Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

Nakajima Ki-117 'Pike' - Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, 1946











This is the Tempest II by the SFP1 Dev A-Team masquerading as the Nakajima Ki-117 (Allied Code Name: 'Pike'). I took the grey specular bitmaps, masked off the undersurfaces and added a blurry green leafy layer to look like those sprayed on camo schemes seen on WW2 Japanese aircraft. A red spinner, yellow wing leading edges, slightly distressed Hinomaru and some fictional IJAAF markings finish it off. I have absolutely no clue on IJAAF squadron/wing/air army structures so haven't named the squadron and the '4' within an arrow on the fin is a marking straight out of my own head! I love the Hawker Tempest but much prefer the 'chinny' versions.

If you have a feeling of deja vu then, yes, I've showed this Japanese Tempest before but the photo's were hosted by Photobucket (b*stards) and have the horrible Photobucket watermark running through them so I decided to do some new screenshots.

[Dizzyfugu]

That's pretty cool! Works for me.

[SPINNERS]

Lavochkin La-13 'Fickle' - Soviet Air Force, 1946















I think this 3D model of the Tempest Mk.II with it's dubious tail makes for a good masquerade and this is the Lavochkin La-13 as suggested by NARSES2. I thought I'd try a scruffy winter scheme with chipped white upper surfaces revealing green paint beneath and for this one I decided to put the insignia directly onto the skin map and the number 23 so that they would also appear chipped and worn. It's not brilliant but it works. I had to fight the temptation to add upper wing insignia as those wings look so bare. I noticed the Shvetsov M-71 radial engine is very similar in size to the Bristol Centaurus but substantially heavier and well down on power too. You can dial this into the game/sim and do other things like swap the 20mm Hispano cannons for the 20mm Shvak with simple edits.

[NARSES2]

Both look good to me