Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread - Montenegrin Kometa's

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Curtiss P-36G Hawk - 126th IAP, Soviet Air Force, Winter 1941-1942

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

SOVIET P-36G HAWK.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

For this winter P-36G (or Hawk 75A-8) I've tried a new technique of using the predominantly white specular map and 'distressing' it to reveal the original OD uppersurfaces. Gotta love YouTube!

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Douglas B-24B Mixmaster - 1 Grupo de Bombardeo, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1955

At the end of the Korean war the United States Air Force declared the B-42 Mixmaster to be obsolete and surplus to requirements. Despite the tense relations between the USA and Argentina during WW2 and throughout the Perón years the US Department of Defence authorised the sale of 30 B-42B's to Argentina which were delivered in two batches during early 1954 where they replaced the Fuerza Aérea Argentina's remaining Avro Lancasters and supplemented the Avro Lincoln in Fuerza Aérea Argentina service.

On June 16th, 1955 two B-42B aircraft from 1 Grupo de Bombardeo operated alongside a mixed force of aircraft from the Comando de la Aviación Naval Argentina in the tragic bombing of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires where approximately 400 civilians were killed in the largest ever aerial bombing on the Argentine mainland. The type was subsequently used by both the government and rebel forces during the 'Revolución Libertadora' coup which eventually saw Juan Perón being deposed. As late as June 1966, the B-42B's remained in operational use with a force of ten B-42B's taking part in a flypast during the official inauguration of Juan Carlos Onganía as President of Argentina following the 'Revolución Argentina' coup d'état.

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAA B-42B MIXMASTER.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

For some reason, when I made the skin for the B-42 Mixmaster I was always going to do an Argentinian one in a similar scheme to their Avro Lincolns although I've used a lower demarcation line. The small batch of serial numbers (I made eight in total) took more time than anything else as I couldn't find a font that exactly hit the spot and I ended up using 'RAF_WW2_851ATH' with adjustments to the '1' and the hyphen.

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Handley Page Hatfield B.1 - No.7 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1936

RAF HATFIELD B1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This is the Tupolev TB-3 masquerading as the Handley Page Hatfield a little-known pre-war bomber! This was released recently by the DAT boys with Soviet and Chinese camo schemes. Only three piccies as it hasn't quite worked and I can only show it from the starboard side but there's nothing wrong with the model it's just mapped in a slightly unusual way that caught me out. I do like putting bombers from this era into RAF service with NIVO green and Type B roundels (I did a FROG Whitley like that about 30 years ago) and the Chinese skin is ideal - I just had to overpaint the blue & white striped rudder. I made the No.7 Squadron shield from scratch based on a Heyford profile found on the web that makes me wish the TB-3 had spats!

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Handley Page Hatfield B.1 - No.216 Squadron, RAF Middle East, 1940

RAF HATFIELD B1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF HATFIELD B1.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

This one uses the Soviet Camo (c.1941) that comes with DAT's TB-3 so it's not exactly the same colour as an RAF Desert bird in 1940 but the markings do give it that overall look I feel.

Updates will be sporadic for a good few months as I'm starting a new job tomorrow with long hours although I'm hoping it will settle down into a three-day week. We'll see!

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Boeing Blackcap Mk.I - No.73 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1937

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A nice P-26A Peashooter was released by the DAT boys recently and I've used my instant silver skin hack of using the specular map to make a pre-war RAF monoplane fighter with my previously made No.73 squadron markings but adding the finflash to the rudder and also adding copper to the front of the cowl as an affectionate nod to the Gloster Gladiator. I've just noticed that the Bristol Mercury is slightly smaller than the Peashooter's P&W R-1340 Wasp, only a tad heavier but much more lusty. There's no backstory for the Condor Legion Fiat CR.42... it just turned up as the enemy of the day!

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Boeing Blackcap Mk.I - Night Fighter Flight, No.79 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, Munich Crisis, 1938

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BLACKCAP Mk1.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Another 'silver becomes black' inversion skin but I have missed a few parts around the cockpit and nose. Like my earlier 'Bruno' night fighter this is based on the scheme worn by some of No.79 Squadron's Gloster Gauntlets in 1938.

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Scottish Aviation Prestwick C.1 - 'B' Flight, No.152 Squadron, RAF Near East Air Force, 1961

RAF PRESTWICK C1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF PRESTWICK C1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF PRESTWICK C1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF PRESTWICK C1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A little recognition test for you!

Post Script

Yes, this the little-known Kokusia Ki-59 light transport monoplane which looks pretty cool for an early 1940's design. It's a 'beta' release by the DAT boys but flies really well so I thought I'd make a template for it for a Parani transport. But I then got to thinking that it would make a cool RAF liaison/communications aircraft and based the scheme on the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer and this also dictated the manufacturer and name.

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Kokusai Ki-59P 'Theresa' - 21st Communications Flight, Parani Army Air Force, 1949

PARAN Ki-59P THERESA.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-59P THERESA.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-59P THERESA.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Ki-59P THERESA.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Once I'd made a new template for the Prestwick/Ki-59 (albeit with a revised cargo door) I thought I'd give Paran a light transport and communications aircraft with a splinter type camo that looks OK from the side but stretches horribly across the broad upper fuselage. It looks the part though.

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Gloster Ganymede - RAE Farnborough, 1949

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001 PROTOTYPE.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A 'beta' Gloster CXP-1001 was released by the DAT boys recently with a basic Republic of China (Taiwan) skin and this was of enormous interest to me so I've decided to skin it from scratch and this RAF prototype is my first offering although I should add that it's still a WIP as I need to add more weathering and tidy up a few things. Anyway, about 46 years ago, the Putnam book on 'Gloster Aircraft since 1917' was one of just three aircraft books in the local library and I reckon that it's this book with it's substantial section on Gloster Projects that made me a whiffer! The CXP-1001 was one such Gloster project but one that had some traction in so much that the Chinese Nationalist Government were keen enough to have a Gloster team spend about a year working with a small team of Chinese design engineers before calling it off due to the political situation in China. Tantalisingly, the Putnam book mentions that a technical mission was sent to the United States at the same time and I wonder if any paper projects came out of this?

Anyway, back to the CXP-1001, loads of whif potential in this one!

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Gloster Celeste FB.2 - No.134 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 1950

RAF CXP-1001.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

The 'Ganymede' name doesn't quite work for me so I've changed it to the equally astronomical 'Celeste'. I will eventually get around to doing camo versions of the CXP-1001 but with limited time I thought I'd just convert my prototype silver skin into an operational silver SEAC bird by adding SEAC bands directly onto the skin and my usual decals for insignia, serials and codes.

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Gloster Celeste F.4 - No.41 Squadron, RAF Fighter Command, 1953

RAF CXP-1001.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.08 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.09 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.10 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.11 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF CXP-1001.12 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I'm not sure why I've gone for No.41 Squadron but I quite like this! The mapping of the 3D model makes it harder to do a camo scheme so I've had to simplify it slightly by using the same camo pattern for the left and right fuselage halves but I did manage to make the wings and stab's different. When SF2 came out (in late 2008) it introduced specular mapping and 1950's RAF birds like the Meteor and Hunter could then (where appropriate) have camo upper surfaces with shiny silver undersides. The CXP-1001 3D model has specular mapping so I've made a simple specular map to make the undersides shinier than the uppersurfaces and this is best seen in the middle aircraft in the last picture.

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Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4 (Trop) - 1st Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1942

When Jagdgeschwader 27 began to replace it's Bf-109E's with the far superior Bf-109F model in late 1941 approximately 20 of their war-weary Bf-10E's were freely supplied to the Parani Army Air Force where they re-equiped the 'Desert Eagles' of the 1st Fighter Regiment commanded by General Ahmed Wajai. With their Luftwaffe markings hastily overpainted with the insignia of the Parani Army Air Force, the Parani Bf-109E's were soon in action over the Valley of Kerman shooting down several Dhimari P-40's and P-66's during January 1942.

PARAN Bf-109E-4Trop.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Bf-109E-4Trop.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Bf-109E-4Trop.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Bf-109E-4Trop.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN Bf-109E-4Trop.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

As a little break from the CXP-1001 I knocked up these Parani Bf-109's.

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Fiat G.55 Centauro - 3rd Fighter Regiment, Parani Army Air Force, 1944

PARAN G55 CENTAURO.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN G55 CENTAURO.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN G55 CENTAURO.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN G55 CENTAURO.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

PARAN G55 CENTAURO.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

There was a fair bit of luck involved with this skin as the G.55 I downloaded had various skins that I could work with by cutting out certain elements (like a fuselage band or a coloured fin) and combine to create a simple green over grey skin with no markings. A Japanese Centauro is an obvious one to create using this skin!

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Fiat G.55 Centauro - 5th Air Regiment, Turkish Air Force, 1945

When the governments of Germany and Turkey signed a non-aggression pact on June 18th, 1941 the main benefits to Germany was to keep Turkey friendly with the Axis powers and to also gain immediate access to Turkish chromite and iron ore. In return, Turkey would receive aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, tanks and spare parts. For the Turkish Air Force this would mean the receipt of 60 brand new Focke-Wulf Fw-190A-3 aircraft shipped via rail as disassembled aircraft plus the equivalent of another 12 aircraft shipped as spare parts. The initial two batches of 30 aircraft were safely delivered to the new railway station located close to Yeşilköy Airfield near Istanbul and were assembled during the Spring of 1943 with initial deliveries being made to the 5th Fighter Regiment based at Bursa in June 1943.

During the Autumn of 1943 the Turkish Air Force began to chase up the late delivery of the remaining 12 Fw-190A-3's and were disappointed to learn that, at Adolf Hitler's instruction, they were being witheld as Turkey had agreed to supply Chromite to the United States and United Kingdom who had jointly embarked upon a strategy of "preclusive buying" of Turkish chromite even though they did not actually need it. The Turkish Prime Minister, Şükrü Saracoğlu, intervened and whilst Hitler would not budge on the missing Fw-190's he agreed to send "other fighter aircraft from the Italian front" before the end of 1943. Turkish Air Force officials thought that this would mean Messerschmitt Bf-109G's but were disappointed to discover that the crated aircraft received at Yeşilköy from Italy in December 1943 were 12 Fiat G.55 Centauro aircraft recently requisitioned by the Luftwaffe but rejected by them. A technical team from the recently formed Turkish Aviation Association arrived from Ankara during early 1944 to assemble the G.55's and flight-testing was carried out by Sabiha Gökçen the famous Turkish female aviator. During April 1944, the unwanted G.55's were sent to the 4th Air Regiment based at Merzifon where they remained in service until late February 1945.

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.07 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TuAF G55 CENTAURO.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I slightly lightened my green over grey skin and was going to do a Portuguese skin but stumbled upon some pictures of Turkish Fw-190A-3's (in mottled camo) and thought I'd do a Turkish Centauro. The Turkish Fw-190's had the square insignia on the wings but not on the fuselage so I've made a change there and also added a white outline to the red fuselage numbers.

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Bristol Buzzard T.1 - No.4 FTS, Royal Air Force, 1966

RAF BUZZARD T1.01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUZZARD T1.02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUZZARD T1.03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAF BUZZARD T1.04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A rather nice Fuji T-1 was released recently with a 3D model by 'Veltro2K' and a JASDF skin by 'Wrench' who has also thoughtfully included a template which I've used to create a scheme similar to some of the RAF Hunter T.7's with red and white fuselages, grey inner wings and more red on outer wings and horizontal tail. I hit upon the Buzzard name as I've been seeing a Buzzard at my workplace (plus Sparrowhawks and Fieldfares) and then plumped for Bristol as it has a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus engine although there's no real link between them AFAIK. I'll definitely come back to this one at some time but need to park it up and get back to the CXP-1001 later in the week.