Thanks, Flanker! It was a lot of fun to do that one.
To celebrate the entry of the TSR-2 into Japanese service, the JASDF leased the Royal Air Force's XR223, one of the original TSR-2 test planes, and flew it for two seasons as a special part of the Blue Impulse's show with the Mitsubishi T-2s they flew.
Early in the Vietnam War, the US Air Force identified a severe lack of high-speed reconnaissance assets in that theater. Two squadrons of RAF Eagle GR1's were purchased and modified for US operations, including US radios, IFF, and pylons rewired for standard US armaments. One difficulty that was encountered by the purchase was the lack of compatibility with USAF air-to-air refueling assets due to the lack of a refueling boom port. This was somewhat mitigated by installing a large fuel tank in the bomb bay and carrying a pair of large drop tanks on the wings.
The aircraft served admirably, operating from bases in South Vietnam, Korea, and Laos, and conducted hundreds of dangerous missions over North Vietnam. Despite that, there were problems with the plane, including the limited maximum range, the lack of adequate self-defense armaments, and maintenance issues. Most of these were corrected with the RF-112B, built under license in the US by McDonnell Douglas. It featured updated avionics and cameras, a refueling port, and, taken from the then-new Eagle FGR.3 entering service in the RAF, overwing IR missile pylons.
I recently started going back and redoing the shading on my VF-4, as well as redoing the major paths, since it was my first one done like that and I've learned a lot in the year since I first did it. Here's where I am right now, I'm slowly working my way back along the plane from the nose. I still haven't touched the highlighting yet, but I think the shading is much improved.
Yep, lennier, we're there now. This is reply #1000.
I can't believe it's almost been a year since I started coloring these things. I cringe when I look back at the beginnings, like this one from May 04, 2008, the first post I did on coloring my VF-4 lineart. Quite a bit of difference compared to the beginning of 2.0, wouldn't you say?
It's been a long, hard....er fun and challenging road so far and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more, so keep reading this thread, everyone!
During Red Flag exercises with the United States Air Force, several Luftwaffe Eagles of JaboG 31 "Boelcke" were painted in an experimental desert camouflage scheme. It proved decently successful, but the paint was difficult to maintain and began peeling off after only a few flying hours. Eventually, it was settled on a low-vis gray scheme for desert theaters.
I got most of what I wanted done on the VF-4 and I've been sitting on this scheme and wanted to get it out, so this'll do until I redo the cockpit and tweak some other stuff. Call it version 1.8 instead of 2.0.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Fig. E: (White 8/199302) One of the most colorful Lightnings in active service is this example from Eden. Assigned to the aggressor unit for the New Edwards Test Flight Center, this particular VF-4 is painted in a striking purple and gold color scheme with markings from the pre-Space War I Anti-UN coalition. According to the unit historian, the first commander of the squadron was a veteran of SVF-1 Skull Squadron in the pre-war years and had his personal craft painted in the scheme of an Anti-UN pilot he had flown against. When the squadron replaced it's VF-1s with new VF-4s, he painted his new mount in the same scheme and it survived after his retirement a few years later. Even after the squadron transitioned to new types, this VF-4 was maintained until it was retired in 2042 and given to the New Edwards base museum for preservation and display. As a final honor for it, one of the squadron's newer VF-22S Sturmvogel IIs was painted in the same colors.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Figure B1 and B2: (403/189403 and 088/192088) Most long-range colony missions and planetary installations maintain a squadron of pilots with a secondary mission of providing OPFOR (Opposing Force) aggressor aircraft for pilot and gunnery training. On the Megaroad-8 mission and several others, the fighters were commonly painted in differing camouflage schemes or high-visibility schemes to set them apart from friendly craft. These two fighters display a pair of color variations of just one of the bewildering array of Megaroad-8 aggressor schemes. The blue craft displays the cobra head insignia common to many of the aggressor units deployed on colony missions, while the green and tan example was the commander’s craft and has a personal insignia, a Japanese kamon crest of a lotus (蓮) painted on the tail.
Just something I'm working off-and-on on. Ignore the shading, the Ghost is new, the VF-0 is one of my earlier works and I need to start the shading/highlighting almost from scratch.
Here's a little something I've been working on. I also have a couple VF-4 finished and some TSR-2s on the drawing table, along with a couple other Macross projects.
Got a whole bunch of stuff coming. This is only the beginning.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Figure A (101/299032) The VF-4 Lightning III entered service in 2012, beginning with the equipping of SVF-1 Skull Squadron, based on the carrier Prometheus and stationed at the Macross landing site on Earth. Most of the initial craft, part of the low-rate initial production order, were assigned that squadron, totalling around 20 at the time of SVF-1's embarkation on the Megaroad-01 colony mission. They were painted in a new high-visibility scheme replacing the wartime black and white and carried modified Skull markings. This picture displays the personal craft of squadron commander Hikaru Ichijyo at the time of the launch in the new scheme. Also shown is a variant scheme on the same craft shown in a broadcast a few years later for the anniversary of the launch. It is unknown to the authors currently why the plane was repainted in these colors.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Figure G (202/304931) One of the squadrons deployed on the Megaroad-08 mission was 302 Hikotai, flying VF-4J block 30 Lightning III fighters. They were painted in a mix of overall-gray and attractive two-tone blue that proved effective in space combat.
Great color work it is also nice to see you add a back story to these vehicles showing why they have those paintjobs to work with Will you eventually also add other views of these planes?
I'm just doing the side view in the foreseeable future as these are supposed to be like aircraft profile drawings you'd see in plenty of aviation books. (Not to mention other views are a pain in the rear to do!)
If you liked those, Honman, check out my Deviantart page, it has everything, not just my VF-4s. talos56 on deviantART
In the late 1970s, a Royal Air Force Eagle GR1 was performing a routine reconnaissance mission over Germany when it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and crash landed in Kaliningrad, Russia, while the pilot attempted to ditch it into the North Sea. The plane landed nearly intact at Chernyakhovsk and the crew was taken into Soviet custody, only to be released nearly 18 months later in a diplomatic exchange. The wreckage was repaired and transported by train to Ramenskoye where TsAGI disassembled and copied in the aircraft just as had been done before to the B-29 Superfortress, to fill a light, fast nuclear strike and recon aircraft requirement. The aircraft, first dubbed "Ram-S" when discovered by the west, entered service as the Tupolev Tu-30P, the initial recon model. NATO assigned it the reporting name "Fletcher". Several hundred of the initial model were built with Tu-30U trainer (with stepped cockpits), Tu-30M (extensively upgraded airframe, engines, and avionics), and Tu-30PDM (penultimate recon version) increasing that number significantly. At the fall of the Soviet Union, they were still serving in the Soviet Air Force, as well as the Air Forces of most of their allies. The Soviet examples were distributed among all the former Soviet countries when the Air Force was divided. Due to the SALT-II treaty, however, all the nuclear strike Fletcher-A's were converted into Tu-30TP photo-recon craft or assigned to demilitarized roles such as this example, 07 Red, assigned as a chase plane for Roskosmos' operations at Baikonur Cosmodrome and named after Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.
Finally finished this request, which has been sitting half-done for awhile on my computer. I'm going to go back and redo the markings on the nose and make them closer to the original German. The anchor was drawn from scratch from really blurry sources, but I think it came out well.
Got a lot of the YF-19/VF-19A Excalibur done. All it really needs now is a few small details and the wings. Also, a preview of the next Excalibur I've been working on...
Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted here. Fear not, it doesn't mean I haven't been working on anything! Let's get this started, shall we?
First up, a whole bunch of USN VF-4s I've been working on. And yes, that is a typo in SVF-32 Swordsmen that I'll correct one of these days.
Then, new TSR-2s.
And finally, I've been collaborating with another artist on another board to do profiles of the Martin XB-51 bomber. I did the lineart and some custom graphics and camo, while he does the shading, highlighting, coloring, markings, etc. It's been a good partnership, we can each play up our strengths.
I included a close-up of the 47th Bombardment Wing crest I drew from scratch for the TAC B-45 scheme. I think it came out pretty well, it's one of the most complicated markings I've drawn before.
Posts
To celebrate the entry of the TSR-2 into Japanese service, the JASDF leased the Royal Air Force's XR223, one of the original TSR-2 test planes, and flew it for two seasons as a special part of the Blue Impulse's show with the Mitsubishi T-2s they flew.
Here's an Eagle GR1A repainted in Desert Pink for operations in Iraq for Operation Telic.
That is one hell of a nice drawing Talos! Makes you wonder what those birds would have looked like now if the Brits had ordered them...
Here's another British one, ETPS's in Raspberry Ripple.
The aircraft served admirably, operating from bases in South Vietnam, Korea, and Laos, and conducted hundreds of dangerous missions over North Vietnam. Despite that, there were problems with the plane, including the limited maximum range, the lack of adequate self-defense armaments, and maintenance issues. Most of these were corrected with the RF-112B, built under license in the US by McDonnell Douglas. It featured updated avionics and cameras, a refueling port, and, taken from the then-new Eagle FGR.3 entering service in the RAF, overwing IR missile pylons.
I recently started going back and redoing the shading on my VF-4, as well as redoing the major paths, since it was my first one done like that and I've learned a lot in the year since I first did it. Here's where I am right now, I'm slowly working my way back along the plane from the nose. I still haven't touched the highlighting yet, but I think the shading is much improved.
ItAâs quite impressive how much your style has improved.
I can't believe it's almost been a year since I started coloring these things. I cringe when I look back at the beginnings, like this one from May 04, 2008, the first post I did on coloring my VF-4 lineart. Quite a bit of difference compared to the beginning of 2.0, wouldn't you say?
It's been a long, hard....er fun and challenging road so far and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more, so keep reading this thread, everyone!
During Red Flag exercises with the United States Air Force, several Luftwaffe Eagles of JaboG 31 "Boelcke" were painted in an experimental desert camouflage scheme. It proved decently successful, but the paint was difficult to maintain and began peeling off after only a few flying hours. Eventually, it was settled on a low-vis gray scheme for desert theaters.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Fig. E: (White 8/199302) One of the most colorful Lightnings in active service is this example from Eden. Assigned to the aggressor unit for the New Edwards Test Flight Center, this particular VF-4 is painted in a striking purple and gold color scheme with markings from the pre-Space War I Anti-UN coalition. According to the unit historian, the first commander of the squadron was a veteran of SVF-1 Skull Squadron in the pre-war years and had his personal craft painted in the scheme of an Anti-UN pilot he had flown against. When the squadron replaced it's VF-1s with new VF-4s, he painted his new mount in the same scheme and it survived after his retirement a few years later. Even after the squadron transitioned to new types, this VF-4 was maintained until it was retired in 2042 and given to the New Edwards base museum for preservation and display. As a final honor for it, one of the squadron's newer VF-22S Sturmvogel IIs was painted in the same colors.
Figure B1 and B2: (403/189403 and 088/192088) Most long-range colony missions and planetary installations maintain a squadron of pilots with a secondary mission of providing OPFOR (Opposing Force) aggressor aircraft for pilot and gunnery training. On the Megaroad-8 mission and several others, the fighters were commonly painted in differing camouflage schemes or high-visibility schemes to set them apart from friendly craft. These two fighters display a pair of color variations of just one of the bewildering array of Megaroad-8 aggressor schemes. The blue craft displays the cobra head insignia common to many of the aggressor units deployed on colony missions, while the green and tan example was the commander’s craft and has a personal insignia, a Japanese kamon crest of a lotus (蓮) painted on the tail.
More VF-4's coming soon, probably tomorrow.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Figure A (101/299032) The VF-4 Lightning III entered service in 2012, beginning with the equipping of SVF-1 Skull Squadron, based on the carrier Prometheus and stationed at the Macross landing site on Earth. Most of the initial craft, part of the low-rate initial production order, were assigned that squadron, totalling around 20 at the time of SVF-1's embarkation on the Megaroad-01 colony mission. They were painted in a new high-visibility scheme replacing the wartime black and white and carried modified Skull markings. This picture displays the personal craft of squadron commander Hikaru Ichijyo at the time of the launch in the new scheme. Also shown is a variant scheme on the same craft shown in a broadcast a few years later for the anniversary of the launch. It is unknown to the authors currently why the plane was repainted in these colors.
Excerpt from VF-4 Lightning III 2012-2047: 35 Years of Service
Figure G (202/304931) One of the squadrons deployed on the Megaroad-08 mission was 302 Hikotai, flying VF-4J block 30 Lightning III fighters. They were painted in a mix of overall-gray and attractive two-tone blue that proved effective in space combat.
Do you have full orthos or just the side view?
If you liked those, Honman, check out my Deviantart page, it has everything, not just my VF-4s. talos56 on deviantART
First up, a whole bunch of USN VF-4s I've been working on. And yes, that is a typo in SVF-32 Swordsmen that I'll correct one of these days.
Then, new TSR-2s.
And finally, I've been collaborating with another artist on another board to do profiles of the Martin XB-51 bomber. I did the lineart and some custom graphics and camo, while he does the shading, highlighting, coloring, markings, etc. It's been a good partnership, we can each play up our strengths.
I included a close-up of the 47th Bombardment Wing crest I drew from scratch for the TAC B-45 scheme. I think it came out pretty well, it's one of the most complicated markings I've drawn before.