f111guru

Dennis, I would stay the course. I have used thin balsa wood shaped to what is needed and glued with super glue and sealed with thinned epoxy. You could use 5 or 10 mm sheet plastic as a based and shape the balsa. If you do not have a longer tail wheel, you could use a sturdy piece of styrene rod or metal to extend the tail wheel. Of course this is one train of thought and I'm sure others will assist in your de boggle. Ron VanDerwarker

Hello Erwin, Great choice The Defiant. Can say I don't have that kit but will watch with interest. As for your newly acquired paint booth, I'd say Right On. Many many years ago and hmm 2 physical moves I made a make shift paint booth out of a 3 old chunks of plywood, an old kitchen overhead exhaust vent, some tubing and an exhaust fixture for a clothes dryer. Worked well for the time. Will do the same when I get the shed almost finished to work out of. Nice start on your project. A might to small for my fumble fingers though. Again I'll sit back and watch. Ron VanDerwarker

Dazed and confused. This makes my head hurt. As with most aircraft models that appear to be the same model and BAM subtle differences rear their nasty head. Same as with the F-111A. Found many differences with this model. So like what Dennis is doing, I try to find as much information as possible on a given subject by serial number. By the way Dennis you are doing a fantastic job on this kit. The carpet monsters have a way of taking kit parts right out from under our noses. Cockpit is looking great and the combined fuselage seem to have minimal file and sanding. Took this shot in June this year at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Ron VanDerwarker

Well Dennis I am a fan of the 109, 190 262 etc ah ww2 aviation to be totally sincere. The more the color and camouflage the better. So I'll grab a seat and watch with interest. Ron VanDerwarker

Thom, Excellent choice of kit to get back to business at hand sort of thing. I have 3 of the various 1/48th scale DO-335 kits from Tamiya. However I don't have any aftermarket stuff and have set myself to scratch build what I have planned for future builds. In the meantime I'll grab a seat and watch with interest. Ron VanDerwarker

Great looking F-84F and F-4E Gary. Just so happens there is an F-84F at the back gate of Cannon AFB NM. Apologies for the lack of length in the pictures. Lacking in space without getting run over by traffic. Again, great job on the F-84F Ron VanDerwarker

Nice looking kit and great finish. I can say without shame that I've never seen a subdued scheme come through Cannon Air Force Base the entire time I was out there (13yrs). Did have a few bright one come through though. On the shelf with all the other to be most proud to join. Again great looking kit. Ron VanDerwarker

Good looking finished product. Outstanding camouflage. Ron VanDerwarker

Great start on this ancient kit. I still have a bunch stashed. I'll watch with great interest and add my 2 cents if and when needed. Ron Van Derwarker

Deano, Uncle Uncool, I hijacked Deano page too. Scale down has a great looking wing slat and flap set. I did not get the set when I ordered the FB-111A pylons and some other goodies. It has not been above me to jump dead into scratch building anything that I needed. I have modelling friends that give me all kinds of grief if I build a kit straight out of the box. Sounds like a good idea to build as needed. What I may do is remove the spindle pointy things that I think are suppose to represent jack screws and add H channel slightly curved to that side and fit it to the wing. Meaning the right intermediate reworked flap vane goes on the left and vice versa for the right if the tear drop shape is correct. Haven't got that far. The slat, is 2 piece and never dawned on me that it extended like that. Deano Hobby Boss put the screws to you on the back plate of the fuel dump mast. The C model instructions call out H7 which looking at my 3 A,E FB kits is the FB back plate. Looked in my newly acquired EF-111A kit and there in not and dump mast back plates. None zero zip which is part of the tail sprue. So, as myself being my worst enemy, the EF-111A has at this point 16 major flaws that just aggravate the poop out of me. But I like a challenge. Back to you Deano. Ron VanDerwarker

Deano, Doing a great job on the pod. There again no manufacture of the F-111 kit has got the pod correct either. I can go on and on with what I don't like with these kits, But..... would not do any kit justice. Now I'm going to hijack you page for a bit. Received my 2 Hobby Boss kits today and I am not impressed with the EF-111A kit. Seems they took the idea from Academy on the front fairing on the nose gear door. Not the correct leading edge for the fairing between the horizontal stab and the fuselage. This houses I believe the cooling unit for the aft electronics. Correct me if I'm wrong. Ton of other small but nagging issues with this kit. Rant over Keep up the good work Deano Ron VanDerwarker

Some where in my stash of info I think I have old deleted tech order parts pages the have the vanes and there components. And Hobby Boss has completely screwed the pouch on the vanes. It's going to take major surgery to correct them. Even now that my brain is cobweb free tried the reverse parts on left and right. Meaning putting the right vane in the left wing. Vanes are correct length but the tracks are way out of place. Back to my original Academy build of flaps. Have thin H channel that I've warmed and rolled for on a flap set that I did along time ago. So I'll do this for my hobby Boss kits. The Fb-111A kit does not have the correct weapons and fuel tank pivot pylons or fixed tank pylons. Ron VanDerwarker

So sorry I'm late on this. The missus and I ventured out of New Mexico to the hill country of Texas for the weekend. The hill country is north of San Antonio and south of Austin. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. The intermediate flap vanes(as There called) fit snug up inside the wing area. Before I painted the wing. The parts are just sitting in place and for me fit loosely. The FB should not be any different And And And this: Might want to take in mind that these pictures are from the mid 80's. When I was apart of SAC the aux flap, right at the fuselage was pretty much the norm. However, TAC did not fly where the aux flap came down with the resat of the flap. When we converted the FB-111A to the F-111G the aux flap was already disabled. The diorama I'm planning will have the aux flap down. So working the flap is best to have it fit as tight to the wing as possible. In this below picture is from wing tip inward on a EF-111A and the FB-111A and F-111C and G are no different. I hope this helps. Also in the above picture you'll notice the small doors adjacent to the flap well deflected up. Neither Hobby Boss kit shows this. The Xtra Parts F-111 flap and slat kit had that. And the FB-111A-F-111G fuselage is 2 foot longer the the other model F-111's. Ron VanDerwarker

Hello Tom form the Land Of Enchantment USA. That is the state of New Mexico. As you say your a beginner and we were all there at some point in time. There is a great bunch of people here and as you I lurked for sometime. Again welcome aboard. Ron VanDerwarker

Well I looked on Italeri's website and the Combat Aircraft Support Group kit and their F-111 kit have been discontinued. For how long is unknown. I have been getting these kits and using them in dioramas. I do know they have been reissued over the years. They were first issued by ESCI way back in the mid 70's. ESCI produced a aircraft weapons set also. So unless some hobby shop has them sitting on there shelf I found none in the usual websites I go to. Ron VanDerwarker

Wonderful start and progression. Have seen others do the same with the support to correct the wing root. Do have a number of these kits in the stash and build a few for other folks. But have not done one for myself. Ron VanDerwarker

Deano, If you come across an Italeri ground support set grab a few. It has a good representation of the F111 boarding ladder. The bad thing about this kit is there is only 1 ladder. The current kit number No2629. it also has a nice early MJ-1 bomb loading truck with load and aircrew. Also has a farm tractor and a utility trailer. I have at least 10 in my stash for the MJ-1 and boarding ladders. I'll eventually get some thin brass or plastic channel and create my own. Please do ask questions. The only questions we as a collective can not answer is the one that's not asked. Ron VanDerwarker

I have for quite some time liked a challenge in some kits. I started a Combat Lancer F-111A the first Hobby Boss kit I purchased. Spent lots of time staring at the sprue set thinking they did a god job getting the shape down. I didn't have to cut the slats and flaps out as on the Academy kit. Then I noticed things that did not belong to the A model. Specifically the majority of the weapons and bomb racks. Then no BRU-3A Bomb rack, no forward gun enclosure ECM rack mount. Because the both times the F-111A went to SEA they flew with 2 ECM pods. And the list went on and on. So as for the challenge of the kit build, first things first. I filed and sanded the strip light frames off. This will eventually end up in a post flight SEA diorama with revetment walls. I was at a stand still with some serious health issues and the purchase of a out building. That was a few years back and the New Mexico heat is a work killer. So Deano, you have the support of a great bunch of people here and press on with pride. Your doing great. Ron VanDerwarker

I am a Thud fan. Had a group of G models pass thru Udorn RTAFB in September 1972. Great build fantastic looking kit in wrap around Ron Van Derwarker

Deano, The engine exhaust looks great. But, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the end plate on the fuel dump mast is for the F-111G or FB-111A. I don't have a Hobby Boss C kit yet (in the mail) to see what the instructions have to say about the end plate. This is the dump mast for an FB-111A at the Wings Over The Rockies in Denver Colorado. The FB-111A instructions call for part H7 on the dump mast. Which is correct. The A model kit calls for H5 and the D/E kit calls for H6. I also have a EF-111A coming. This image is the back end of a C model. This is all minor stuff and the directions for kits I've done in the past have either left off things or had them in the wrong shape and length. And as far as your kit goes. Your doing a fantastic job. I'm looking forward to the final produce. Keep up the great work. I too have problems in building. Ron VanDerwarker

Your doing a fantastic job on the paint. Like the trim on the canopy frames. Enjoying your build and will wait for the final product. Ron VanDerwarker

Oddly enough the FB-111A was my 17+ years start on the F-111. Was stationed at Pease AFB 509th BW from September 75 to December 76.From there I went to England RAF Lakenheath to bed down the F-111F's from Mt Home Idaho. Came to Cannon AFB in 1980 and retired out of here in 1993. Ron VanDerwarker

Appears to be a very nice kit. Your progressing along quite nicely. Nothing wrong with a little surgery in the early stages. Keen eye for the little details. May have to get one in the future. Ron VanDerwarker

Looking good. Decals went down quite well. Like the green fin cap and anti-collision light. Most impressive. Ron VanDerwarker

Deano, The Academy E model has weapons and bru-3a racks that are right for the F-111. You could for a future build in SEA camouflage such as a Combat Lancer, Harvest Reaper F-111A from the 474th TFW or an F-111F in the configuration for the raid on Libya. Some teasers to tickle your F-111 fantasy. I have over the years have purchased lots of after market parts to help me in my building. But I still find myself collecting odd bits of heavy aluminum and very thin brass and copper to make different things for different model parts. So enjoy the teasers and your (future) building. Ron VanDerwarker