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1/48 Hobby Boss F-111F Aardvark **FINISHED**


Muzz

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I came across a bit of a problem tonight and it's worth looking out for if you're building an HB kit. I went to join what is basically the escape capsule part of the cockpit fuselage to the main fuselage and found the fit wasn't great due to the bottom of the cockpit coming up against the top of the front landing gear bay. Not a problem I thought and used the Dremmel to sand away what turned out to be quite a bit of plastic from both the bottom of the cockpit and the top of the gear bay. 

 

I then discovered that plastic dust had found its way into the sealed cockpit!😤 Luckily the cockpit tub came away with relative ease and managed to get it cleaned up and back together. No harm done but time consuming and no further forward than yesterday!

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2 hours ago, Muzz said:

I came across a bit of a problem tonight and it's worth looking out for if you're building an HB kit. I went to join what is basically the escape capsule part of the cockpit fuselage to the main fuselage and found the fit wasn't great due to the bottom of the cockpit coming up against the top of the front landing gear bay. Not a problem I thought and used the Dremmel to sand away what turned out to be quite a bit of plastic from both the bottom of the cockpit and the top of the gear bay. 

 

I then discovered that plastic dust had found its way into the sealed cockpit!😤 Luckily the cockpit tub came away with relative ease and managed to get it cleaned up and back together. No harm done but time consuming and no further forward than yesterday!

 

..and should we be surprised with a fit issue like that and the HB model!!! I haven't test fitted anything to that stage yet, but thanks for the warning!

 

It's very annoying when that happens and the dust bunnies arrive, there's no way you could have opened that Vac canopy to chase them out either without doing some damage! You were luckly to be able to remove the cockpit tub!

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I managed to get the cockpit section attached to the main fuselage today, fit wasn't too bad in the end and used some clamps to hold everything in place.

 

20170415_171947.jpg

 

20170415_171934.jpg

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I think I may have made a small error after following the kit instructions, I have added the canoe shaped fairings to the rear fuselage where the tailplanes join. The ones I have added have box shaped countermeasures pods attached and I have only noticed tonight there is also smooth fairings in the kit box. 

 

From checking photos the F appears to have the smooth fairing and I only managed to find a photo of an Australian example with the Countermeasures pods. I'm thinking I'm going to have to remove the fairings with the countermeasures pods and replace with the smooth fairings, is this correct?

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I would rush to replace them! I have found one photo of a F model which has them flying along side an EF-111.

 

The F-111C's originally had the smooth fairings as well but later in life (probably with the avionics upgrade), there are photos with these countermeasures pods fitted.

 

Someone here will have the answer.

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So the airframe is as complete as I want it to be before paint.

20170419_181656.jpg

 

I'm leaving the slats/flaps off for obvious reasons as well as the afterburners. These will be painted separately and added later. I'm also leaving the intakes off and will probably add them after the primer coat, they appear to be a good fit.

 

After some thought I've decided to scrap my modifications to the exhaust trunking and instead will be adding FOD covers to the exhausts and intakes. The main reason for this was the work required to improve the intakes and at the end of which they still wouldn't be representative of the real thing.

 

Next up, black primer coat! 

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great work Muzz!

and timely as well! :)

 

I understand you point on the intakes/ exhausts somehow.......

 

BUT there ist still time to add different exhausts, or modify them for about 2 months!!! :devil:

 

I still need to start mine!!! (what will be done tonight :))

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Black primer on the main airframe and some more work required around the canopy. Found good photos on the reference thread of this GB (after spending ages searching the net😥) for positioning of the lumps and bumps under the front fuselage.

 

The strike camera is just a solid bit of plastic so I've removed the centre section and will add some clear windows later. 

20170425_170122_001.jpg

 

20170425_170109.jpg

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1 hour ago, Hewy said:

She's looking very stealthy muzz, it looks like yours will be camo'd up soon ,i like the boomy bits your going to hang from the pylons

I'm off for 4 days now so should have the camo at least part done by the weekend. The GBU-10's are OOB as they look pretty good and the GBU-24's are from the Hasegawa set, the kit GBU-24's aren't as good as the 10's for some reason.

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1 hour ago, Hewy said:

Very nice bombs muzz , what paints are you going to do the camo in 

Glynn

 

Mr Hobby Color is my paint of choice for this build, by luck I'd just ordered the colours for what was going to my next build but he now been cancelled!

 

20170426_194655.jpg

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Muzz you're making great progress, that little extra detail work is great!

 

I've got the same colours sitting on my bench for the day....whenever it'll be to paint mine. The trick with these for a super smooth fine finish is plenty of Levelling Solution. I picked this tip up from Tony's amazing F-16 builds, you pop over and have a look if you haven't already. I'm sold on the stuff now. Even heavy dilution amounts (test it first!!!) give you amazingly smooth and even light coats!

 

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6 hours ago, trickyrich said:

I'm sold on the stuff now. Even heavy dilution amounts (test it first!!!) give you amazingly smooth and even light coats!

 

You're preaching to the converted Rich!, I'm a long time user of Mr Hobby Color and have a big bottle of their thinners, the stuff works well with Tamiya paints too. I quite fancy trying MRP but the price has really put me off so far.

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4 hours ago, Muzz said:

You're preaching to the converted Rich!, I'm a long time user of Mr Hobby Color and have a big bottle of their thinners, the stuff works well with Tamiya paints too. I quite fancy trying MRP but the price has really put me off so far.

I have used it for about ten years now and I am very happy with it. I will use it in my build as well.

O, you can also use the Tamiya thinner (X-20A) for it.

I have done that from the start and never had any problems.

 

Cheers

Edited by Arniec
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Next camo colour on, the lighter of the two greens. Been weathered too, a bit more than intended but always lose a bit of the effect after glossing etc so hopefully that will dampen it down a bit.

 

20170428_151631.jpg

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