PeterB

Well, that was a bit less complicated than I expected. Knowing how clumsy I am getting these days I have left off the combined forward main gear door/air brake, and both the nose wheel doors and their rather fragile support struts, together with the tail bumper and rear pylon. A bit of touching up to do and then I can start on the fuselage decs. At the same time I will start painting the wings and horizontal tail, together with the pylons and bombs. As I mentioned earlier both versions of the F-111 could and did drop so called “iron” or “dumb” bombs – in the case

Looking good. I have one of these I bought when it was first released and was playing with the idea of one in RAF service. I know Airfix have now released one of those too but I fancy one of the Dutch Squadron ones. Looks like it has gone together pretty well so far - I was a bit concerned that the various inserts I expect Airfix have used to allow different versions to be released might mess up the fit. I wonder it they can use it to make a replacement for their old late version with the turret moved forwards and the waist guns? Pete

Hi Ian, Turned out rather well after all. I was going to (wrongly) say "where is the ruddy big missile on the nose" then realised I was getting it mixed up with the "Sky" part of "Sky Diver" from UFO! Pete

Given that Pappy clearly knows more about the internal colours of the plane, I have shamelessly copied him, though the paintwork is nowhere near as tidy! Bit of touching up to do, not that you will be able to see very much of it, and then it can go on - must get the wheels finished. The undercarriage on the F-111 was somewhat unusual I think, and on my old Revell kit it could actually be retracted which was rather clever, though it no doubt involved some simplification. The "beams" supporting the main wheels fold inwards as the undercarriage retracts but the wheel axles pivo

I have made a start on the undercarriage. A bit of painting to do but is proving less complicated than I thought. Whilst I was doing the reasearch mentioned earlier I came across something called "The Gulf War Air Power Survey" - a set of 5 documents analysing the planning, execution and results of the war in some detail. The following extracts are from one of those documents and are perhaps of some interest. As you can see the F-111 were busy from day one and flew a total of over 4000 strikes, which I gather means individual targets attacked rather than bombs droppe

Thanks Stix. No problem. I have quite a few that I think would have cost under £10 but not many have a price on them. However I have just noticed an old Airfix AW Seahawk starter set that is priced at £6 complete with paint and glue (not that I need it). I will have to do something about the cockpit and see through intakes and exhausts, and of course the wheel wells, but that will just require card, rod and tube stock that is at least 20 years old and maybe some old cut up bombs or drop tanks from the spares boxes that are even older and so presumably acceptable. This will be the t

Bit more done. I have taped the cockpit canopy down so that might make it fit a little better once the glue dries, and I still have to finish touching up and maybe do a bit of weathering on the tailpipes, but it is beginning to look like an Aardvark! I have been doing a bit of reading up on this conflict and discovered a few things I was unaware of (assuming of course the books are correct). It seems that in some respects the war came at a slightly awkward time for the allied air forces, who for many years had been geared up for a conflict in Europe against the heavy mi

There is still some tidying up to do but the fuselage painting is almost finished. Next I will finish painting the exhausts and canopy and get them on, and re-mask and paint the nose. After that I think I will try and get the undercarriage on. I have primed the wings and horizontal tail ready for painting, but I suspect I will put the decs on the fuselage before I go any further with the wings as it will be easier to get in. Once the fuselage is complete then there is not really that much more to do, though the flaps and slats could be slightly tricky - we will see. Still not decid

Hi Stix, Sorry if this has already been covered, but I have a Hasegawa Tornado GR1 I bought for £9.99 back in the 1990's I am considering entering. However, would it be OK to use some of my existing stock of generic bombs etc on it as I don't think I want to use the kit JP233, ditto the TIALD pod and BOZ from the Airfix weapons set I bought years ago to use on a number of planes such as the Buccaneer I built recently? To expand the question a little further, I take it the resin under the nose gubbins (FLIR fairing I believe) I bought for it many years ago would not be acceptable, a

Airfix say this is a Bofors 40mm AA gun and tractor belonging to the 1st Battery, 8th Troop of the 15th (Manx) Light AA Regiment in 1940. I do not know about the user details - they may be correct, but the markings together with the gunsight shown on the box art say that it was somewhat later, almost certainly between mid 1942 and mid 1943, which makes sense as that unit did not become part of 7th Armoured Division until July 1942 AFAIK! I built it out of the box except for adding windscreen glazing and some nice etched sights from Dan Taylor's Modelworks as Airfix failed to provide any. It is

So, having started out thinking in terms of 3 planes, I enjoyed this GB so much I ended up doing 9 plus this! Outdoor pics finally taken and it will go in the Gallery shortly. As ever, thanks to the organisers - it has been fun. Cheers Pete

What the heck - it looks fine as it is. Pete

This is my build of the Hasegawa 1985 boxing of the F-15C Eagle, in the markings of 67TFS, 18TFW at Kadena AFB in Japan, probably in the early 1980's, which may explain the large number of very obvious stencils – I think they were reduced in number and more subdued in later years. I believe that this is a re-boxing of their original “F-15” kit released in 1974, which has caused a number of problems. Firstly, Hasegawa seem to have at that time been under the impression that all 8 undercarriage doors were open when on the ground, when in fact pictures show that 5 of them would normally be closed

So that is now finished and I will post some pics in the Gallery shortly, but her's a reminder. As I mentioned earlier it is not as good as the later modified mouldings perhaps, but it does not look too bad. Thanks for watching. Pete

Coming along very nicely. During WWII RAF vehicles were usually painted in Army camo, but after the war ended they went their own way AFAIK. Interesting to see you have used the RAF version of "sand" ie Hu250 "Desert Pink" rather than the Light Stone the Army used on their Gulf kit - I would not have been sure which to use if I was building it but using their own paint stock makes sense I guess! Pete