vesthepes Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 (edited) Hello chaps Nice to be around this one, the wait is over... I am pretty sure this is going to be a pleasant and entertaining group build, as it is usual here on BM... I'm in with a colorful F-111E carrying a nice noseart. Not sure about its role in Libya, all I know it was the commander of the sqd. flagship and that the noseart brought luck to the pliot back from the days of Vietnam. Hopefully someone can add some info o the subject, I'd be very happy to hear. Initially I was thinking of a downed F-111F 70-2389 callsigned Karma 52, but since I don't have the decals for it, I'll stick with the E version. Plus I've heard the IP in the Verlinden set is to match the E and not the F version... I cannot confirm it yet, I will have to take a look at both of the panels and then compare it to the resin one... Anyway, here's obligatory stuff: classic Libyan raiders markings... eduard etch old Verlindern set, still very useful a must too bad both afterburners are open, but still better than the kit offering this last item is very nice, but I sincerly doubt I will use, as my place on the shelf is limited and this beastie's wingspan is not a joke... that's about it for now... cheers, Vasko Edited March 30, 2017 by vesthepes 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Nice choice Vasko, very nice indeed. You certainly have a good selection of aftermarket parts and decal sheets to use, the kit decals look very nice too. I look forward to seeing what you can do with all this. Craig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 Welcome aboard Vasko and yes the wait is finally over after what seems forever. It's nice to see a colourful F-111, plus a huge mound of AM bits!! You're not wrong about her being a big beast in 1/48th!! I'm not quite sure where I'm going to put mine when she's done! Good luck with the build, glad you've been looking forward to it, hopefully all that AM stuff won't give you too much grief! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vesthepes Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 (edited) Craig and Rich, thank you for your welcoming words. My main concern is finishing in time so I will try to kick off ASAP, also the etched part are known for prolonging builds by years... I probably won't use the Eduard interior as the Verlinden set is all good. Same goes with the flaps and slats. I want a model with wings swept back or preferably with movable wings... Anyway, here's a few shots of the interior parts... three layers of PE a size comparison, just to see what we're dealing with... that's it for now, cheers Edited April 2, 2017 by vesthepes 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Hi vasko,my lucky blonde changed its name to "The chief"in 1988,if i find out more I'll let you know Glynn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 great start, and project!! will be following and taking notes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 nice start, and thank you, I've now found a mistake I've made (well poor instructions!!) with a couple of small PE bits in my cockpit, when compared to yours! You'e not wrong about the size of her, I'm going wings open!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 19 hours ago, Hewy said: Hi vasko,my lucky blonde changed its name to "The chief"in 1988,if i find out more I'll let you know Glynn That's interesting. 'The Chief' is now at Duxford in the American Air Museum. I notice she's on the kit decal sheet, complete with tail flash and nose art. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Smudge said: That's interesting. 'The Chief' is now at Duxford in the American Air Museum. I notice she's on the kit decal sheet, complete with tail flash and nose art. Hi smudge, apparently whats known as" the other chief"67120 in the imperial war museum, the original "lucky blonde" 68020 which changed its name in 1988 to " the chief" returned back to the usa in december 1993, changed its name back to "lucky blonde" and is now on display at Hill AFB i belive in utah, by the way I'm not a know it all anorak its all out of a book I'm reading (swotting up) ready for when i enter the fray this week with a f-111a,,sorry to vasko didn't mean to hijack your thread Edited April 3, 2017 by Hewy Spelling 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I'm now intrigued concerning two -111E's called "the chief" one was "my lucky blonde" Renamed " The chief"in 1988 and returned to the us in 1993 this was the wing flag ship at this time , the other "the chief" 67120 which now resides at duxford, it may have been another wing flag ship at some time but when, and what was its previous art work, if any ,any one know more,?i know there was early and late "the chief" artwork the one on your sheet looks to be the late type on 67120 now in duxford , the early type,originally "my lucky blonde" had no writing just a chiefs head, Sorry for rambling, hope i make sense, Glynn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vesthepes Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Thanks for the interest guys ... Glynn no need to apologyze, your input is welcome here and so is everybody elses! Thanks for sharing, I knew something about the same serials as the ones on The chief. And then like you said I also saw the photos of My lucky blonde in Hill AFB and The chief at Duxford... Anyway, I'd like to find out more about its days in '86, to be specific on the night being in Libya. Main reason would probably be the armament during the raid. Was it GBU-10s or mk.82s? probably latter, right? cheers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Two 'The Chief's? Even more interesting! Nice work so far, great to see the '111 alongside a Mig-21. Really lends a sense of the size of the old Aardvark. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Ok I'm sorry if this seems to be going on, but it is very intriguing, I'll use the quoted text (from the Crowood book); "A1-189 68-020, named "My Lucky Blonde" 1987-88, the second of two E's which were named "The Chief" when assigned to subsequence 20 TFW/FW Wing Commanders. Ret. 07/12/93, preserved at Hill AFB Museum, Utah." "A1-165 67-120, Det. 3 57 FWW 1972 (Test & Eval. Sqn.). Remained at Nellis until 1978, when reassigned to 20 TFW. One of two E's named "The Chief" from 1987 when assigned to 20 TFW Commanders. Desert Storm veteran (19 scores). To Duxford Museum 10/19/93." Again it's quite unusual for two aircraft to carry the same name! Ok your question on load outs, I found this.....all reference to the aircraft used in the Libyan strike for some reason are listed as F models in just about everything i've read. There must have been a mix of aircraft and nobody really checked. "The F-111Fs carried payloads of 4 x 2000lb laser guided GBU-10 Paveways or 12 x 500lb Mk20 Cluster Bombs (CBUs), the latter used both in the airport and naval base strikes. Approaching the targets the Pave Tack laser provided precise ranging, after bomb release it illuminated the targets to guide the Paveways to impact." Ok if the picture of your aircraft above is correct..... then she would have been a non-Pave Tack aircraft which attacked the airport and naval base, so would have been carrying the Mk 20's. To find out when she was converted to Pave Tack would be quite hard, so I think you'd be safe loading her up with the Mk.20's. Hopefully this is of some help, if I find out anything more I'll post it. Ok I just found this, all F models had Pave Tack and from what I've read the E's never have it fitted (well not at this stage), plus the 20mm M-61 was not fitted either (only on state side A's & D's) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vesthepes Posted April 4, 2017 Author Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) 13 hours ago, trickyrich said: Ok I'm sorry if this seems to be going on, but it is very intriguing, I'll use the quoted text (from the Crowood book); Please, do not be, I enjoy this quite a lot. Quote "The F-111Fs carried payloads of 4 x 2000lb laser guided GBU-10 Paveways or 12 x 500lb Mk20 Cluster Bombs (CBUs), the latter used both in the airport and naval base strikes. Approaching the targets the Pave Tack laser provided precise ranging, after bomb release it illuminated the targets to guide the Paveways to impact." Are you sure about the usage of mk.20 clusters? I am almost positive about 500 lbs mk.82 airs along GBU-10s were used in raids on Lybia on F-111F. Something like this: wikipedia source Quote Ok if the picture of your aircraft above is correct..... then she would have been a non-Pave Tack aircraft which attacked the airport and naval base, so would have been carrying the Mk 20's. To find out when she was converted to Pave Tack would be quite hard, so I think you'd be safe loading her up with the Mk.20's. I thought exactly the same, having in mind the mk.82s... And oh yes, the E version seems to be completely forgotten, and it's almost like only the F version operated that night... and maybe it did, and E's were only a back up? Nevertheless they still had to be armed... Quote Ok I just found this, all F models had Pave Tack and from what I've read the E's never have it fitted (well not at this stage), plus the 20mm M-61 was not fitted either (only on state side A's & D's) Thanks for your research Rich, I appreciate it. and some work on the interior... one coat primer, one coat black, one coat light grey... painted the panels black, still have to go into details.. cheers Edited April 4, 2017 by vesthepes 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 man that cockpit looks great!! sorry I meant Mk.82's!! The E's would have been fine at night on the port and airfields, you'd be surprised just how accurate they would have been, but the F's were for the really precision stuff. There's is bound to be some more detailed account online somewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) 20 hours ago, vesthepes said: Thanks for the interest guys ... Glynn no need to apologyze, your input is welcome here and so is everybody elses! Thanks for sharing, I knew something about the same serials as the ones on The chief. And then like you said I also saw the photos of My lucky blonde in Hill AFB and The chief at Duxford... Anyway, I'd like to find out more about its days in '86, to be specific on the night being in Libya. Main reason would probably be the armament during the raid. Was it GBU-10s or mk.82s? probably latter, right? cheers As rich rightly states the" E " couldnt drop gbu's on its own although i believe some did carry them and then had the target lit up by F4's,in much the same way our buccaneer did but maybe not on the libya raid Glynn Edited April 4, 2017 by Hewy Unfinished Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=287&t=9983&start=20 You may have read this already vasko,a bit further down the page, from one of the pilots on the raid Glynn,,. nice start by the way Edited April 4, 2017 by Hewy Unfinished 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 5 hours ago, vesthepes said: And oh yes, the E version seems to be completely forgotten, and it's almost like only the F version operated that night... and maybe it did, and E's were only a back up? Nevertheless they still had to be armed... A good start with the build. Remember the Libyan raid well, as I think that our Sqn in the RAF was almost put on standby to fly during the time the raid was going on. It seems to be the same with the Gulf as well. I can find lots of pictures of Fs with their weapon load, but none of the Es and that is also looking on dstorm.eu which has many a photo of a Gulf period aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 The F-111E didn't fly on Operation Eldorado Canyon, only the F-111F and EF-111A. The 20th TFW did fly a practice mission to the USA in December 1985 to simulate a mission to Libya http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/286536-f-111f-el-dorado-canyon/#comment-2734254 The F-111F carried either 4 x GBU-10 or 12 x Mk82 (AIR) . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 1 hour ago, Stephen said: The F-111E didn't fly on Operation Eldorado Canyon, only the F-111F and EF-111A. The 20th TFW did fly a practice mission to the USA in December 1985 to simulate a mission to Libya http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/286536-f-111f-el-dorado-canyon/#comment-2734254 The F-111F carried either 4 x GBU-10 or 12 x Mk82 (AIR) . cool, thanks for that, that clears it all up, plus now of course i find a more detailed article as will (very interesting read). Plus it does make sense they'd use the F model as that was the best of the series and most capable. Normal service can resume Vasko now that's all be sorted out...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vesthepes Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 (edited) Thanks for all the info chaps! I found out that the mission was called "Operation Ghost Rider" http://www.shaw.af.mil/News/Features/Display/tabid/6145/Article/719405/remembering-operation-ghost-rider-and-el-dorado-canyon.aspx More details in the office: Some itsy bitsy pieces still have to be added and some fell off in the process of painting... cheers cheers Edited April 6, 2017 by vesthepes 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 wow that looks awesome!!! Very nicely done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Seconded, nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balloo Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 I love the cockpit details. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vesthepes Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 (edited) A little update... Added some detials on the IP "cover", to be more precise "nuclear blast shield"... No instructions by Verlinden for the HUD, but the part wan't hard to find... The capsule went together quite OK. I was surprised by the instructions to insert a 60g weight into the nose... 60g!! way too much IMO, so I ended up inserting 15g which should be enough Removed the resin parts from the stubbs and cleaned up... The movable wings mechanism make this kit quite a clanker.... is that a correct term? Too much Lego for me... it does work, but not quite like it should... thanks for looking in... cheers Edited April 13, 2017 by vesthepes 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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