Capt Haddock (aka F19_Haddock) started out modelling the exterior model of the Gladiator in 2002, and in the spring 2003 he delivered these models to Maddox Games for their future add-on ACE expansion pack.
In the summer of 2003 he was contacted by F19_Klunk who had seen Haddock’s screenshots of the model on different webpages. Klunk, who really wanted to see the Gladiator flyable in the game as this was the plane used by the real F19, asked if he could help out. So he could, and because of an existing J8A in Linköping, good contact with the museum’s staff, the J8A’s place in "Forgotten Battles" as a Finnish/Swedish front fighter, it was decided that the team should focus on the Swedish J8A rather than the MkI or MkII.

During summer and autumn 2003 Haddock and Klunk, together with a lot of help from the community, the staff of the Flygvapenmusem, collegues, old J8a pilots and friends, finalized the cockpit for the J8A. During this time problems that needed to be sorted out popped up all the time; the question about which gunsight that was fitted, gauge’s functionality, missing air-speed indicators, performance, compass, barfittings, measurements in the cockpit, textures etc.

Finally the finished model was deliverd to Maddox Games in December 2003 to be included in the ACE Expansion Pack , released in the Spring of 2004.