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F-111As of the 389th Tac Fighter Training Squadron, 366th Tac Fighter Wing, out of Mountain Home AFB dropped in to Nellis AFB at various times... 66-0018, January 1981 66-0021, February 1981 66-0026 and 66-0056, January 1981 66-0028, November 1980 66-0036, February 1981 Thanks for looking, Sven

F-111Ds of the 390th Tac Fighter Squadron, 366th Tac Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home AFB participating in the Red Flag 81-1 large force exercise at Nellis AFB, November 1980. 67-0086 67-0091 67-0096 67-0102 67-0109 67-0110 67-0112 Thanks for looking, Sven

Good evening fellows, I have a nearly 20 year long relation to these Hasegawa model kits. One of them accompanied me from the last days of school, through my military career and over commercial pilots training to every base I served at. I never dared to build the kit, just opened up the box, glared at the exquisite detail and perfect craftmanship. When I found the announcement for the STGB I thought: Time to finally build it. In the last few weeks, I just needed to decide, which one to tackle. The F-111.net provided interesting information for all of my kits. So it will be this one: As previously said, the detail is excellent. I will be using some aftermarket pieces to build a specific vessel. I chose to do aircraft AF67 081 with tail code LN from Nellis, Las Vegas. The aircraft was transferred to Takhli and Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, where the tail code changed to HG and it received a yellow stripe. The vessel flew regular missions for the 429th TFS / 347th TFW, until it ended up at AMARC on June, 21st 1991. So my plane will be a survivor. F-111.net states, it flew with four Mk. 84 bombs on the pylons. I obtained two very nice sets from Eduard and plan on using them. Wishing all of us a good hand in this job. Balloo

Started this 1/48th HobbyBoss F-111A Aardvark December just over a year ago, this is easily the largest and most complex kit I have tried to this point. Why the F-111? I have always had a soft spot for 'McNamara's Folly' which started her life as an expensive failure but once she settled into service no other aircraft could carry out her mission of precision airstrikes over long ranges in all-weather conditions. I have happy memories of seeing F-111s based at Upper Heyford and Lakenheath on display at UK airshows, and sadder memories post 1996 of seeing rows of 'Varks bleaching in the sun at the David-Monthan 'boneyard' in Arizona. So, the kit. This was one of MJW Models special offers and with P&P included I think cost around £34 - superb value for a kit that builds to 18 inches long and 16 wide and, better still, it can be built with just about everything 'open, dangling and drooping'! I have built one HobbyBoss kit to date - an A-7A Corsair - and I am aware that there can be some accuracy issues. I can also confirm that the instructions often have to be treated with some caution. Fortunately I had several BM'ers willing to offer expert advice (which I sometimes ignored) and this overcame most of the problems. Here she is: The kit gives two colour options and I decided to go for 63-9770 which was the fifth F-111A built and wore the early white/grey scheme with nice large USAF markings, I think some of the very early FB-111A aircraft wore this scheme as well (though probably not into active service). I have tried to depict her as a typical F-111A at rest although the spoilers would not still be raised. I have shown the nosecone as separate from the aircraft, in reality it would hinge to one side but that was exceeding my patience so I took the easy way out. All paints were Humbrol enamels, decals from the kit. I still need to give a final spray with Klear. What to put on the weapons pylons was a problem as 63-9770 was used for development work and specifically the fitting of a gun in the weapons bay. In the end I wimped out and added MERs on the inner pylons (totally inaccurate for the time period) and AIM-9 adaptors for the middle pylons, both these came from the kit which contains one of HobbyBosses generic weapons sprues. One thing I did enjoy doing was building the forward avionics bays with the access doors open and also the radar; it looks a bit clunky here but the model looks good to me and I want to do more of this in the future. I did use part of an Eduard self-adhesive F-111A interior set in the cockpit and the extra detail really helped. Looks like the nose gear door is about to drop off! That's about it. Any mistakes or inaccuracies are mine but I have enjoyed putting this together in fits and starts and I do have an impressive model to squeeze into the display cabinet (another good reason for leaving the nosecone off!). Finally, many thanks to all who kindly commented, offered advice, or tried to raise my morale during the build! Michael

Have an unexpected and unwanted two weeks off work, morale not good, really needed something to cheer me up so decided to get started on a large and 'complex' kit. After a lot of deliberation decided to go for this:- I am a big fan of Robert 'Strang' McNamara's F-111 'Vark in 1/48th scale, stash wise I have the old Monogram F-111A, the Academy FB-111A, F-111C and EF-111A, also the Hobbyboss F-111A and the EF-111A. Six 'Varks in 1/48th scale! So long overdue for putting one together and I decided to go for the Hobbyboss F-111A. It has no less than 17 sprues plus two major fuselage body parts, also a large decal sheet plus one for the weapons loadout. I have read a lot of criticism here and elsewhere about Hobbyboss kits however I was very happy to purchase this kit from the excellent MJW Models at a reduced price of around £30 including P&P. So, getting started:- This is a very 'modular' kit with several large sub-assemblies, more than I am used to, so a lot to put together before the painting stages, much use of Halfords white and grey primer paints. Here you can see that the two undercarriage wells have been completed, the bomb bay, and the parts for the complex wings; these have to be assembled and painted before adding to the rest of the model. At this stage have two painting choices - a Vietnam era bird in SE Asia camouflage and the fifth F-111A produced which wore the USN gull grey/white colour scheme. At this stage I am leaning towards the grey/white scheme. There is also some detail which, sadly, cannot be seen in the completed model:- The cockpit does need to be almost fully completed before assembly and I have concentrated on this:- Have to be honest, I am not a detail person, all for minimum effort and best effect Overall grey Halfords Grey Primer, Revell Aqua Colour black and olive drab; red, silver and emerald green from old Airfix acrylic pots. Happy with how it has turned out though... Another view:- So a lot of work to do, definitely not going to be finished end next Friday however I do have the enthusiasm for this kit so maybe, just once, I might finish what I started! In terms of the 'best medicine' this has worked for me so far. Michael