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I'm sure it would be, but if the Indians were willing to rebuild a Kiev-class ship, which wasn't much more than a cruiser with a flight deck bolted on, into a STOBAR carrier, it's at least a remotely plausible way to have more carriers to play with in the game. I've been having fun flying Canadian hornets off it on the Iceland map.

The Tarawa class was never really designed as an aircraft carrier, but nonetheless it resembles one. It's also about the same length as the Essex Class. So what if after being retired these boats were refitted with angled decks and catapults for export? There could be a whole new generation of second hand pocket carriers for small navies the world over. Ok, so you'd have to get rid of the well deck and massively re-engineer the whole thing in order to be effective, but what the heck. A little bit of work in GIMP and here's what I came up with. Not that shabby! I reckon it would look pretty decent if it had a sponson for the angled deck similar to the SCB-125s.

Looks great! Alright, how about a USMC A-10 "Sea Hog"? I've been playing around with the template a little but your skills far exceed mine and I'd love to see the professional treatment.

Is that something that can be done via the "fake pilot" method or would you need a brand new 3d model?

I'll upload it at some point, but I have a lot of cleanup to do first and a few third party permissions to get. Still playing around with it. I'll get both this and the Super Thud out the door eventually. Whoa, I was looking for something like that turbo conversion. The re-engine makes it a little more plausible, but what the heck, who doesn't love a little 100LL? No one has done the Enforcer for SF2, right?

Ok, this one is beyond ridiculous as far as being plausible but I had fun doing it. The A-1K Super Skyraider - an Air National Guard supplement to the A-10 that soldiered on into the '90s. Paint is simply a dark grey tint applied to the USN skin. This is the 148th TFS based in Pittsburgh ("City of Pittsburgh" is the noseart off a WWII B-29 that a friend of mine dug up and I lifted from a photo). Loadouts are similar to the early A-10s.

What do you think, just a "level 2" decal that covers the whole tail for 57-5776?

This is a Hobbymaster diecast model I have of a NJ ANG F-105B. Note the nose and the pitot tube location (by the way, if someone eventually makes this thing I strongly suggest putting this paint in the package - it's awesome!) Yes, as you may see from my collection I'm into the National Guard birds, especially from the Northeast. That's a PA F-102, NY F-101, and MA F-106 alongside the Thud.

Per wikipedia it carried the AN/APN-105 (the D had the AN/APN-131). In the absence of any idea what that means I'll just assume the D's radar was more better.

Pitot tube is in the wrong spot on the D vs the B and the B has a stubbier, less round nose. Can't remember if there is anything else beyond that. Avionics differences but ini editing can take care of a lot of that. Same powerplant I think.

What do you mean, that looks great! I like how you got the feathered paint on the tail, I'm still learning how to do that in Gimp. Weathering also looks a lot better.

Good point about the avionics - if we had a Thunderstick-style hump to add I'd use that, but my modeling skills are far worse than my painting skills (which themselves are completely lost in the absence of a good layered template). For the sake of this mod we'll pretend that miniaturization of circuitry paid off big time. Point taken on the paint too, especially the Ethan Allen on the tail of the VT birds (does anyone have the full-length logo they use in real life? The best I could do is taken from a vector file of the unit's patch from his waist up - I almost like it better). I'll try dropping the opacity of the decal a bit more, and maybe darken the cigar band. But, then again maybe the USAF just undertook a "Dupont overhaul" and made them look nice. The look I was going for was that of an ANG F-16, which are for the most part maintained well cosmetically.

I have a friend who is a massive F-105 nut. One day we got to wondering what would happen if the USAF had continued on with the Thud in service, rather than retiring it in 1984. Perhaps it would have been put to work as a precision strike aircraft? Perhaps F-16 procurement would have been slower and some ANG units would have wound up with the 105 instead? I fired up Gimp, and with the help of Centurion's templates, I present to you a rough draft of the F-105H, an upgraded D model capable of carrying the LANTIRN pod and precision munitions. The cockpit is also upgraded with the F-16A's HUD and RWR. I did schemes for the Wyoming and Vermont Air National Guards

I seem to remember seeing it at some point, but now I can't find it - has anyone ever done an F-106 in SEA camo? I was looking to play around a little with decaling one. Thanks!

Isn't there a tutorial somewhere on how to graft a CCIP sight into any cockpit? Then you can just adjust your difficulty so you always see the pipper and the visual targeting box (even if they're in the middle of the panel). Line 'em up and bombs away!