successful but was cut short when the main rocket engine cut out caused by a fuel pump failure in the T-Stoff (oxidiser) fuel line. With similar problems affecting the Ki-200 (Me-163) programme, Mitsubishi engineers worked flat-out to resolve the issue eventually traced to heat expansion in the pump and fuel line requiring increased localised insulation to combat the rapid heat build up when both fuels reacted during combustion.

Whilst the Ki-200 was considered the more important programme the Ki-204 'Kōsoku Jōshō' (Fast Ascent) continued to make progress during the remainder of 1945 and launch sites for the Ki-204 began to spring up across several Japanese cities during late 1945 and early 1946 under the ambitious 'Operation Dagger' which called for the 10 largest Japanese cities to be ringed with a circle of eight Ki-204 launch sites with each site having three individual launch pads and towers arranged at the corners of an equilateral triangle. Operation Dagger also called for the eventful recruitment and training of 240 volunteer pilots per week with no restrictions on age or gender although a lower age limit of 17 years was later stipulated. Pilot training for the Ki-204 was to be a simple affair with some basic familiarisation of the Ki-204's controls on the ground followed by studying the standard intercept profile which consisted of a single attack with the nose-mounted rockets followed by a glide back down to an altitude of about 3,000m before the pilot left the aircraft to descend by parachute. Ki-204's began to be delivered to the Osaka Defense Circle in May 1946 with the first operational launch of a Ki-204 taking place on June 2nd, 1946 when two aircraft were launched without success against B-29's. On June 5th the Nagoya Defense Circle launched three Ki-204 aircraft against a small force of B-42C Mixmaster bombers claiming one B-42C destroyed and one damaged but one Ki-204 exploded shortly after leaving it's launch pad killing the female pilot. Both of the Ki-204 pilots who engaged the B-42's successfully parachuted near the outskirts of Nagoya. The Ki-204 programme continued to have sporadic successes but the supply of aircraft and pilots could not keep up with the losses and the programme was essentially over at the time of the Japan Armistice of July 1946.







Whilst the Strike Fighters game engine cannot replicate the vertical rocket launch of the Ba 239 Natter it's still huge fun flying this against bombers. On the real Natter the booster rockets developed a whopping 10,600 lbs of thrust but only for 10 seconds before being jettisoned - again, something that the game engine cannot replicate. Whilst reading up on the Mitsubishi J8M/Ki-200 (Me-163) I was shocked to learn that the engine licence for the Walter HWK 509A rocket engine cost the Japanese 20 million Reichsmarks (equivalent to 81 million 2021 euros).

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Blohm & Voss P 170 'Schnellbomber' - KG30, Luftwaffe, 1946






I'm like a kid in a sweet shop with the DAT's 'Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe' and whilst the Blohm & Voss P 170 is quite an unattractive aircraft it's a very interesting design concept.

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Ryan FR-1 Fireball - No.20 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 1946










This is my take on DAT's updated FR-1 Fireball and it's loosely based on photo's of Kiwi F4U's in the overall USN blue. I just needed to cover up the painted on starbars and add my own decals including 'distressed' Kiwi starbars (I thought I'd overdone it but they are barely noticeable except perhaps in the first piccie). I had no idea that the RNZAF had so many Corsairs (424 aircraft in 13 squadrons) although by the end of 1945 only No.14 Squadron were left and were based in Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. In game, the Fireball is actually a nice aircraft to fly and is very effective in ground attack missions.

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Brewster Buffalo Mk.IA - No.263 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1940

In the early Spring of 1940 a total of 32 Brewster B-339 aircraft (out of a total Belgian order for 40) were diverted to the RAF and were urgently deployed to Norway during early April. Having only recently exchanged their Gloster Gladiators for Buffalo Mk.1A's, No.263 Squadron became operational at Bardufoss fighting alongside No.46 Squadron in a short but intensive campaign before being instructed to prepare for evacuation on June 2nd, 1940. No.263 Squadron's nine surviving Buffalo aircraft were landed on HMS Glorious on June 7th but unfortunately the aircraft carrier was sunk after being intercepted by the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst. 







Yes, I know it wasn't the greatest fighter aircraft (although the Finns fighting the Red Air Force probably had a different view) but I do like the F2A Buffalo and this uses the Finnish scheme with national markings carefully cut out of an RAF skin and pasted on with code letters and serial number decals knocked up by me.

Edit: I did mean mean to crank into my backstory an explanation of the non-standard colour scheme. 

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Sukhoi Su-21S 'Flagpole-A' - PVO, Soviet Air Force, 1988






I was rummaging around in the Combat Ace download section and discovered this Soviet version by 'Gunrunner' of a lovely 3D model by 'Cocas' (which I believe is based on a McDonnell Douglas study into a single-engine delta wing F-15). I've previously showed this in RAF and Israeli markings and Cocas went the extra mile to make single-seat and two-seat versions. I can see the F-15 nose but, to me, the rest of it screams Sukhoi .

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Chengdu J-14 'Dragón' - Grupo 5, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 2022

In July 2019 ambassadors from 22 nations of the UN signed a joint letter to the UNHRC condemning China's mistreatment of the Uyghurs and the UK urged the Chinese government to close the Xinjiang 're-education camps'. Relations between the UK and China became further strained when the UK opposed the Hong Kong national security law on the grounds that it was a flagrant breach of the agreement between the UK and China. In July 2020 Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, stated that the UK "will bear the consequences" if it continues to treat China as a hostile country. Despite this, in October 2020, the UK Parliament's Defence Committee strongly recommended that the UK government should remove all Huawei equipment from its 5G networks earlier than planned and this set back relations even further.

Almost as a petty act of revenge, the Chinese government immediately gifted 8 Chengdu J-14 'Eagle Dragon' stealth fighters to Argentina with options on a further batch of 12 at a reduced price with a long payback period. During a visit to Argentina in November 2020, Xi Jinping (the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party) wished Argentina every success in it's "struggle against colonial powers lurking in it's backyard". This act was clearly designed to antagonise the UK government but the initial batch of 8 J-14's were eagerly received by a seriously depleted Fuerza Aérea Argentina who had literally a single handful of Lockheed Martin A-4AR Fightinghawk fighter-bombers available at any one time. The first J-14's arrived at the Port of Río Gallegos as deck cargo aboard the Xiang Hua Men (a Panamanian flagged cargo vessel) and were assembled by Chengdu technicians at the nearby Piloto Civil Norberto Fernández International Airport. Entering service in March 2022 with Grupo 5 de Caza at Villa Reynolds Airport near the city of Villa Mercedes in the province of San Luis, the J-14's have transformed the Fuerza Aérea Argentina and the options on the additional batch of 12 have been taken alongside an additional example purchased as an attrition replacement for a J-14 that crashed near Córdoba in October 2022.







This is quite an elderly 3D model and it's a bit of a bear to work with as it's not been mapped properly so I've made a very simple skin with just a few dirty panel lines (stealth aircraft are meant to be smooth  ) and I've actually had to use solid decals to 'paint' some components but I think the markings lift it to an acceptable standard for piccies.

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Republic F-105D Thunderchief -  Jagdbombergeschwader 31, German Air Force, 1962

When Kennedy and Khrushchev first met at the Vienna Summit in June 1961 there was hope of better relations between the USA and the Soviet Union but in the weeks that followed these hopes faded when the Soviet Union proposed a treaty between Moscow and East Berlin leading to Kennedy countering with a clear statement that any treaty interfering with U.S. access rights in West Berlin would be regarded as an act of war. Upon his return to the USA, Kennedy's advisors told him that Khrushchev was still planning to sign a treaty with East Berlin and advocated an immediate military build-up in Europe including the deployment of the new Republic F-105D's of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing and the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing with both wings having a primary tactical nuclear strike role.

The erection of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 caused Kennedy more anxiety and among a raft of actions he authorised the immediate transfer of 36 F-105D's to the German Air Force with most aircraft coming from the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Eglin Air Force Base. Entering service in October 1961 with Jagdbombergeschwader 31 at Nörvenich the F-105D's replaced the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighters and were operated until 1980 when the Wing began to receive the Panavia Tornado.









This is the F-105D (actually an early F-105D-5RE) recently released by the DAT and with a gorgeous 'blank' silver skin making it a lovely canvas for some whiffing.



Edit: I've been advised that the correct pre-1968 codes for JaboG31 should be 'DA' and not 'JA'.

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Gratuitous Thud action shot!

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Dassault Super Mystère B2D - Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen", German Air Force, 1960





This is the stock Third Wire SMB2 which has French and Israeli skins plus a generic silver skin without the distinctive red flash. I really wanted to use this red flash but having decided that the 'JA' codes (consisting of two letters, the cross and three numbers) would look good on the rear fuselage I needed to cut out a section and splice in the generic skin. This was a bit more difficult than it sounds as whilst my codes are the same length (port and starboard) the cross needs to be in the same place meaning that the 'cut out' needs to be different on each side in the same way that RAF WW2 codes (normally two letters, the roundel and single letter) cover different areas port and starboard. Anyway, I'm delighted that it looks so good and that I was able to reuse the 12 'JA' codes I'd made for my German Thud.

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Republic F-105F Thunderchief -  Jagdbombergeschwader 31, German Air Force, 1988




When Pellson mentioned the Norm 83 camo, it reminded me that this scheme for the F-105 two-seater had been done quite a few years ago by my Spanish friend 'ValAstur' over at Combat Ace. It's actually for the F-105F and for an older 3D model - looks good though!

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Republic F-105E Thunderchief - Tactical Air Command, USAF, 1962




Only a mild 'what if' this. I was looking at the F-105 variants list and noticed that the F-105E was a designation for a two-seat trainer based on the F-105D so, using the excellent F-105F 3D model, I've stripped off the undernose camera, rear fuselage scoops and tailfin RWR. The NMF skin for the single-seat F-105D fits the longer two-seater with a bit of a tweak to paint the rear canopy.

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Just playing around with a twin enginned F-105. The twin vertical tails are obviously too close together but could be set further out and also canted outwards.