Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Douglas Skyhawk S.1 - 801 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1966








A fantastic template exists for the A-4E and I've been planning this 'anti-flash white' Skyhawk for a while before I got a bit distracted with 'Tiger Force' stuff. Anyway, I went for 801 NAS as they were a real world Buccaneer squadron but I think I should have gone for a Scimitar user as I see the Skyhawk more as a replacement for the Scimitar. If I do another unit I'll copy Devilfish in putting the ship identifier letter on the fin instead of the rudder as the Skyhawk's rudder is a bit messy! Apparently, Ed Heinemann (designer of the A-4) was ashamed of the 'temporary fix' adopted by Douglas to cure a violent oscillation of the original rudder by using a single skin with external ribs that then featured on every single Skyhawk built.

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Looks like an event of some significance between shots 6 and 7!

Not from the same mission but it goes something like this;

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De Havilland Vulture F.2 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967







I've shown this before but in RAF Camo and in service with No.60 Squadron. For this silver/NMF version I've made a quick skin using the specular maps and used a classic 1960's Fighter Command unit in 'Treble One' squadron and it's turned out OK. Two aircraft have Red Tops and the other two have AIM-7E Sparrows. This 3D model is by 'Cocas' who excelled at making subjects like this and it's his take on one of the GOR.339 submissions and my take on an 'ADV'.

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De Havilland Vulture F.2 - No.43 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1967

RAF VULTURE F2.07 by Spinners1961

RAF VULTURE F2.08 by Spinners1961

RAF VULTURE F2.09 by Spinners1961

RAF VULTURE F2.10 by Spinners1961

RAF VULTURE F2.11 by Spinners1961

Allow me to introduce the 'Yellow Union' semi-active homing missile! Most of you will recognise it as the Swedish Rb-05 air-surface missile and I've repurposed it into a British air-air missile by pasting some AIM-7E-2 DNA into it. I did take a look at a few other missiles Sea Wolf was too short and Sea Dart was a bit odd-looking with its 16 fins! To give it a name I used the method employed by the Ministry of Supply of using a random colour and a random noun using an online random colour generator and an online random noun generator!

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

https://randomwordgenerator.com/color.php

https://randomwordgenerator.com/noun.php

Such fun!

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Bréguet Sirocco FRS.1 - 893 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1969










I couldn't resist the urge to convert the Hawker Siddley Sea Dart into the Sky Dart! It's a big missile and over three times the weight of a Red Top so I ruled out the Lightning and plumped for this Bréguet Br 1120 Sirocco by 'Cocas' (I do miss him) and it looks a bit big even on that. One nice little feature of this game/sim is that you can allocate weapons to a 'specific station code' to prevent (for example) Falcons appearing on F-8 Crusader pylons or Sky Dart missiles appearing on Phantoms. Perhaps Bréguet could have teamed up with Folland to build the British Siroccos?

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Gloster Javelin FAW.9A - No.29 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1964








This is a regular Javelin FAW.9 (I say regular but the skin by 'sundowner' is simply exquisite) but with the 'Green Song' semi-active homing missiles! These are actually AIM-23 'Sedjil' missiles which, in reality, are themselves modified MIM-23 Hawk surface -to-air missiles.

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Northrop F-5J Tiger II - 302 Hikotai, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, 1984








I think I missed this lovely F-5E when it first came out in 2019 and only noticed it this week. It has this sweet USN Aggressor skin to which I've added some JASDF decals. In the 1970's my Uncle was a civilian working at RAF Alconbury and I can remember the hullabaloo when the Tigers arrived. Great airshows at Alconbury!

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Boeing Hornet FRS.1 - 899 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 2013






A new beta FA-18E Super Hornet was released recently and I've quickly knocked-up this Senior Service Hornet. I'm not really into the 'glass cockpit' era of military aviation but I do like the Hornet.

There'll be no updates for a while due to holidays (in God's own country) so I'll see you on the other side.

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McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle - JG73 "Steinhoff", German Air Force, 1977








A nice easy 'what if' to ease myself back into the saddle after a weeks holiday in the Yorkshire Dales and the obligatory visit to see family further up north.  Anyway, this is the stock USAF skin for the Third Wire F-15A with some suitable decals but I'll need to confess to a little error with the code numbers as '37' and '38' were allocated to the F-4F or I could simply pretend that Germany held out for the F-15 instead of the F-4F (of which I'm a big fan as they always look so cool).

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Grumman F-14G Tomcat - JG71 "Richthofen", German Air Force, 1988








There are several excellent skins released by Third Wire for their flagship F-14A Tomcat and this USN Aggressor skin makes a lovely German Tomcat. I think a German purchase of the F-14 would be for a slightly more austere Tomcat so I've partially declawed mine by removing the AIM-54 Phoenix.

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Canadair-SAAB Sk 59 Ägrett - F5, Flygvapnet, 1976












A sweet little Canadair CT-144 Tutor was released as a 'beta' by the DAT boys and I thought I'd give it a whirl. With no template or quick way of manipulating the skin I've just used my 'splinter on a roll' technique to make a quick skin and this hides the fact that there are no lines or rivets and I've used decals (including the dayglo panels) to lift it a bit so that it's not too shabby. Some parts of the 3D model have not been mapped yet and the top piccie shows the undercarriage and jet pipe to be unpainted but I liked the shot so kept it in this photoset. It's not an aircraft I'm that familiar with but I quite like the shape.

For a variety of reasons, it's been a bit quiet around here recently and it will continue to be quiet for the foreseeable future.

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Vought F4U-1A Corsair - VX Flight, Portuguese Air Force, 1947









I've had a nice morning listening to the Ashes cricket and knocking up this Portuguese Corsair using the supplied Fleet Air Arm skin but with a green fuselage band and prop hub boss as seen on their Hurrucanes based at Ota but seen here on some sort of UN deployment to Dhimar/Paran. I've added some appropriate national markings and code letters but the three-digit serial numbers are a bit of artistic licence... so just roll with it.

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Supermarine Spitfire VB - No.577 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1944

During the Spring of 1940 there were signs that the Phoney War was coming to an end and the British Government could sense that Germany was preparing to invade Norway in order to protect their supplies of iron ore. Believing that floatplane versions of the Hurricane and Spitfire might be of use in operating from the Norwegian fjords the Air Ministry suggested that conversions of both types should be made using existing conversion kit floats originally made for the Blackburn Roc. Before this project had time to gain any real momentum Denmark and Norway had capitiulated although the latter had fought heroically alongside allied forces and especially in northern Norway.

For the next two years the Air Ministry continued to explore the potential of using floatplane fighter aircraft and even approached a less than enthusiastic Curtiss to enquire about a floatplane version of the Kittyhawk to which Curtiss replied that it was certainly possible but would delay production of urgently needed Kittyhawks. Pushed on by the Air Ministry, Supermarine continued to work on a floatplane version of the Spitfire using Folland Aircraft to convert Spitfire VB EP751 with generally good results although there were some issues with leaking floats caused by buckling and deflection of the front of the floats during take-off and landing. The trials encouraged the Air Ministry to order more conversions and by the late Summer of 1942 there were no less than four Spitfire VB floatplane conversions undergoing trials.

Unexpectedly, in late September 1943 three Spitfire VB floatplanes were sent to No.52 Maintenance Unit for packing and despatch by ship to the Middle East arriving in Alexandria, Egypt in late October 1943. In a bold plan, and supported by Royal Navy submarines and high speed launches, the Spitfire VB floatplanes were intended to operate against the Junkers Ju 52 transports flying supplies from Greece to Crete. But the logistics of the plan were a bit too ambitious and especially on the hard-pressed submarine service so all three Spitfire VB floatplanes were scrapped in situ.

Whilst the Air Ministry perservered with the idea of a Spitfire floatplane fighter little was done until January 1944 when 60 Spitfire VB floatplane conversions were ordered as the start of a deception plan associated with 'Operation Bodyguard' whose key objective was to mislead the German High Command as to the timing and location of the Allied invasion of north-western Europe. 'Operation Fortitude South' aimed to convince them that the allied invasion would be via the Pas-de-Calais whilst 'Operation Fortitude North' was designed to mislead the Germans into expecting an allied invasion of Norway. As part of the deception plan, the RAF announced the formation of six new floatplane fighter squadrons across north-east Scotland and the Orkneys with No.577 Squadron being the first to form at Dounreay in April 1944. In reality, and typical of all six floatplane squadrons, just six Spitfire VB floatplanes were operated by No.577 Squadron but supplemented by several inflatables anchored alongside the slipways. All six Spitfire floatplane squadrons were disbanded in August 1944 having made a small but interesting contribution to the allied war effort.







There has been a Spitfire floatplane available for many years now but a revised version was issued recently by the DAT boys so here it is dressed in a non-standard EDSG but with standard RAF markings albeit with a slightly wide sky fuselage band due to my own limitations and laziness!

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Inspired by Vostoc7's What-If kit boxes   

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Supermarine Spitfire IXc - 880 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1945







The DAT boys have followed up their floatplane Spitfire VB with a VB (Trop) and also a LF.IXC seen here in 880 NAS markings. The real Spitfire IX floatplane (MJ892) was actually a 'B' wing and, apart from the floats, was modified to have an almost triangular vertical tail (not very Spitfire-ish) so I much prefer the fin shape shown here. Reading up on the floatplane Spitfires, the Air Ministry was still asking Supermarine for floatplane conversion proposals for the F.Mk21