Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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English Electric Canberra S.5 - No.16 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1959









You might have noticed a Black Cranberry of No.16 squadron mixed into the SEAC set of piccies. All black aircraft don't photograph that well but these really stood out against the North Atlantic sea so I'm adding them here.

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English Electric Canberra S.5B - No.12 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1962







Still loving the Canberra!

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LTV Corsair GR.3 - No.14 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1986









A fairly simple one given that there is a good A-7E template although I'm having a bit of trouble with the windscreen frame. The Corsair is a favourite of mine despite not being the prettiest of aircraft and the speed at which Vought and the USN brought it to service was astonishing.

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Mikoyan MiG-27 'Flogger-D' - 2nd Fighter-Bomber Regiment, Vietnamese People's Air Force, 1979















This is my VPAF camo (created from a stock terrain tile from Strike Fighters 2:Vietnam) applied to the duck-billed MiG-27. The skin is a bit crude as there are no panel lines or rivets although I have added in some details where I could and I probably spent more time creating new skins for the FAB250 bomb and underfuselage tank than I did on the aircraft itself. I might make a North Korean version which will at least give me something to put on that fin! I hate bare fins!

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English Electric Canberra PR.7 - No.13 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1961









Only a partial 'what if' but one that brings together the PR.7 (actually the B.6) with a new PRU Blue skin and the modern Tornado style nosebars of No.13 Squadron.

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Cộng Hòa Aviation FV-1 - 3rd Fighter-Bomber Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1970

When USAF and USN pilots first encountered the Cộng Hòa Aviation VP-1 fighter-bomber in small numbers in early 1968 it was thought that somehow the Vietnam People's Air Force had put back into service a handful of crashed F-105 Thunderchief aircraft but it soon emerged that at least two substantially intact F-105 aircraft had been shipped to Communist China in May 1965 following unsuccessful attacks on the Thanh Hoa 'Dragon's Jaw' bridge during the previous month. These damaged aircraft were used to reverse engineer the F-105 by the Chinese State Aircraft Factory who then supplied approximately 60 back to the Vietnam People's Air Force in the form of knock-down kits to be assembled by the newly created Cộng Hòa Aviation Company based in Hanoi. Designated as the FV-1 the Vietnamese aircraft was re-engined with an unlicensed Chinese copy of the Soviet Lyulka AL-7 turbojet rated at 22,000lbs thrust but the engine proved to be the FV-1's achilles heel being slightly down on thrust compared to the F-105's J75 but was also unreliable and requiring almost a complete rebuild after just 80 hours use. Despite this handicap the FV-1 entered service with the Vietnam People's Air Force in February 1968. The numbers in service were pitifully small however and the Cộng Hòa Aviation Company was destroyed by a B-52 strike at the start of Operation Linebacker in May 1972.











Decaled up with VPAF markings with a Vietnamese flag on the fin as a fin flash as I can't stand bare fins. I've also knocked up camo'd drop tanks and added Soviet weapons.

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Yakovlev Yak-9D - 1st Fighter Regiment, Vietnam People's Air Force, 1952











The Yak-1, Yak-7 and Yak-9D were all re-released recently by the DAT group of modders and this is their Yak-9D with a Vietnam camo scheme and some basic markings. I love populating the game with early adversaries and Strike Fighters 2:Vietnam is especially good for this.

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Yakovlev Yak-9D - Egyptian Air Force, 1949









Another adversary for the early post-war years, this time for Strike Fighters 2:Israel although the game provides Egyptian Spitfires to keep you busy! This is a basic grey skin just given a boost on the specular and reflection settings to give a passable NMF and the stock decals from the aforementioned Spitfire.

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Hawker Hunter FGA.9A - RAF Middle East Command, 1961











I've just been revising my previously shown Hunter FGA.9 in Desert Pink for a fresh upload to Combat Ace and thought I'd share these pics here.

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Supermarine Swift FR.Mk.55 - 3 Aerobrigata, Aeronautica Militare Italiana, 1964











I knew nothing about the Swift until reading a much treasured book, 'A Pictorial History of the RAF - Volume Three' in the mid-1970's, which showed a photograph of the Swift F.1's and F.2's of No.56 Squadron and touched upon the troublesome development of the type. Anyway, this is the Swift FR.5 with a lovely camo scheme done by 'Paulopanz' and finished off with some AMI markings. I'm a bit short of time in the coming week but will have a go at a Swift template in order to do some other Swifts.

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BAC Lightning F.1C - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

In early 1966 the RAF asked BAC to bring the remaining Lightning F.1 and F.1A aircraft up to a standard approaching the forthcoming F.6 in a similar way that the F.2's were due for conversion to F.2A's. Entering service in late 1967 the Lightning F.1B served with No.56, No.74 and No.111 Squadrons of RAF Fighter Command (later RAF Strike Command) before being phased out during the mid-1970's with No.111 being the last to relinquish the type in 1977 famously flying an all black commemorative scheme at the Queen's Silver Jubilee Review at RAF Finningley and during their final few weeks.












1977 Commemorative Scheme

Only a partial 'whif' as No.111 Squadron were a Lightning unit but AFAIK never wore camo. I've shown 'Black Mike' before so the last piccie is 'Dark Dog'!

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De Havilland Osprey B.1 - No.9 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1950













My good friend 'Cocas' has been at it again with his Osprey bomber based on a Luft '46 bomber and he's very kindly passed it onto me for a play. I think a traditional 'town' or 'city' name is called for - any thoughts?

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A couple of more shots;





Don't be mislead by the four jet engines, this is not a V-Bomber size aircraft being much closer in size to the Canberra. Edited to add a size comparison.

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Blackburn Shark FGA.1 - 893 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1953















Cocas has done it again with his striking 'English Electric Shark' based on an advanced Me-262 variant. I've envisioned it as a Blackburn product (and, of course, they did have a pre-war Shark) and decked it out with 893's distinctive Sea Vixen tail marking, generic markings and stock Canberra serial numbers which fortunately come in black and white versions.

Edited to add some deck landing shots proving that it's a Blackburn product 

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Yakovlev Yak-21 'Fletcher-A' - Soviet Air Force, 1952











This is the third of Cocas' hat-trick of new releases his lovely Yak-21 based on the Focke-Wulf FW-252 design. I've used 'Fletcher-A' as the NATO name for this little gem.