Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Tupolev Tu-128 Fiddler-B - 921st Fighter Regiment, Vietnamese People's Air Force, 1972

Towards the end of 1972, the North Vietnamese air defences had almost exhausted their supply of surface-to-air missiles. Soviet intelligence agents duly reported this back to the Kremlin along with their secret report that President Richard Nixon was about to launch Operation Linebacker II - a planned massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong scheduled for late December 1972 in an attempt to drive North Vietnam back to the negotiating table. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev informed North Vietnam leader Ton Duc Thang of this plan but Thang confessed that apart from a shortage of missiles the North Vietnamese Air Defence Network was already severely degraded by electronic countermeasures and other suppression measures and that the proposed US plan would almost certainly work.

Reluctantly, on November 30th, 1972, Brezhnev agreed to the transfer of more surface-to-air missiles to North Vietnam and also to the emergency transfer of 30 Tu-128 'Fiddler' interceptors in an attempt to counter the B-52's. With no hope of training North Vietnam personnel to fly and maintain this large and sophisticated interceptor, Brezhnev agreed to send Soviet air and ground crews but naturally insisted that all Tu-128's flew in North Vietnamese colours. Arriving at the newly refurbished Thanh Hoá Air Base on December 8th, 1972 the aircraft flew just one mission on December 19th when four Tu-128's were effectively out-ranged and shot down by US Navy F-4J's firing AIM-7E-2 missiles forcing Brezhnev to reconsider and eventually withdraw the Tu-128's.

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF B-52D STRATOFORTRESS.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

VPAF Tu-128 FIDDLER.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've created this by a simple inversion of the silver skin with a 50% black layer added to dampen things down and then adding the parts layer back in.

[SPINNERS]

Canadair CL-13ME Desert Sabre - No. 10 Squadron, Iraqi Air Force, 1964

IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI CL-13ME SABRE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I love this real world Argentinian Sabre camo and thought I'd use it on this Iraqi Sabre suggested by Geoff.

[SPINNERS]

Dassault Mystère IV - 18 Squadron, Iraqi Air Force, 1964

IRAQI MYSTERE IV.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI MYSTERE IV.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI MYSTERE IV.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI MYSTERE IV.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IRAQI MYSTERE IV.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A fairly simple one as the stock Mystère IV silver skin is a cracker but I wanted to introduce a bit of colour and considered a coloured rudder but settled for a fictional 'nosebar' created out of me own head but using the Iraqi Air Force coat of arms with the centre modified and flanked with checkers.

[SPINNERS]

Sud-Aviation Vautour IIA - 110 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF VAUTOUR 2AN.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another inverted stock silver skin with a 60% layer of black to dampen things down and with the parts added back in and just stock IDF decals after trying French markings first. The screenshots are then given a bluey-black layer (about 35%) to give a 'faux night' effect as screenshots at night really don't show up well. On previous Indian Vautours I separated the upper surfaces and I think an adaptation of this technique should yield me an early Canberra scheme, i.e. black with grey uppers, but that's for another day.

[SPINNERS]

Sud-Aviation Vulture B.2 - No. 10 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1955

RAF VULTURE B2.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VULTURE B2.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A bit trickier than I thought, and by no means perfect, this is the Vautour in RAF service as the Vulture B.2 and in the early Canberra scheme seen at Scampton in 1953.

[SPINNERS]

Bristol Vincentius B.2 - No.9 Squadron, No. 8 (Pathfinder Force) Group, RAF Bomber Command, 1956

RAF VINCENTIUS B1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VINCENTIUS B1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VINCENTIUS B1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF VINCENTIUS B1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I was hoping to do this handsome looking Soviet bomber in the early Canberra black and grey scheme but it just proved to be too difficult as I couldn't follow the mapping across several 'joints' so stopped once I'd done the black skin and simply added the decals I did many years ago for my 'Bomber Command' B-52K. If you search 'Vincentius' within this thread you'll see my earlier 'anti-flash white' B.1 and also my grey MR.3 versions.

[SPINNERS]

Bugger!

I'm going to have to park this thread up for a wee while as my PC has gone t!ts up. I'm pretty sure it's the Graphics Card but it's had a few other niggles recently and it might just be on it's way to 'Silicon Heaven' (and I don't mean Katie Price's chest).

Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast.

[SPINNERS]

Good Morning

Well, didn't those past 18 months go quickly?

Guys, I didn't intend to be away for 18 days nevermind 18 months but my PC problems just caused me to stop and focus on some real life issues that I won't burden you with but let's just say that family, work and sports administration took precedence and I took up a new hobby researching my family tree. All in all, I guess I needed a break. Well, I never did get my PC repaired and gave my beautiful 26" Samsung monitor to my daughter who has an online shop and needed it more than me.

Then, about a week ago I saw the old flight sim 'IL-2' in a charity shop and an unexpected wave of nostalgia washed over me forcing me to leave a pound coin with the nice lady in the PDSA shop. It wouldn't run on my laptop so I picked up a second-hand monitor, dusted down my old Pentium 4 PC (running Windows XP) and fired up 'IL-2'. Well, it wasn't long before I realised why I binned 'IL-2' and started playing 'Strike Fighters' almost ten years ago to the day. I found my password for the Third Wire store and downloaded all four Series One games and bought the Wings Over Israel add-on expansion pack as a little thank you to the game developer.

Being on quite an elderly PC and therefore restricted to Series One means that I'm having to re-learn all those little hints and tips that I'd previously forgotten and I really am starting from scratch. I don't think I'll ever be quite as intense as I was before but I hope to contribute something here occasionally, perhaps weekly, and keep this ten-year old thread running. My sincere apologies to those who left messages here for me and my thanks for the nice comments that came in over the 18 months that I've been away.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter FGA.9 - No.112 Sqd, RAF Middle East Command, 1973

RAF HUNTER FGA9.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HUNTER FGA9.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Just a partial whif this one as No. 112 squadron did operate the Hunter but only until 1957 (Hunter F.4's I guess) so here is how I see them in 1973 with the Hunter FGA.9 and perhaps on some emergency deployment to the Middle East at the time of Yom Kippur and the Oil Crisis.

[SPINNERS]

Ilyushin Il-102 'Brawny' - Soviet Air Force, Afghanistan, 1985

SOVIET IL-102 BRAWNY.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET IL-102 BRAWNY.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET IL-102 BRAWNY.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This was one of the messages waiting for me, the Il-102 'Brawny' the unsuccessful competitor to the Su-25 'Frogfoot'. This was sent to me my drakkodj and I've only needed to set the decals (it's a long time since I played around with 3D model coordinates) and I thought it looked quite cool on a night mission. I'll come back to this in the near future, perhaps in service with a Soviet client state.

[SPINNERS]

Republic F-84F Thunderstreak - 69 Sqd 'The Hammers', Israeli Air Force, 1967

The Armee de l'Air received its first F-84F Thunderstreaks in 1955 and it was in French service that the Thunderstreak saw its only actual combat during the Suez Crisis of October 1956. French Thunderstreaks from the 3rd Escadre moved to RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus whilst the 1st Escadre were deployed to the Israeli base at Lyddia where they supported the Israeli forces that invaded Sinai on October 29th. Despite seeing intensive action only one F-84F was lost and the tough and rugged aircraft so impressed the Israeli Air Force that they ordered 50 F-84F-70-RE aircraft before the end of 1956. The F-84F-70-RE featured the more powerful J65-W-7 rated at 7,800lbs thrust which helped with the initial climb rate and the combat ceiling and these were among the last Thunderstreak's to roll off the Farmingdale production line in the Summer of 1957.

In 1962 the entire Israeli F-84F fleet was grounded due to the same corrosion of control rods that had affected the F-84F worldwide but they were soon restored to full operational capacity, eventually serving with distinction during the 1967 Six Day War and surviving in Israeli service until 1972 when stress corrosion eventually forced the retirement of the Israeli F-84F fleet.

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

IDF F-84I THUNDERSTREAK.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Apart from shaking off 18 months of ring rust, I'm still feeling my way around the older SF1 series that I last used in 2009 so forgive me for slotting in a repeat but at least they are new piccies and I've added a backstory.

[SPINNERS]

Shenyang J-31 Falcon Hawk - Korean People's Army Air Force, 2019

KPAAF J-31 FALCON HAWK.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KPAAF J-31 FALCON HAWK.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KPAAF J-31 FALCON HAWK.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KPAAF J-31 FALCON HAWK.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the Shenyang J-31 with a bit of a simple homemade skin made by me (my first one for 18 months) with some washed out KPAAF decals. I have previously used a 'night' version of the KPAAF roundel with no white in them at all and they looked quite good especially on black so I'll give them an airing at some time.

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Siddeley Harrier Mk.51 - People's Liberation Army Air Force, 1976

Interest in the Hawker P.1127 programme surged after the 1967 Six-Day War and whilst most interest faded within a few months the Chinese government kept an official observer status on the project until 1972 when they signed up for 60 Harrier Mk.51 aircraft. Apart from the PLAAF's genuine interest in the aircraft it was also clearly a political deal that saw the Chinese government officially recognise the British government's position on Hong Kong who, in turn, acknowledged China's position on Taiwan (albeit whilst not agreeing to it). The Chinese government also received permission to licence build the aircraft with the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation building a further 200 Harrier Mk.52's.

PLAAF HARRIER 51C.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PLAAF HARRIER 51C.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PLAAF HARRIER 51C.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PLAAF HARRIER 51C.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PLAAF HARRIER 51C.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another homemade skin using a pretty basic Third Wire template and using a green similar to that seen on some of their 'Fantan' attack aircraft. The graphics on my 'Wings Over Europe' install isn't quite right using my now elderly old PC but it is the only Series One game to include the Harrier so it's the only game in town!

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-110E Phantom - 555th TFS, United States Air Force, 1975

The resounding success of the US Navy's F-4B in the competitive fly-off against the F-106 during 'Operation Highspeed' led to a more comprehensive evaluation of two loaned Navy F-4B's (designated as the F-110A) but McDonnell had already been planning a purpose-built tactical fighter version of the F-4 for the USAF with manual terrain-following radar and TF30 turbofan engines. Designated F-110B this aircraft promised to be an excellent partner to the F-111A (TFX) and quickly gained the support of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara who authorised production of the type in February 1962. The pre-production prototype first flew in November 1963 and the F-110B entered service during the following year before production switched to the improved F-110C for TAC and the F-110D interceptor for ADC. In 1969 the definitive F-110E started to roll off the St. Louis production line which matched the AN/APG-59 pulse doppler radar coupled with the AN/AWG-10 Fire Control System for look-down shoot-down capability. The F-110E also featured the substantially more powerful TF30-P-100 turbofan rated at 25,000 lbs thrust each and was far less prone to compressor stalls at high angles of attack than previous versions of the TF30. Initial production aircraft were delivered to USAFE in 1970 but soon began to replace F-105D's and F-110B's in Vietnam from 1971 onwards.

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAF F-110E PHANTOM.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

'Wings Over Europe' includes the F-4M but only the later version with the Marconi ARI.18228 radar warning receiver fintop pod. The F-4D has a pretty shoddy 'Euro One' skin (I say that only because it's the same skin they have on the F-4E and therefore doesn't fit the short nose of the F-4D properly) so I've adapted the skin to fit and also added the Spey engines and the Marconi ARI.18228 RWR to the skin. I thought I could live with using Series One versions of the game but, apart from the terrain, it's hard work and just doesn't look as good on my ancient Pentium  .

[SPINNERS]

BAC Lightning F.56 - Grupo de Aviación No.7, Fuerza Aérea de Chile, 1986

When the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina in 1982 Chile was officially neutral during the conflict but is known to have provided the United Kingdom with intelligence information and operational support during the conflict. Whilst the alliance between the UK and Chile remained secret the Thatcher government quietly rewarded the Pinochet government with a cut price arms deal which included ex-RAF Canberra, Hunter and Lightning aircraft.

A total of 15 Lightning F.6 aircraft were transferred without refurbishment to Grupo de Aviación No.7 of the Fuerza Aérea de Chile in the Autumn of 1982 thus preventing the planned expansion of the RAF's Lightning force from two squadrons to three and forcing the RAF to acquire ex-USN Phantom F-4J's. Later given the designation Lightning F.56 the aircraft had a short service life and were retired in 1990.

FACH LIGHTING F56.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FACH LIGHTING F56.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FACH LIGHTING F56.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FACH LIGHTING F56.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FACH LIGHTING F56.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I love weaving some truth into a backstory!