1:72 Grumman/General Dynamics F-111B "Beta Tomcat" Part 2

[Navy Bird]

Thanks, mates!   

 

I have some questions for @Tailspin Turtle - it looks to me like there is the typical Corogard application along the leading edge of the wings. However, I don't see it on the leading edges of the vertical tail and horizontal tailplanes. Is that the correct interpretation? Also, some photos kinda sorta look like the most forward portion of the glove vane (where it joins the fuselage just aft of the canopy) has a (dielectric?) coating on it like you see on a radome or sensor pods. My imagination or is something there? 

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Tailspin Turtle]

1 hour ago, Navy Bird said:

Thanks, mates!   

 

I have some questions for @Tailspin Turtle - it looks to me like there is the typical Corogard application along the leading edge of the wings. However, I don't see it on the leading edges of the vertical tail and horizontal tailplanes. Is that the correct interpretation? Also, some photos kinda sorta look like the most forward portion of the glove vane (where it joins the fuselage just aft of the canopy) has a (dielectric?) coating on it like you see on a radome or sensor pods. My imagination or is something there? 

 

Cheers,

Bill

The markings drawing shows Corogard at the leading edges of the vertical and horizontal tails. I can just see it in some pictures so it must be very narrow.

 

The forward end of the glove vane on 972 definitely does have a cream-colored panel on its leading edge. Let me know if I need to send you a picture.

[Navy Bird]

2 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

The markings drawing shows Corogard at the leading edges of the vertical and horizontal tails. I can just see it in some pictures so it must be very narrow.

 

The forward end of the glove vane on 972 definitely does have a cream-colored panel on its leading edge. Let me know if I need to send you a picture.

 

Thanks for the quick response! A photo would be much appreciated.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

An exploding water heater and a subsequent diversion - but we made some progress!    

 

First, you may recall somewhere in this WIP where it was mentioned that one of the port engine access panels, and the ventral strake below it, seemed to be in a fresh coat of paint. I'm guessing that this was a result of an off-runway excursion that 151972 made in 1966. But I don't know that for sure, so it's speculation on my part. You can see it in this photo - it's the panel that says "NAVY" on it.

 

 

I masked off the panel and strake, and painted with Gunze H325 FS26440 which is just a tad lighter than H315 FS16440 that I used for the Light Gull Gray. As you can see here, there is a noticeable difference but it is slight. The rest of this depiction may have to come from weathering.

 

 

You can also see that I put a very thin stripe of Alclad Aluminum along the leading edge of the vertical tail to represent the typical Corogard finish used at the time. It will be a similar stripe on the horizontal tailplanes, but a much bigger one on the wings.

 

While I was at it, I also painted the forward portion of the wing gloves with Gunze H311 FS36622. Next I decided to have a go at printing the decal artwork.

 

At 1:72 scale, the Phoenix logo is right around 5/8 of an inch, or 0.625. I scaled my artwork accordingly, duplicated the design across the page to give me a row of logos to play with, loaded the paper in my Canon MG4120 inkjet, and printed with "normal" setting. Here are some of them compared with the samples from Microscale and Pete's Hangar:

 

 

Not too bad for a first attempt. The black could be blacker, and I remember this issue from way back in my graphic arts days. For offset printing, if you wanted a deep black you either used spot (soild) ink for it or you used what we called "four colour process." In the latter case, black is made from 70% Cyan, 35% Magenta, 40% yellow, and 100% black. I may experiment with this, but you have to be careful to make sure that you don't over-saturate the media you're printing on. 

 

In any event, my inkjet printer doesn't print white so I have to paint a white background on the fin, like so:

 

 

You can see that I started some of the decal work before I realised that I need to put the white circle on! At the very end of the pointed speed bumps it says "Beware of Blast" in case you're wondering. The decals are being sourced from several sheets, primarily from USN F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcats in the old colourful scheme. However, there are some (mostly stencils) that are coming from RA-5 Vigilante and even an F-102 Delta Dagger. The red stripes on the translating intake cowl, as well as the turbine warning stripe are being pieced together from a lot of places - I hope the reds are all a reasonable match! I'm also using decals to represent the vents on top of the fuselage and the aft vent of the three that are on the fuselage side (the first two of these have those covers over them).

 

The project is advancing!       

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Procopius]

Wow Bill! Painting a perfect white circle for a decal to rest upon has always struck me as one of the trickier gigs in modelling, and here you are, nailing it. 

[Cookenbacher]

This is just great stuff Bill, what did you use to mask off the circle?

[rob Lyttle]

Wow!

What a build, What a read!

What a PLANE!!

I'd kind of forgotten just what a stunning, brilliant aircraft this is/was.

I got to go back and read more.👍

Lemme just tick the wee box here....

[Navy Bird]

On 10/2/2017 at 10:05, Procopius said:

Wow Bill! Painting a perfect white circle for a decal to rest upon has always struck me as one of the trickier gigs in modelling, and here you are, nailing it. 

 

On 10/2/2017 at 11:43, Cookenbacher said:

This is just great stuff Bill, what did you use to mask off the circle?

 

There's not much to it, really. I cut out a section from an old engineering circle template that was the diameter I wanted, taped it on the tail and painted it. Here is the piece:

 

 

I cleaned the paint off afterward with Mr. Color Thinner. I think it's important to keep the airbrush perpendicular to the surface you're painting so no paint goes underneath the template. As usual, I thinned the paint about 50/50 and sprayed several light, misting coats. That helps prevent a ridge from forming around the edges of the circle. 

 

On 10/2/2017 at 15:26, rob Lyttle said:

Wow!

What a build, What a read!

What a PLANE!!

I'd kind of forgotten just what a stunning, brilliant aircraft this is/was.

I got to go back and read more.👍

Lemme just tick the wee box here....

 

Thanks! The F-111 was the "gee whiz" aircraft in the US back in the 60s when I was growing up. The swing wings were just so cool, and when they're swept back the plane had such a radical planform, like a lawn dart. I still think it's one of the most awesome looking aircraft ever built.

 

If you'd like to learn more about the F-111B in particular, I highly recommend both Tommy @Tailspin Turtle Thomason's book and his website. Check it out here.

 

Stickers are going on!   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

Meanwhile back at the stickers...

 

I noticed that the "2" on the Pete's Hangar decal sheet for the tail number did not match the real aircraft. The overall size of the numbers was a wee bit too small as well. I think this makes a complete sweep for me with this project - I have not used any of the decals provided by the conversion set. Luckily, I downloaded a US Navy stencil font a few months ago, figuring that it would come in handy someday. Well, now is someday! I scaled the size of the tail number as best as I could from photos, and printed them out on the Bare Metal Foil clear decal sheet. Here is a comparison with the decal sheet from the conversion set:

 

 

You'll notice that I also included the "Hands Off" stencils that were present on the ventral strakes. Try as I did, I could not find any stencils like this in my Magic Box of Misfit Stickers. 

 

The rest of the stickers went on without any drama. Once they were dry, a clear finish was applied to the fuselage, and I was finally able to remove the masking tape from the canopy. For placement of the other stencils, I followed the photos I have plus a stencil placement guide from an F-111A stencil sheet from Microscale (I did not use all of these stencils, however). Red stripes were sourced from a variety of decal sheets - the intake warning stripes are made from several pieces. 

 

 

 

 

 

The seals around the canopy sections were made from decal stripes, in this case they are dark grey. That was the closest that I had to try and match the photos. Anyway, I think it will work. The red area where the horizontal tailplanes mount was made from leftover squadron markings in the Tamiya F4D Skyray kit. A little bit of a trim here and there and they assumed a nice airfoil shape.

 

You remember, no doubt, that I decided to take the lazy way out and use decals for the unique vents both on top of the fuselage and on the side right under the wing glove. You can get away with this is 1:72, but I probably wouldn't try it in any larger scales. 

 

The sharp-eyed amongst you may notice that it looks like the national insignia on the fuselage sides are a bit "out-of-square." This is by design, as I understand that the documentation states that it be tilted three degrees nose down. Interestingly, the Hasegawa kit has a panel line in this area that is also nose down relative to others nearby. I aligned the decal to that - I didn't actually check to see if it was three degrees, but it is noticeable visually and that's what is important. 

 

Now it's off to the wings, horizontal tailplanes, missiles, pylons, gear doors - you know, the other 80% of the job.     

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

[abat]

Beautiful work Bill. Another masterpiece for your collection. I’ll be interested to see what, if any, weathering effects you apply once the stickers are all on. The current shop floor condition looks great to me. 

[keefr22]

That is just gorgeous Bill - wonderful work!

 

Keith

[Graeme H]

It's great to see this still getting the Bill treatment, there is so much that I have learned about the "B" model from this build, and yes like you I thought the F-111's were the gee whiz aircraft of the day, and I got to see them regularly until 2010.

[Max Headroom]

I’m mightily impressed. You set a high benchmark and never fail to keep up the good work.

 

Trevor

[basaez.bruno]

Great work so far! it looks amazing

[Martian]

Jaw droppingly gorgeous! You should open a model museum.

 

Martian

[stevehnz]

I've just had a catch up on this Bill as you'll see by the progress of my "reactions". Reactions don't begin to express how impressed, awed, gobsmacked & just plain bowled over by what I've seen on the way through. You have a reputation for producing master pieces, I think you may have capped the lot with this one. Its a BEAUTY.  Take care of yourself along the way.

Steve.

[Hamden]

 

I can't think of anything else to say except WHAT THEY SAID!!!

 

   Roger

[Navy Bird]

On 10/7/2017 at 17:01, Max Headroom said:

I’m mightily impressed. You set a high benchmark and never fail to keep up the good work.

 

That's because I have a high bench - I usually stand up when I'm working on a model. I have a tall chair, but don't use it that often.

 

On 10/7/2017 at 18:34, Martian Hale said:

Jaw droppingly gorgeous! You should open a model museum.

 

Wifey thinks that's what I've already done inside the house. I do admit there's an occasional model here and there...

 

On 10/7/2017 at 22:23, stevehnz said:

I've just had a catch up on this Bill as you'll see by the progress of my "reactions". Reactions don't begin to express how impressed, awed, gobsmacked & just plain bowled over by what I've seen on the way through. You have a reputation for producing master pieces, I think you may have capped the lot with this one. Its a BEAUTY.  Take care of yourself along the way.

 

Thanks Steve! She looks so nice in Navy colours. Which got me to thinking (dangerous I know) - if the B had gone into production, it would have looked really cool in Sundowners livery. Or Pukin' Dogs. Or Jolly Rogers. Or Felix! Heck, pretty much any of the colourful F-14 schemes would have been great! 

 

 

Work is progressing on the wings - there is a lot more masking than I expected, what with all the red areas exposed from the control surfaces being deployed. I'll have an update shortly!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

Whew! I wasn't kidding when I said there was a lot of masking involved with the wings. Here are the wings, slats, and flaps after all the painting was finished. Lots of little things to mask around and/or protect when painting something nearby. I used a lot of Kabuki tape!

 

 

As far as I can tell from my photos, this is pretty close to the way 151972 was painted. Here is a shot that shows the spoilers painted white on top of the wing - not all F-111Bs were painted this way:

 

 

The actuators for the wing flaps look to me like they're red, but there are areas that look natural metal, as in this photo:

 

 

This photo is 152714, which has a lot of differences from 151972, but it looks like the tops of the actuator rails (or whatever they're called) are a silver color - maybe the paint has been worn away with deployment of the flaps? Looks like I have some detail painting ahead...

 

In the meantime, the wings and tailplanes are getting a coat of floor polish in preparation for a plethora of stencils. I've also been working on the exhaust - the nozzles look somewhat dark in the photos, so I've used a combination of Alclad Magnesium and Steel. This might be too dark, though, I have to think about it. The real aircraft, during its time at Hughes during the Phoenix missile testing also had several additional antennae used for telemetry, and I'll be adding these with photoetch. Oh, and I have a resin IR pod for under the nose. This was part of the conversion set from Pete's Hangar. I think I've only used three parts from the conversion - the radome, the arresting hook fairing, and this IR pod. 

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Martian]

That's going to look even tastier when those wings go on.

 

Martian

[David H]

Great Googolymoogally!!

Underpowered, Overweight, Compressor-Stalling, Swing-Wing Goodness!

 

Delightfully Dysfunctional!

 

Mee Likee!!

 

-d-

Edited October 14, 2017 by David H
Swing-Wing is just more aesthetically pleasing with a hyphen in it.

[Navy Bird]

I'm still here!

 

My son and I just spent five days in Austin, TX for the F1 race - it was a great time to spend with the lad. The graphics card went haywire in my PC right before we left and I've just finished installing a new one now.

 

And, of course, my youngest daughter is getting married on Saturday and wifey has me running around crazy between now and then. I don't think I'll get much modelling done in the next few days, but I suppose the wedding takes priority! What a crazy year it's been...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[hairystick]

WOW!

 

This is impressive modelling indeed. I always like when the decals go on and the model really comes to life, this build is certainly no exception to that rule.

Your "homebrewed" decals really look the part as well. Top work indeed!

[Hamden]

 

Best wishes for a great wedding Bill, and I'm very envious of you watching the American GP live in Austin!

 

   Roger

[Navy Bird]

On 10/24/2017 at 21:15, hairystick said:

WOW!

 

This is impressive modelling indeed. I always like when the decals go on and the model really comes to life, this build is certainly no exception to that rule.

Your "homebrewed" decals really look the part as well. Top work indeed!

 

Thanks so much! I absolutely agree about the decals bringing the model to life - it's perhaps my favourite part of the build. This was the first time that I've tried making my own decals and I was quite surprised at how easy it was, and how nice they came out. I don't have any kind of fancy printer, just your typical Canon all-in-one electronics store special.

 

I used Future to seal the ink after printing, and that may be why the decals were a bit thicker than I would have liked. In any case, you can't really tell that after the clear flat finish went on. I was lucky that they were going onto flat surfaces, as I think it might have been a challenge to have them conform to curved surfaces, or to snuggle down into panel lines.

 

On 10/25/2017 at 01:47, Hamden said:

 

Best wishes for a great wedding Bill, and I'm very envious of you watching the American GP live in Austin!

 

 

Thanks Roger! You might not be so envious if you saw my credit card invoice!   

 

Our seats for the race were in the first row of the first turn grandstand - really nice seats. Here is me coming back up the hill after my son and I went down on the track for the podium celebration:

 

 

I look like a walking Fernando Alonso advertisement! Now I have to figure out how to change the letters on the hat for next year - HONDA RENAULT. My son must have spent a fortune on Red Bull stuff, hats, shirts, hoodies. He's a big fan of both drivers, and was really bummed about the penalty they gave to Max. For me, it's wasn't a question of whether or not Max broke the rules, he clearly did, but that a horde of other drivers were doing the same thing all day and they weren't penalized. More consistency is needed. 

 

Now I'm off to help set up for the wedding tomorrow. I hope to be back at the workbench on Sunday. 

 

Cheers,

Bill