Best 1/72 F111

[Dirk Diggler]

I've just returned to the hobby and decided to build cold war adversaries(Mig 29 v F16,SU 25 V A10,etc).I bought an SU 24 kit and the F111 seems to be it's nearest counterpart.

Who produces the best F111 kit?

Cheers

Carl.

[Dave Fleming]

Hasegawa

[Wez]

Ditto, by a long mile

[tango98]

Absolutely, it's a first-rate kit.

Cheers

Dave

[mungo1974]

If you can find one, Hasegawa...the parts breakdown can cause headaches,I remember having issues with joining the nose to the rear fuselage leaving a step at the wing root...may have just been my building talents..or the lack of i dunno.

[Dirk Diggler]

Thanks,it would appear that the Hasegawa kit is as rare as hens teeth.I'll keep looking.

[Guest]

As everyone has already said. Be prepared to pay.

[VG 33]

Hasegawa and I have already built one (FB-111A). I desperately look forward to finding an F-111A at a decent price one day.

Patrick

[Giorgio N]

They may be rare, they may be expensive, but last year I managed to find 3 within few months at or below £20 each on the web or at swap meets. They are out there, it's just a matter of searching and of course having a bit of luck

Edited September 10, 2015 by Giorgio N

[theplasticsurgeon]

As others I'd venture that Hasegawa is the best.
I've just revisited my build thread for a Italeri kit at http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=151917&st=0
where I say I'd build another Hasegawa kit - one day.

Hasegawa has a more detailed wing - doesn't sweep, but is detachable for storage.
Airfix and Italeri have a linkage to operate the wings, Monogram has a toothed arrangement.
Anyway here are my builds.

First Hasegawa FB-111A.


Airfix F-111E - it's on the Italeri box.


Italeri F-111A.


Monogram EF-111A.


Frontish view of the bombers - I'm told that Hasegawa is the best in section.

Edited September 11, 2015 by theplasticsurgeon

[modelldoc]

Here is Airfix original:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21603181@N08/5392567935/in/dateposted/

modelldoc

[upnorth]

Hasegawa is the best for an overall replica of an F-111 but is not without shortcomings.

If you want the wings at anything other than full forward sweep and flaps and slats hanging, you'll have your work cut out for you as Hasegawa will make you do a fair bit of plastic carpentry to have it any other way. My experience was that you'll have to shorten the flap actuator arms a bit anyway if you don't want the flaps interfering with what you hang under the wings.

I built their FB-111 kit in reissued form as a RAAF F-111G. The instructions were directly from the old FB-111 kit with only a new decal instruction sheet tossed in to cover the RAAF versions. So they cheaped there, but you'd never know it from the price on the box.

In short, if you wanted to build an F-111 parked on the ground, you'd do no better than Hasegawa. If you wanted to mount it flying with the wings cranked back, you'd save yourself some work by going with someone else's kit.

I'd personally recommend Italeri's kit as second to Hasegawa's. It has Esci pedigree from the days when Esci turned out some quite decent kits. the same kit can be found in AMT boxing, but I don't recommend buying those as AMT used a softer styrene with some quite unpredictable behaviour once the cement hit it.

At any rate, here's what I got out of the Hasegawa F-111G kit, excuse the graininess as it was scanned from a 35mm print:

[Nigel Foster60]

Very Nice!

Nigel

[sroubos]

I got one at Telford for 20 quid last year... it's an impressive beast, the contents of the box explode when you open it and can never be put back quite the same way. It's glaring at me from time to time from the shelf, I haven't the heart to open it again and start it...

[Dirk Diggler]

Thanks for all the info,my skill level at the moment isn't up to "kit surgery" level.A couple of Airfix F11 E's are on Ebay but will probably hunt out a Hasegawa version and build it when skill levels permit!

[upnorth]

Thanks for all the info,my skill level at the moment isn't up to "kit surgery" level.A couple of Airfix F11 E's are on Ebay but will probably hunt out a Hasegawa version and build it when skill levels permit!

I'd still steer you to an Italeri kit. It will present you with some challenges, but nothing insurmountable to a modeler of intermediate skills. It also has enough detail that you can practice a few painting techniques like drybrushing and washes.

If you feel your skills aren't up to the Hasegawa kit, the age and crudeness of the Airfix/MPC kit will drive you insane if you want to get anything presentable out of it or to represent any specific F-111 variant as it is a mix of prototype and early production features plus some artistic lisence.

They made the escape capsule separate from the fuselage; while it worked as a novelty, it made for a very tricky assembly to get smoothly mated with the fuselage.

The Airfix kit also has no landing gear wells at all, just slight recesses with locating holes for the abreviated landing gear legs. It's also extremely lacking in detail on the afterburner parts.

Here's a quick build, not mine, of the Airfix kit that shows you exactly what comes in the box and how much putty the kit needs to be smooth:

http://gregers.fr.yuku.com/topic/11282/Paul-Bradleys-Airfix-F111A#.VfMA_fntlHw

[Admiral Puff]

Hasegawa is the best for an overall replica of an F-111 but is not without shortcomings.

If you want the wings at anything other than full forward sweep and flaps and slats hanging, you'll have your work cut out for you as Hasegawa will make you do a fair bit of plastic carpentry to have it any other way. My experience was that you'll have to shorten the flap actuator arms a bit anyway if you don't want the flaps interfering with what you hang under the wings.

I built their FB-111 kit in reissued form as a RAAF F-111G. The instructions were directly from the old FB-111 kit with only a new decal instruction sheet tossed in to cover the RAAF versions. So they cheaped there, but you'd never know it from the price on the box.

In short, if you wanted to build an F-111 parked on the ground, you'd do no better than Hasegawa. If you wanted to mount it flying with the wings cranked back, you'd save yourself some work by going with someone else's kit.

I'd personally recommend Italeri's kit as second to Hasegawa's. It has Esci pedigree from the days when Esci turned out some quite decent kits. the same kit can be found in AMT boxing, but I don't recommend buying those as AMT used a softer styrene with some quite unpredictable behaviour once the cement hit it.

At any rate, here's what I got out of the Hasegawa F-111G kit, excuse the graininess as it was scanned from a 35mm print:

Good to see one painted in PROPER colours!

[Jabba]

Yet another vote for the Hasegawa kit, and here are a couple with the wings to the rear.

[Driver66]

Ditto , Hasegawa kit is superb. Found an F-111e in kingkit a couple of years ago , about £20 but well worth the money. Have built both the E and a Aussie FB-111 ( G ) , not that much effort to swing the wings either.

[Fernando]

Good to see one painted in PROPER colours!

Hi, Admiral,

Having only a "bread-n-butter" knowledge about Aussie Cs, and a standard monitor as such, I couldn`t help but wonder about your joyful exclamation, for the colour usually quoted is FS36118, which, even allowing for savage weathering, would go anywhere near what I see in my screen. Could you elaborate?

Fernando

[sroubos]

I think he was referring to the fact that it's an Ozzie F-111.

I agree it doesn't look like 36118 but I think the photo has been taken under low light conditions and subsequently pimped in Photoshop to bring out the brightness, which has washed out the color at the same time. This happened to my Spitfire pics in a recent RfI thread...

[upnorth]

With regards to my RAAF F-111 picture:

I took it outdoors on a very sunny day with a quite basic point and shoot 35mm camera. The real model is definitely closer to 36118, the lighting conditions made it look lighter.

I don't recall doing much photoshopping on it.

I still have the model, but it's packed in a box in my mom's basement back in Canada. I'll certainly take some fresher pics with my digital camera whenever I get back over there.

[Hardtarget]

I have one of these spare if one is interested? £30 plus post.

http://www.scalemates.com/kits/121257-hasegawa-04033-f-111c-aardvark-raaf

or this

http://www.scalemates.com/kits/121256-hasegawa-04035-fb-111a-aardvark

Edited September 15, 2015 by Hardtarget

[Dirk Diggler]

Managed to track down the ESCI version for a reasonable £15

[Admiral Puff]

Hi, Admiral,

Having only a "bread-n-butter" knowledge about Aussie Cs, and a standard monitor as such, I couldn`t help but wonder about your joyful exclamation, for the colour usually quoted is FS36118, which, even allowing for savage weathering, would go anywhere near what I see in my screen. Could you elaborate?

Fernando

Fernando,

I was commenting on the fact that the model was in 6RAAF markings rather than anything else. I am MOST reluctant to comment on colours based solely on an internet picture - I don't know what processes the picture has been through before its publication, and my monitor hasn't been colour calibrated in any event.