Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Republic CF-103 Thunderwarrior - No.425 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, 1964

RCAFCF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFCF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFCF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFCF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RCAFCF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Leafy roundels - a natural choice!

[SPINNERS]

Republic F-103J Thunderwarrior - 203rd Hikotai, Japanese Air Self-Defence Forces, 1988

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Apart from an unintended straight line on the upper rear fuselage I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.

[SPINNERS]

Republic F-103J Thunderwarrior - 302nd Hikotai, Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces, 1988

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

JASDFF-103JTHUNDERWARRIOR08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Spectrum Industries LBI-25X - Spectrum Air Force, 2070

SPECTRUMTHUNDERWARRIOR01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SPECTRUMTHUNDERWARRIOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Probably not sexy enough for the real Spectrum Angels...

[SPINNERS]

Grumman F-14F Tomcat - 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, USAF Aerospace Defense Command 1977

USAFF-14FTOMCAT01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-14FTOMCAT02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-14FTOMCAT03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Republic Thunderchief S.1 - No.207 Squadron, Royal Air Force, 1966

At the onset of the fatigue problems suffered by the Vickers Valiant in 1964 it wasn't only the RAF that urgently looked for a quick replacement. With the October 1962 Cuban Missile crisis relatively fresh in their minds the American administration led by LBJ realised that a quick infusion of European striking power was required and authorised the transfer of a batch of 39 F-105D-25's from US stocks to the RAF and these arrived in December 1964 under "Operation Hastings" (later discovered to be an American jibe at the incoming British Prime Minister Harold Wilson).

Entering service with No.207 squadron at RAF Marham in February 1965 the Thunderchief S.1 soon also re-equipped No.49 and No.148 squadrons (also based at RAF Marham) and were initially armed with American Mk28 (B-61) free-fall tactical nuclear bombs before switching to the UK WE.177B in late 1966. Due to their relative short range the Thunderchief S.1's were regularly deployed to RAF Germany until the Victor K.1 tanker force had built up in sufficient numbers. In RAF service the Thunderchief suffered from a high attrition rate and the type was never popular with pilots and began to be supplanted in RAF service by Blackburn Buccaneer S.2's in 1968 with the last squadron (No.148) disbanding in 1970.

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS101-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS102-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS103-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS104-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS105-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERCHIEFS106-1 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

If you've got a feeling of déjà vu it's because I've shown an RAF Thunderchief in anti-flash white before but this is a revised version using the stock Third Wire 'Thud' and only possible due to the release of some excellent templates by 'ludo.m54' including the F-105D.

[SPINNERS]

Avro Canada CF-105C Arrow - 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, USAF Aerospace Defense Command, 1972

USAFCF-105ARROW07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFCF-105ARROW08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFCF-105ARROW09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4E 'ADC' - 318th FIS, ADTAC, 1977

USAFF-4EADCPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-4EADCPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-4EADCPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-4EADCPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Avro Canada / Saab J-36C 'Pilen' - 'Acro Deltas' Display Team, Flygvapnet, 1966

FLYGVAPNETCF-105SARROW07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETCF-105SARROW08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETCF-105SARROW09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETCF-105SARROW10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETCF-105SARROW11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I was hoping to do a Swedish Mirage in splinter but ran into some problems, tried to do one in silver, ran into more problems  and decided to cut my losses and do a Swedish 'Acro Delta' Pilen (Arrow).

[SPINNERS]

BAC Lightning F.51 - 'Acro Blixt' Display Team, Flygvapnet, 1967

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF306 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF307 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FLYGVAPNETLIGHTNINGF308 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I thought I'd see the what the Lightning looked like in the 'Acro Delta' markings before realising that I'd have to change the fin markings and the name of the team itself! Doh! I've gone to town with this one a bit and done the coloured spine, fin and wing leading edges on the main textures and also on the specular maps to avoid the blue being shiny. I've also created the fictional Rb-25 missile - a licence-built RedTop coloured using that particular colour of green seen on Swedish Skyflash and Sidewinder missiles.

[SPINNERS]

Republic F-103A Thunderwarrior - 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 1970

USAFF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

USAFF-103ATHUNDERWARRIOR04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I'd have loved to have seen the Thunderwarrior grow a more conventional canopy and nose cone - the Thunderchief front end grafted on to the Thunderwarrior mid and rear sections would look sensational.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4N Phantom - VF-1 'Falcoes', Aviação Naval Brasileira, 1990

CFANF-4NPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

CFANF-4NPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

CFANF-4NPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

CFANF-4NPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The F-4N was released as a DLC recently. Something about the late USMC scheme suggested that it might suit the Brazilian Naval Air Arm so that's what I've done but some artistic licence has been used and the more familiar anchor markings are not used.

[SPINNERS]

Vought F-8E Crusader - Dhimari Naval Air Arm, 1970

DHIMARIF-8ECRUSADER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARIF-8ECRUSADER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

DHIMARIF-8ECRUSADER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

In a bit of a 'cut and shut' I've banged the French overall blue scheme and overall grey schemes together. The demarcation line looks really sharp but across the main wheel doors it doesn't match.

[SPINNERS]

Vought F-8E Crusader - 860 Squadron, Marine-Luchtvaartdienst, Koninklijke Marine, 1977

KONMARINEF-8ECRUSADER02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KONMARINEF-8ECRUSADER01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KONMARINEF-8ECRUSADER03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KONMARINEF-8ECRUSADER04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

KONMARINEF-8ECRUSADER05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-4FS - JG71 'Richthofen' - German Air Force, 1980

LUFTWAFFEF-4FSPHANTOM01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4FSPHANTOM02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4FSPHANTOM03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4FSPHANTOM04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

LUFTWAFFEF-4FSPHANTOM05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I've been lucky enough to have been given a unique 3D model of a Spey-engined F-4E thus mirroring my own modelling 'Holy Grail' circa 1980 when I married a Hasegawa F-4E to the old Frog F-4K (not sure why I used this and not the Matchbox one as the inaccurate Matchbox nose wasn't needed). Anyway, I've previously shown this in RAF markings (229OCU with the markings worn on the 'Blue Circle' Tonka F.2's) and have simply added stock decals from the F-4F but scaled down slightly.