Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Republic F-84F Thunderstreak - Various Units, Israeli Air Force, 1956 - 1967










I've decided to abandon the F-84I designation for my Israeli Thunderstreaks as it just looks like F-841 when written down so I'll either stick with F-84F or use the F-84H designation and pretend that the 'Thunderscreech' didn't exist!

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Republic Aviation F-84J Thunderstreak - HävLLv 31, Ilmavoimat, 1963

With Finland being ever anxious to maintain it's neutrality it was surprising when in June 1954 the Finnish government elected to purchase the Republic Thunderstreak. However, in typically Finnish fashion the purchase of 40 F-84J Thunderstreaks was organised via the Swedish government and the version chosen could hardly be called 'state of the art' being essentially a warmed-up Thunderstreak with the General Electric J73-GE5EX engine (non-afterburning and rated at 9,000lbs thrust) shoehorned in. No munitions were supplied and SAAB were chosen to prepare the aircraft for Ilmavoimat service with four British Hispano V 20mm cannon replacing the six 0.5 calibre machine guns of the standard F-84F and giving the F-84J a strong 'neutral' flavour throughout, even to the extent of carrying mainly British, Swedish or Soviet weapons. Entering service with HavLLv31 in 1956 the aircraft equipped two squadrons and at least gave the Ilmavoimat a taste of a 'modern' swept-wing fighter although the F-84J was certainly no F-86 Sabre and, presumably, that was the whole point!





An old backstory (almost certainly from 2009 or 2010) but with a new Ilmavoimat camo skin. When looking on Google Images for the colours I was surprised at how varied the interpretations were especially on the undersides ranging from white to sky blue. I've gone for a light grey and used the same colour for the numbers (RA - Republic Aviation). Well, I'm almost done with the Thunderstreak but there is one more RAF bird that I'm keen to do.

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Republic Thunderstreak FGA.2 - No.6 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1976







One of the guys at Combat Ace suggested a Thunderstreak with a wraparound camo and it works for me! I took the coward's way out by painting the camo on one wing and flipping it for the underside and also for the opposite wing which makes it look a bit too symmetrical on the plan view. AFAIK wraparound camo on RAF aircraft arrived in 1976 (there's a Harrier in the 1976 RAF yearbook) but the Thunderstreak would have been well obsolete by then although still in NATO service with Greece and Turkey.

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Ah! Getti Tonanti!


I gave that a go back in 2019 but I just couldn't get the stripes on the wings to line up correctly (the main wing and the ailerons are seperated on the skin mapping) with the undersides being especially ugly. But my Starfighter was much better!

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Republic Aviation F-84E Thunderjet - 1st Fighter Squadron, Royal Libyan Air Force, 1960









This silver/NMF skin comes with the F-84E Thunderjet released by the DAT boys and it's a very good 3D model. Details on the Royal Libyan Air Force from 1959 to 1969 are scarce but they did operate T-33's and also a handful of F-5A's but I'm unaware of unit designations so I've elected to use a very generic but probably fictitious "1st Fighter Squadron" with some generic nosebars too. I think the F-84F's swept-wings and tailplanes would look amazing on the F-84E's fuselage with it's bubble canopy.

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Republic Aviation RF-84F Thunderflash - 119 Squadron, Israeli Air Force, 1967




Another lovely 3D model this and a very nice silver/NMF skin too. I've just needed to add insignia, the 119 patch and I've also knocked-up some two-digit stencilled numbers.

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Gloster CXP-1001 - Republic of China Air Force, 1952




I've shown this one before but this revision adds the same sharkmouth that I used on my Israeli Thunderstreak (201 Squadron) and as it's scaleable it will see further use.

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Republic Aviation Thunderflash FR.2 - No.2 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1972






After a break of a few days I've still got the hots for Republic's "lusty and tough" Thunderstreak & Thunderflash (that quote is by the late great Bill Gunston) and whilst I think I might have done an RAF Thunderflash before this one is better as I've knocked-up camo skins for the drop tanks and added serial numbers under the wings - not that straight-forward as there are 5 meshes on each wing and the mesh names are in German!

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Republic Aviation Thunderflash FR.2 - No.79 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1965

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Republic Aviation Thunderflash FR.1 - No.4 Squadron, RAF Germany, 1958





A very nice template for a silver RF-84F exists that just needed some weathering and made this silver RAF Thunderflash a doddle - I spent far more time on making my generic No.4 Squadron 'nosebars'.

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BAC Lightning F.3 - 'The Red Arrows', 1966




One from 2019 that I've been playing around with today. A bonkers idea though.

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CASA-Dornier C-101 'Cernicalo' - Escuadron 113, Ejército del Aire, 1964






Quite a few years ago now, my Portuguese mate Cocas released a little baby delta called the Dassault Epervier 1C. I don't know much about it and it might even be an imagined design and possibly an Etendard with a delta wing? Anyway, this is his Epervier 3D model masquerading as the CASA-Dornier C-101 (or CH-101 depending on which source you look at) which was a late-1950's paper project with a generally similar configuration but with intakes much further forward and powered by the Bristol Siddely Orpheus. I had severe problems actually getting it to take-off even with the Orpheus 12 rated at 6,800lbs dry thrust and 8,250lbs with reheat. I pasted in some data from the Third Wire Mirage IIIC flight model into the Epervier flight model which improved it slightly but it still wouldn't fly properly until I realised that it had way too much fuel in it and also in the drop tanks... no wonder it struggled to take off!

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BAC Lightning F.3 - No.111 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1965






When I revisited my 'Red Arrows' Lightning a few days ago (to finally upload it to Combat Ace) I was reminded of the two classic Hawker Hunter equipped display teams of the RAF ('The Blue Diamonds' and 'The Black Arrows') and I had already planned to do the latter. However, for me, this one hasn't quite worked out. The yellow walkway on the wings seemed a good idea but clashes a bit with my new 'Treble One' Lightning flash and I'm not sold on the white outline on the wing roundels either. The very tall finflash is a nod towards that seen on the 'The Black Arrows' Hawker Hunters but I might just have overdone it. Oh, well!