Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Republic F-84M Thunderstreak - No.1 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, 1964

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 and Australia with the latter operating their F-84M's in action over Vietnam in 1964 and 1965.















The F-84F has had some attention with a few new skins and this 'Greek' skin immediately suggested, at least to me, an Aussie Thunderstreak over Vietnam and I've worked the Avon into the backstory as an affectionate nod to their use of the Avon-Sabre and their deep consideration of an Avon-Mirage! RAAF serial geeks will notice that the 'A86' serials were allocated to the gorgeous Hawker P.1081 which I'd certainly love to see in 'Strike Fighters'.

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Republic Aviation F-84M Thunderstreak - No.76 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, 1961











I liked the Aussie Thunderstreak so much I decided to go back in time to an earlier scheme and chose No.76 Squadron who'd be more than a bit miffed at missing out on the Avon Sabre and would be best advised not to try aerobatics in the F-84M!


Now available for download at Combat Ace!

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Dassault-Convair F-114B Mirage - 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, New Jersey ANG, 1965

During the Spring of 1961 the incoming Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara left no stone unturned in his search for efficiencies in procurement and operational costs and his attention soon turned to the Air Defence units of the Air National Guard (ANG). At the time the ANG units were operating a mix of early 1950's jet fighters such as the F-84 and F-86 alongside the hot ships of the 'Century Series' with some fanciful and expensive plans on future re-equipment by advanced versions of the F-106 and, looking further ahead, the F-108. But McNamara soon put these plans in jeopardy by setting his whizz-kids to work on a lower cost solution.

Adoption of the F-4 Phantom II by the USAF was all well and good but this was an expensive beast even when considering 'commonality' and with several hundred aircraft to replace another solution was needed. Envious eyes were soon turned to Europe where two excellent single-engined Mach 2 interceptors were entering service - the Saab Draken and the Mirage III and 'Project Zeus' was an exhaustive study into the operational effectiveness and expected cost-savings of both types measured against re-starting the recently closed F-106A production line. Studies continued through 1961 and early 1962 and, when published in May 1962, 'Project Zeus' revealed that the Mirage IIIC offered the best combination of price and performance. Crucially, it further outlined that only a minimum change version would yield sufficient cost savings as plans to re-engine the Mirage with the J-79 and to introduce the Hughes MA-X radar (essentially a scaled-down version of their MA-1 integrated fire control system as fitted to the F-106A) reduced the gains to zero.

With Convair's hopes of further F-106A production dashed they readily agreed to partner Dassault and licence-produce the Mirage IIIC for the USAF soon designated as the F-114A (single-seat) and F-114B (two-seat trainer). Production commenced in late 1963 and the type entered service in May 1964 with the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the New Jersey ANG. The F-114's served until the early 1980's with most replaced by the F-16A (ADC).















A really nice Mirage IIIB was released recently and uses the stock Mirage IIIC 3D model with the clever grafting on of a new two-seater nose - very inventive! If you're getting a sense of déjà vu then, yes, the backstory was used for the single-seater... back in 2010! Perhaps even McNamara would have allowed the use of US stencils instead of 'NE PAS MARCHER' - lol.

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DAC (Dassault-Avro Canada) Mirage CF-114B - Royal Canadian Air Force, 1966











I must admit to finding RCAF markings confusing so I hope the year is appropriate for the markings shown and I did mean to put a squadron marking on the intake but forgot. The Mirage IIIB is quite a good looking machine and it's a pity there's not more two-seaters in 'Strike Fighters' because I'd like to see the classic Matchbox range of two-seaters covered (Mirage IIIB, TF-104G, Lightning T55, Hunter T.7).

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Focke-Wulf Fw-199D 'Donnerflitzen' - Luftwaffe '46









One of the nice features of 'Strike Fighters' is the ability to edit an aircraft's data file to match it for purpose. As an example, to help create a more authentic 'Fw-199D' I've derated the Thunderstreak's engine to 4,000lbs thrust, left off any provision for wing tanks or heavy stores, changed the pilot from jet jock to something more WW2, deleted the wing machine guns and changed the nose guns from 0.5 Brownings to MG151's.

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Supermarine Scarab F.3 - No.11 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1983









I've previously done the swept-wing Su-7 Fitter as the Supermarine Syrena and thought I'd give the delta-wing Su-9 Fishpot as the Supermarine Scarab. The stock Soviet silver skin has just been given a bit of a grey tint and the pale national insignia and contemporary markings give it the 'last days of the Lightning' look.

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Gloster Javelin Mk.55 - No.323 Sqd, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1966















The Javelin has always been a favourite of mine and I've added PRU undersides to the standard RAF Camo in the same way that the Dutch had PRU undersides on their Gloster Meteor F.8's.

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Hawker Tempest Mk.5 - No.322 Squadron, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1946













Another favourite of mine, ever since borrowing 'Typhoon and Tempest at War' from the library about 40 years ago (a book I now proudly own).

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Gloster Javelin Mk.56 - No.201 Squadron, Heyl Ha'Avir, 1963

















A superb Javelin template has made Weaver's suggestion of an IDF Javelin quite an easy task and a previously used 201 Sqd rudder decal for a 'what if' MiG-19 'Farmer' has been a lucky fit on the Javelin. I've also removed the Sparrow missiles usually seen on 201 Sqd's badge.

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McDonnell F-99C Javelin - 186th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Montana Air National Guard, 1963

















Strewth! The harmonious drag-master in USAF service! The template gave me a flying start and I've used an image of an aluminium sheet as the basis of my NMF texture but the tail markings were a lot harder to get right than they might appear.

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Myasishchev M-13 'Flashback' - PVO Strany, 1963















A very simple one this with just a greenish nose cone, Soviet markings and 'Anab' missiles transforming the Javelin into the Myasishchev M-13 'Flashback' - I really like this set of piccies myself.

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Republic P-47N Thunderbolt - Soviet Air Force, 1945











A new P-47N was released recently with a nice blank silver skin so I thought I'd put it into service with the Soviet Air Force as a follow-on to their use of the P-47D. I've dropped a clanger with the early borderless red star which would have been long gone by the spring of 1945.

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Maybe one in a tactical paint scheme, too?

Myasishchev M-13 'Flashback' - VVS, 1973











A bit basic as, for simplicity, I went for a two-tone uppersurface scheme (some tactical schemes have four uppersurface colours) but I've also added some air-to-ground capability to the inappropriately winged Javelin! My install is still a bit short of Soviet weapons and I had to jump to 1973 to get the Kh-23's to appear which made me easy prey for Phantoms.

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Nakajima J9N1 Kikka - 752 Kokutai, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, 1946







This little gem was released recently featuring a nice 3D model by 'Veltro2K' and two superb IJN skins by the talented 'Charles'. No input from me except for taking the screenshots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_Kikka

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Chongjin Aviation Factory J-1 'Mae' (Falcon) - Korean People's Army Air Force, 1951







Before putting the Kikka away I thought I'd do a quick indigenous North Korean fighter by using the green camo scheme with some North Korean markings.

Updates will continue to be sporadic as Mam is still in hospital (nearly eight months now) and the work/hospital/family/sleep routine leaves very little time for anything else but there might be a slight easing in about two months time as we've found a nursing home that's a fair bit closer to both my sister and myself.