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Its 1978. The RAF have completed the transfer of advanced Jet training from the Folland Gnat T1 to the new Hawk T1. The Gnat had been the RAF's advanced jet trainer since 1962. The last Gnats in RAF service were being flown by the Royal Air Force AerobaticTeam, The Red Arrows, based at RAF Kemble. Rolling forward to 1979 - the 'Reds' have transitioned to the Hawk T1, freeing up 12 jets, that have been lovingly maintained by the 'Blues'. Concurrently the RAF had followed the USAF with interest whilst they developed their Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) concept after heavy losses to new crew during the Vietnam war. The program became operational in 1972 and the USAF decided to establish a squadron in Europe to support the USAFE. 527th Tactical Fighter Training and Aggressor Squadron was established and formed at RAF Alconbury, Cambridgeshire. The unit utilised the Northrop F5E Tiger II. The aircraft was chosen due to its small airframe size and performance similarities to the Soviet MiG 21. They were painted in Eastern Block and Soviet style paint schemes to add to the realism. The Squadron soon began to adopt Soviet tactics and doctrine and were used to engage USAFE aircraft in DACT. The flight and ground crews were proud to be assigned the role and took on the rest of the USAFE with vigor, slowly, the pilots began to wear the red communist star on their helmets and the squadron started to think, act and fly Soviet Bloc! The powers that be at the MoD recognised that the DACT programme was a success and a useful training tool. The MoD and Pentagon agreed that the best way forward would be to combine resources and experiences. The RAF headshed recognised the Gnat was ideal for the task at hand. It had served in the Fighter role for India and had in fact downed 9 Pakistani F86 Sabres over 2 conflicts in 1965 and 1971. The Canadair Sabre Mk6 was widely regarded as the best dogfighter of it era. Number 74 Sqn of Battle of Britain fame had disbanded and handed over their Lightnings in 1971. I was decided to re-activate this historical squadron in 1979 and select the cream of the RAF operational aircrews to man the new RAF Aggressor squadron. The squadron and its newly 'Soviet Bloc' painted ex Red Arrows Gnat T1's moved to RAF Alconbury to get up to speed, using the 527th experience in the role to assist. The squadron successfully trained RAF aircrews in DACT, allowing frontline combat squadrons to fight an adversary versed in the likely enemies tactics. By 1984, the extra G forces and stresses on the aircraft meant that the Gnat was retired. Having been used by the Fleet Air Arm prior to the Falkland campaign in 1982, they had served their purpose in training pilots to operate in real conflict, with the Harrier force suffering no air to air combat losses. The role was handed over to the 527th who supported future RAF DACT training until they were disbanded in Sept 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today the Aggressor role has be re-established in the USAF and many other allied counties due the the threat reappearing. In the UK the RAF began the role again with 100Sqn, flying Hawk T1s, out of RAF Leeming and in 2013, 836 Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm also took up the role, utilising Hawk T1s out of RNAS Culdrose. For this What If build, I will be using the Airfix 1/72 Starter pack Gnat T1 and various low Vis RAF decals. The paint job will reflect one of the USAF Aggressor schemes of the times.

This is the third of my many adversary TA-4s. It has been a WIP for a very long time but I managed to finish it in time for a Danish contest. I did not take any prizes though. Here it is with two previously finished TA-4s: The WIP thread can be seen here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234928158-adversary-ta-4j-13-hasegawa-148/?hl=adversary Jens

Hi everyone, With the 'Obsolete Kits GB' underway (and quietly calling me!), Is it possible to convert the old Airfix A4... into a US Navy Aggressor model like the following? http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/0/7/7/1995770.jpg Or is it nose-reshaping, kit-converting utter madness?! Thanks in advance! Dermot

Well the kit finally arrived from my good friend Lloyd in Arkansas, it took 20 days to get here, I guess it was held up by all the snow we had in the UK the other week. So no more dallying it's time to start. First the obligatory box top and sprue shots Lloyd had snipped a few parts from the sprue and put the wing halves together but she is well within the 25% limit. I'll be starting as per the instructions with the seat and cockpit

This is the second of my many adversary TA-4s. It has been a WIP for a long time but I finished it last week. And with its "sister": Jens

I finished this Alconbury F-5E almost a year ago but I only got to photograph it today. It's the AFV Club kit with TwoBobs decals. Paints are from Xtracolor. Jens

Hello everyone! I am new to the forum and modeling in general. I would like to ask a couple of questions on the F-5 tiger . I see that the swiss F-5E's have a long blade type antenna on their fuselage spines and for some reason the ex swiss AF F-5N's for the US aggressors lack them. Why was the antenna removed on the US aggressor aircraft?

Finally finished my AFV Club F-5E Tiger II USAF aggressor. I've chosen to depict Buno. 74-1556 from the 527th Aggressor Squadron based on Aconbury AB, UK - aka 'RED 56'. Decals are Twobobs F-5E Alconbury Gomer 48-218. the Tiger II has been depicted in the Snake/VNAF scheme as seen on 1556 cirka 1985-86. References are pictures from the internet, as I had trouble matching the paint scheme on Two Bobs drawings to the pictures I found on the internet. Seat is Wolfpacks late seat for Tiger II. Hope You like it and happy holidays!

Last night I spent a good four hours in front of my spray booth. The victim was another of my adversary Skyhawks. This adversary Scooter is supposed to end up as TA-4F BuNo 156491 in these colours: http://a4skyhawk.org...Munzenmaier.jpg Decals are from Afterburner Decals, and the paint is FS16375, FS16251 and FS35237 (all from Xtracolor). SOP, i.e. pre-shading followed by all three colours free-hand. The last two colours acted perfectly so I don't have to touch up the demarcation lines. Jens

I got a little carried away when painting a couple of adversary Scooters last night. It turned out to be a 4+ hours painting session. Some canopy frames got a shot of black so I also pre-shaded my A-4F Super Fox. One thing led to another so I ended up painting all three colours on this Skyhawk. This is what it's supposed to look like: http://www.airfighte...91dfb_afpix.jpg This is how it looked at 2 a.m. after having all three colours applied: It's painted FS30140, FS13531 and FS10219 accordingly, the two latter from Xtracolor. The small tan dots are intentional btw. As you can see I will have to refine the demarcation lines on this one too. Jens

I have started painting my third adversary TA-4F/J (so far). It wil be finished as #13 in a scheme that looks a bit like used on the Japanese RF-4E; http://a4skyhawk.org...lay/154657i.jpg It's a standard Hasegawa TA-4J built OOB. After adding the last major bits today I pre-shaded it, followed by the tan (Xtracolor FS10219) and the Euro I green (Xtracolor FS14092). The last green will be a Model Master green (FS34097), and since it's flat (and thus drying faster) I will wait until the first two colours have dried before applying it. I don't want the paint to crack. Today's first progress: As usual camo is done freehand. The decals will come from the Classic Airframes TA-4J. The CA painting guide is not entirely correct so I'm primarily using reference pictures to determine the pattern. My two previous TA-4F/Js: I am also working on five other TA-4F/Js, an A-4E, an A-4F Super Fox, an A-4K and an A-4M. All TA-4s and the A-4E/F will also be adversaries. Jens