Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

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Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat - 3e Escuadrille Aeronaval de Atague, Comando de la Aviacion Naval Argentina, 1954







The Hellcat 3D model hosted at the DAT site is an absolute cracker and I've managed to neatly overpaint the US insignia on the stock blue skin to give a blank canvas. I've chosen to make an Argentine Navy Hellcat as I like the colourful rudder markings and there are good references available to their contemporary Corsairs. I had to make a few decals and the numbers on the cowl were an absolute pain to make for some reason. I quite like this!

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Curtiss-Wright CW-21B Demon - 3rd Squadron, American Volunteer Group, 1941




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Not the best-looking fighter but reading up on Curtiss-Wright Demon reveals that it did actually serve with the American Volunteer Group albeit just three of the early Model 21's and they didn't last long. This is the superior Model 21B with a revised inward retracting main landing gear.  This 3D model is hosted at the DAT site and comes with Dutch NEI markings that I've neatly overpainted and then I've added AVG markings including a sharkmouth that is possibly a bit too big.

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Armstrong Whitworth Elswick Mk.II - No.74 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1937







A very recent release from the DAT boys (and yet another rare bird) this is the Yugoslavian Ikarus IK-2 monoplane fighter masquerading as the Armstrong Whitworth Elswick Mk.II in colourful pre-war RAF markings. My inspiration was the No.74 Squadron Gloster Gauntlet on the front cover of 'On Silver Wings' by Alec Lumsden and Owen Thetford. Initially, this started well with a quick silver skin derived from the speculative map with the parts added back in and a few layers created by me for the black fin and yellow spinner. I had planned to use my preferred method of using decals for all markings but the 3D model has a few tears in it which cause decals to bleed out into other areas so I switched to painting them directly onto the skin which seemed to work. But I just couldn't get the tiger pattern onto the upper fuselage between the wings so had to resort to a decal to bridge the gap between the wings but this decal also bled out on the port fuselage so I've angled my screenshots so that this doesn't show. After that, I just used a few K80** serial number decals on the fin and under the wings (I'd previously made these for something else and they are quite contemporary).

The IK-2 would also make a good 'Pearl Habour' defender or perhaps a Japanese attacker!

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Dornier Do 22P - 4th Attack Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1939

Dornier's Do C3 was a three-seat, single-engined, parasol wing monoplane floatplane that first flew in 1935. With little or no interest from the Luftwaffe, Dornier looked for export customers with small numbers of the floatplane version eventually being sold to Yugoslavia, Greece and Latvia. In March 1938, the Republic of Paran expressed interest in the proposed Do 22L landplane version and Dornier offered a new export version to Paran designated as the Do 22P. Powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs engine driving a three-bladed propeller the Do 22P could carry up bombs under the fuselage and had a defensive armament of one fixed forward-firing machine gun plus two in the rear cockpit and one in a ventral tunnel. Paran ordered 12 Do 22P's and, with no requirement for a prototype, production at Dornier's factory at Friedrichshafen began in November 1938.

Entering service with the 4th Attack Regiment (The Jerboa's) of the Parani Army Air Force in the Spring of 1939 the Do 22P's were docile to fly and easy to maintain. By the end of September 1939 the 4th Attack Regiment were fully equipped and Shah Mushani of Paran was keen to use the Do 22P's against Dhimar. With the outbreak of World War Two Dhimar had seen the RAF leave the region and, with Dhimar's defences down, Shah Mushani wanted revenge for the attacks on Parani settlers in the Kerman Valley. On October 1st, 1939 Shah Mushani launched an attack on the Dhimari oilfields at Al'Haramlek and Najahaf and also an attack on the port of Al'Duhok. The 4th Attack Regiment were tasked with the strike on the two oilfields and dispatched two flights of four Do 22P's achieving total surprise and destroying both objectives.







Wow! The Do 22 is so ugly it must be a Blackburn product!

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Fairey Fulcrum Mk.I - No.15 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1938

During 1931, the British Air Ministry released Specification G.4/31 calling for a general purpose aircraft capable of carrying out level bombing, army co-operation, dive bombing, reconnaissance, casualty evacuation and torpedo bombing. Fairey's proposal was the Fairey G.4/31, a single-engine, two-seat biplane but this was rejected by the Air Ministry and the requirement was eventually met by the Vickers Wellesley. But even as work proceeded on the construction of the Fairey G.4/31 prototype, the Fairey design office had already started work on Operational Requirements for a light-bomber to Specification P.27/32 and also for a naval torpedo-bomber to Specification P.2/33. Marcel Lobelle, Fairey Aviation's chief designer, led the design team responsible for the light-bomber (a project that would eventually lead to the Fairy Battle) whilst John Walvis led the design team working on the naval torpedo-bomber.

With the Air Ministry strongly favouring a radial engine for the naval torpedo-bomber, Walvis set about designing the Fairey P.2/33 as an all metal, single-engine monoplane powered by the promising Bristol Pegasus XX nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial aero engine with a planned rating of 925 hp. During the design phase Walvis was able to incorporate aerodynamic innovations such as wing fillets, a fully enclosed cockpit and a fixed landing gear covered in streamlined spats. By mid-1934, Air Ministry officials could see such a high demand for the Rolls-Royce PV-12 (Merlin) engine that a decision was taken to prioritise production of the PV-12 for the planned interceptor/fighter aircraft (most notably F.36/34 & F.37/34) and the Fairey Battle. However, the Air Ministry were so impressed with Fairey's P.2/33 radial-engined design that they asked Fairey to submit it to a new Specification P.41/34 for a general purpose attack bomber for the RAF and authorised the production of three P.41/34 prototypes.

Renamed as the Fairey Fulcrum, development moved swiftly and on December 8th 1935 the first Fulcrum prototype (K4404) equipped with an early Bristol Pegasus IV rated at 680 hp made its maiden flight at Hayes in Middlesex before being transferred to RAF Martlesham Heath for service trials. The second and third prototypes were both powered by Bristol Pegasus VI engines rated at 750 hp and completed an accelerated programme of service trials during the Spring of 1936 leading to a production order of 145 Fulcrum Mk.I aircraft. Entering service with No.15 Squadron in March 1937 the Fulcrum Mk.I eventually served with seven RAF Squadrons and whilst largely obsolete by the start of the Second World War it remained in front-line service. However, it was not deployed to France as part of the British RAF Advanced Air Striking Force but served at home with No. 1 Group in operations against German shipping massed in the Channel ports for Operation Sealion. Their last combat sorties included raids on Boulogne and Calais in late 1940 but by early 1941 the remaining Fulcrums were transferred to Northern Ireland for coastal patrol work.







I've always loved the relatively short-lived NIVO Green schemes seen on the Fairey Hendon and also on the Handley-Page Heyford pre-war RAF bombers. In plastic model form, my Fairey Battle and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley all had this scheme but that was probably because all I had as a cash-strapped teenager in the 1970's was an 'M3' tinlet to choose from! Anyway, this is the Northrop Gamma 2E - another rare bird from the DAT stable and it comes with painted-on Chinese markings which I've managed to either overpaint or simply decal over.

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Fairey Fulcrum Mk.I - No.600 (City of London) Squadron, Royal Auxilliary Air Force, 1938





I've got a bit of a pre-war thing going on at the moment so I thought I'd dress up the 'Fulcrum' (lol) with more colourful markings. I wanted to use rudder stripes which meant knocking up a couple of white outlined serial numbers and added a red and white engine cowling. On the first picture if you look at the 'red box' code letters on the spats you can see a bit of compression going on. Sweet!

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Boulton Paul Defender Mk.I - No.303 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1940

The Boulton Paul P.83 was designed to Air Ministry Specification F.40/34 for a single-seat monplane fighter of wooden construction that could be built rapidly and in large numbers. As part of the Air Ministry policy of diverting production of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine to priority projects such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire the Air Ministry had specified that all F.40/34 submissions must use the Napier Falcon (a licence-built Hispano-Suiza 12Y-45) with a planned rating of 920 hp. The P.83 was a conventional low-wing monoplane but of wooden construction with plywood skinning over stringers in a semi-monocoque construction.

In the Spring of 1936, Boulton Paul commenced assembly on the first P.83 prototype at their new Wolverhampton facility and made quick progress. With their contemporary turret-fighter being named Defiant, Boulton Paul requested the name Defender for their new fighter and this was agreed with the Air Ministry. Making it's maiden flight on April 4th, 1937 (piloted by Boulton Paul's chief test pilot Cecil Feather) the Defender demonstrated good handling and an impressive rate of climb. Service pilots reported that the Defender could climb faster than both the Spitfire and Hurricane but that its top speed was somewhere inbetween the two. In June 1937 the Air Ministry placed an order for 240 aircraft and whilst official acceptance trials did not commence until July 1938 the first Defender Squadrons were formed in early 1939.

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Parani Aviation Company YG/X 'Condor' - 8th Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1945






Another re-purposing of the Italian SAI Ambrosini SS.4 - a 3D model built by Veltro2K at my suggestion back in 2015 and probably my best skin made from scratch.

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It's not pretty but the MiG-3 is rather rakish!

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Brewster Aeronautical Corporation B-339 'Buffalo' - 1st Aviation Regiment, Estonian Air Force, 1940

In July 1938 a group of Estonian Air Force officers arrived at the Supermarine works for a technical presentation on the Spitfire Type 300 and, on a later visit, to watch a series of demonstration flights of the Spitfire flown by Supermarine's chief test pilot Mutt Summers. The Estonians left suitably impressed and made an advance payment for 12 Spitfires to Order No. C.186/39. This order was approved by the Air Ministry and a contract between the two governments was finalised on March 2nd, 1939. However, by then the Estonian order had already been made as a third priority on the Foreign Office's list and with war clouds looming Estonia looked elsewhere for a modern fighter aircraft but whilst also keeping the Spitfire order intact.

Wasting no time, in April 1939 Estonian Air Force officers made the long journey to the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation's main production facilities at the Brewster Building in Long Island, New York to look at the B-339 Buffalo (essentially a de-navalized export version of the F2A-1). With guarantees of prompt delivery the Estonian government ordered 16 aircraft in May 1939. The first eight B-339's arrived in Estonia during the early Spring of 1940 and equipped the 1st Aviation Regiment based at Otepää in southern Estonia but could do little to defend the country at the outset of the Soviet invasion on June 16th, 1940 and all Estonian forces were ordered to stand-down on the following day. The remaining eight B-339's for Estonia were still in the U.S. and were eventually delivered to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force for use by the American Volunteer Group.







"Tubby or not tubby - that is the question"

My decision to give the stumpy Buffalo to Estonia is purely because the original skin has NEI markings so I wanted something to cover the orangle triangles! A couple of things: my backstory has been used before on my Estonian P-40B and I don't have any WW2 Soviet aircraft in my install so a German Do-17Z stood in as the enemy bomber.

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Parani Aviation Company YG/4 'Condor' - 10th Coastal Patrol Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1943

In early 1931 Shah Mushani of Paran announced a five year plan to strengthen his armed forces by expansion allied to an ambitious domestic arms production programme including the creation of an indigenous aviation industry. In June 1931, Shah Mushani announced the creation of the Parani Aviation Company and appointed the Russian engineer Nikolai Yergin as the chief designer of the Parani Aviation Company giving Yergin licence to recruit several other Russian engineers including Vladimir Gudkov from the OKB-301 design bureau. This partnership of Yergin and Gudkov was the foundation stone of the Parani Aviation Company and endured until the early 1960's.

Shah Mushani tasked Yergin and Gudkov with the design and production of no less than three aircraft projects of increasing complexity;

1. The YG/1 'Goshawk' a light attack biplane that could also serve as a trainer.

2. The YG/2 'Vulture' a monoplane tactical bomber.

3. The YG/3 'Storm' a monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft.

Even before the first flight of the YG/1 in February 1934 Nikolai Yergin had begun to sketch a small twin-engined light bomber as a follow-on project to the YG/1. Allocated the design number of YG/4, Yergin and Gudkov were determined to make their new light bomber as small as possible and with an emphasis on lightweight construction. This soon gained the support of Shah Mushani who agreed to fund the new aircraft providing that the design could also fulfil the additional role of maritime patrol along Paran's long northern coastline. Yergin and Gudkov readily accepted this additional requirement and made some slight revisions to their YG/4 including the adoption of the twin Alfa Romeo 128 RC.18 nine-cylinder radial engines rated at 950 hp each.

The development of the YG/4 moved slowly but only due to the small size of the Parani Aviation Company and the focus on bringing the three earlier designs into service. The first flight of the YG/4 took place on March 1st, 1940 and testing continued during 1940 and early 1941 before production commenced in August 1941 at the new Parani Aviation Company factory at Konara. Entering service as the YG/4 'Condor' in February 1942 with the 10th Coastal Patrol Regiment of the Parani Army Air Force the YG/4 was a slightly pedestrian aircraft but played an important part in patrolling Paran's northern coastline and was responsible for sinking 5,120 tons of Dhimari shipping and damaging another 4,454 tons before the 1946 ceasefire.







This is the little-known Kyushu Q1W by the DAT boys all dressed up as a Parani coastal patrol bomber. I've previously shown this as an Argentinian bomber although at the time I didn't quite realise how small it is - it's smaller than a Blenheim Mk.I and the engines are quite puny (610hp each) although my backstory changes things a bit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu_Q1W

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British Aerospace Lightning F.2B - No.1435 Flight, RAF South Atlantic Command, 1982






Whilst I never made this in plastic this is a 'what if' idea I had back in 1982 where ex-RAFG Lightnings were taken out of storage, returned to service and used to defend the Falkland Islands from potential Argentine attacks. British Aerospace gave the Lightnings the ability to carry AIM-9L's and they were redesignated as the Lightning F.2B (and nicknamed 'Brisfit'  ). Now there are a lot of holes in that short backstory but bare with me. The No.1435 Flight thing was just an excuse to do Faith, Hope, Charity and Desperation and I might do a full squadron in RAF Camo - probably No.29 Squadron just because I love their XXX markings.

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British Aerospace Lightning F.2B - No.29 Squadron, RAF South Atlantic Command, 1983




Strong stuff!

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Hawker Hurricane Mk.I - 1st JaVA, Royal Netherlands Air Force, 1940







Long time no see.

Back in the summer the DAT boys released a WW2 Balkans campaign and, among many goodies, it includes this lovely Yugoslavian Hurricane with three-colour upper surface camo that just reminds me of the RNLAF's Fokker D.XXI but without the brown undersurfaces. I overpainted the Yugoslavian roundels and added the distinctive black bordered orange triangles as decals and also painted the rudder directly onto the skin which turned out a bit rough but acceptable. 'Witte Muizen' and numbers completed the look.

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Curtiss Commando C.3 - No.30 Squadron, RAF Transport Command, 1957






Whilst the wiki page for the Curtiss C-46 Commando doesn't show that it was used by the RAF I'm not 100% sure myself as I seem to recall one or two did serve or were at least evaluated? Anyway, this is the DAT C-46A dressed up as a post-war RAF bird in a Dakota-esque scheme. I just used the splendid 'aluminium' skin, added the blue stripe, tinted the uppersurfaces of the fuselage white and my decals completed the look.