From a random mess (F-111A) to an F-111F

[Mountain goat]

Hi all,

 

A late entry to the GB and I must confess I already see no hope of finishing this one on time. Commitments plus recent care for a family member eat up most of the available spare time. Still, worth a try. Also: I changed phones recently and lost a couple of pictures in the process - therefore, there's some gaps in the WiP chronology.

 

So this is what I'm starting with: a box with... er.. stuff. Quite some years ago -might be more than 20 years- I bought a half completed Hasegawa F-111A at a modelling show or a flea market (don't quite remember) for a silly low price and kept it since then to rework it into something fairly nice. Funny thing was, it had one short span wing and one long one. About three years ago, when about to return to the hobby, I began to search ebay and other sites for spare F-111 wings - for which I duly placed a bid and won, don't know for how much, but quite a bit more than the original F-111A kit.

 

The kit came in a heavily damaged box. The model had been partially pained with enamels, so I stripped the plastic of paint immediately (two decades ago, didn't think of making pics then), deconstructed it so I could rework it more properly and stored it in a plastic container to await the day it would be built. Que the dramatic music: That day... Has come.

 

 

I should be building an F-111A because that's what the kit gives me as an option but I am a foolish person and I'm going to try to make an F out of this -the Triple Plow II intake and wider fuselage being the greatest challenge here. Just for practice sake, to see if I can pull it off. Anyhow, this model isn't intended as a show winner but should work well when I need dynamic backgrounds in scale photography. 

 

I'll be using using the bomb bay cover and Foxtrot exhausts from the kit below. 

 

 

The model will depict an F-111F in the first years of 48th TFW service, circa 1977-1980, like HERE. It should mimic an aircraft taxiing with pilots in the cockpit, wings folded at 54 degrees and auxiliary inlet doors open.

 

As mentioned earlier, I lost a couple of pics so we're kind of falling right in the middle of the build.

-The nose section was already assembled upon purchase, here I've re-attached it to the rear fuselage. The cockpit was stripped of paint two decades ago.

 

 

-The vertical tail has been freed from its rudder and glued to the fuselage.

-Also note the cut-out wing boxes to make room for the swept-back wings. It occurred to me that cutting out the wing gloves entirely would possibly work better for the swept back wings than increase the size of aperture that's already there. 

-Not very visible is widened fuselage just behind the intake area. I played with the idea of simply making two cuts and by bending, offset that area enough to correspond to the Triple Plow II. Which would have been the smart thing to do. Instead I went bonkers and did something else entirely, namely I stuck layer upon layer of thin (0.005 mm) Evergreen sheet on the existing plastic using CA gel and then sanded away the inside. Time-consuming, messy, and, well frankly unnecessary. 

 

 

-The wing box was strengthened by adding a bottom deck to it using plasticard.

 

 

Next I'll try to explain how I managed to finish the intakes, for that I need to find the photos I know I took of the progress. Here's how they came out (still rough!).

 

 

 

Thanks for having a peek.

 

Jay

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by Mountain goat

[Hewy]

Nice alterations to the doors Jay, you have got quite a bit done, look forward to more

Glynn 

[AdrianMF]

That's some project! Very nice work so far, hopefully the really hard work is now done?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Mountain goat]

On 2017-5-28 at 11:35 AM, Hewy said:

Nice alterations to the doors Jay, you have got quite a bit done, look forward to more

Glynn 

 Cheers Glynn!

 

On 2017-5-28 at 0:28 PM, AdrianMF said:

That's some project! Very nice work so far, hopefully the really hard work is now done?

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian - The wings were a bit of a challenge as well. I just finished attaching them to the fuselage an hour ago so I'll post pics when I have more time. - The Hase wings don't like to have its flaps and slats retracted so that's a bit of a fight. Moreover to have them in exactly the right sweep was also harder than I had envisaged. But yes - after that it should be smooth running.

 

 

Jay

[trickyrich]

Welcome aboard Jay and what an interesting you have planned for yourself!!

 

You've made a great start already and it's going to be really interesting to follow this build.

 

Well good luck with her, I do hope you get a chance to finish her in time.