1/72 Airfix F-111E

[Lord Riot]

Something a bit newer than my usual era, but still Cold War; the mighty F-111. This will be one of Upper Heyford's 20th TFW F-111Es, from around the mid-late 80s, with black tail codes & serial (thanks @Jabba!)

 

It's another ebay bargain:

 

[Lord Riot]

Airfix's cockpit is basic to say the least. This is all you get. And no cockpit decals either.

 

 

I thought I'd try and bring it to life a bit. I used a piece of sprue for the wizzo's scope, and offcuts from a Vulcan ladder for the joysticks, and part of a Canberra bomb rack fitting for the throttle levers. The seat belts are the usual cut masking tape and then hand-painted the rest as best as I could using pics I found online. I don't think too much will show once the canopy is on anyway.

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by Lord Riot

[brianthemodeller]

I remember building this back in the day... you know, when we were impressed that the kit cockpit had a floor and a seat!

 

I’ll tag along for the ride if you don’t mind?

[Blitz23]

Good choice!

[AdrianMF]

Nice detailing. For Airfix of that era the OOB cockpit was an awesome effort! I built one from an Airfix-USA boxing (dark green plastic) for the F-111 group build last year - I left out the swing wing linkage strut because it didn't  seem to give a symmetric outcome and I added some draught stripping (yes, really) to avoid a see through effect on the wing slots.

 

Looking forward to this, in proper Airfix sky blue plastic!

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[billn53]

I'll pull up a chair for this!

[Lord Riot]

Adrian, that's a good tip about adding something inside to stop the see through effect, thanks.

 

A piece of cut up spare Vulcan bomb bay made a decent base, then I used masking tape in case the wings touched the contraption when swept back; they shouldn't meet resistance. Once it's all painted black and sealed up hopefully it'll stop any see through issues ...

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Lord Riot

[Harry_the_Spider]

 

Watching with interest as I had one of those as a kid.

 

FYI your Lordship, as we both seems to be paddling in the cheap-as-chips Cold War end of the pool I've just scored one of these. Don't know if it is your thing but I thought I'd mention it. 

 

[edit]I've deleted the link for fear of breaking some rule or other, but if you look for Airfix Vigilante on eBay you'll find a load of them for £8 on a buy it now [/edit]

Edited April 29, 2018 by Harry_the_Spider

[Lord Riot]

Good effort Harry, yes that's the kind of bargain I look for - that kit is probably a similar age to my F-111 too. 

 

There's some decent kits to be found aren't there, and I can't justify spending £30+ on a model kit really, especially as I'm not into super detailing and counting rivets. A few extra decals and a tiny bit of scratch building is good enough for me usually.

 

That's why I still can't find a Valiant or 1/48 RAF Phantom! I'm waiting for someone's missus or mum who doesn't know what kits are worth to have an eBay clearout!  😂 

[Harry_the_Spider]

Me too. Top limit is £15.

 

I've just negotiated some storage and display space with my good lady wife, which means that, whilst I'm still in 1/72, I can increase my wingspan. Not up to Victor proportions, but bigger than a Phantom/Flanker which is the current max.

[Harry_the_Spider]

Did you get one? He's shifted 3 since I posted. 

 

We should do a "Cheap Skate" group build. Nothing more than eight quid.

[Richard E]

22 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

I thought I'd try and bring it to life a bit. I used a piece of sprue for the wizzo's scope, and offcuts from a Vulcan ladder for the joysticks, and part of a Canberra bomb rack fitting for the throttle levers. The seat belts are the usual cut masking tape and then hand-painted the rest as best as I could using pics I found online. I don't think too much will show once the canopy is on anyway.

The spirit of Alan W Hall's Airfix Magazine conversions lives on...

 

Following with interest as this was one of the first kits I built after I returned to aircraft modelling: the worrying bit is that I think I took some of my inspiration for the build from Operation Eldorado Canyon. 

[Lord Riot]

50 minutes ago, Harry_the_Spider said:

Did you get one? He's shifted 3 since I posted. 

 

We should do a "Cheap Skate" group build. Nothing more than eight quid.

I didn't mate, not really got into doing US Navy stuff yet, maybe one day! 

 

I like your cheapskate build idea though. It is rather frustrating sometimes seeing people building Valiants or having about three 1/48 Buccaneers in a stash - and all those metal Eduard bits are stupidly and unfairly priced in my opinion even on ebay. Anyway, rant over, sorry!

 

Yes definitely an under £8 build sounds good - there's some decent bargain kits to be found aren't there.

[Harry_the_Spider]

^{I'll sort a cheap skate GB once I've finished a) my £10 Italeri Tomcat and b) my £6k and rising loft conversion.}

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Harry_the_Spider

[Lord Riot]

If anyone makes this kit, it's important to paint the intakes before gluing them into the fuselage otherwise they'd be almost impossible to reach properly with a paintbrush once in place.

 

[71chally]

On 4/28/2018 at 9:49 AM, Lord Riot said:

Something a bit newer than my usual era, but still Cold War; the mighty F-111.

man, you are brave, this is one kit that I started, and binned, twice!

I wish you luck and will follow with interest.

[Lord Riot]

It definitely isn't the best in terms of fit, and the plastic feels rather thin too. The 'ingenious' Airfix wing sweep mechanism doesn't seem to align the wings correctly with each other either! I ended up leaving one pivot unglued so they were slightly more independent and hence more symmetrical in their angles.

 

It needed filler behind the engine intakes, two large slots for no apparent reason which I found no evidence of in photos of the real thing.

 

The kit is actually a bit of a dog, but having said that the shape seems reasonably accurate and it is from 1976 after all, so I can't be too critical. I think with a bit of effort I may be able to coax it into a reasonable example of my first USAFE model. 

 

One interesting feature when it comes to painting, the demarcation line isn't straight. It will be counter-intuitive not using masking tape to get a perfect line - I hope it doesn't just make it look like I'm even worse at painting! 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Lord Riot

[stever219]

1 minute ago, Lord Riot said:

 

It needed filler behind the engine intakes, two large slots for no apparent reason which I found no evidence of in photos of the real thing.

 

The kit is actually a bit of a dog, but having said that the shape seems reasonably accurate and it is from 1976 after all, so I can't be too critical. I think with with a bit of effort I may be able to coax it into a reasonable example of my first USAFE model. 

 

It’s older than that.  It first saw the light of day as an F-111A in about 1968 or ‘69 and was later (very slightly) re-worked into an ‘E.  

 

I suspect that your slots behind the intakes are a legacy of the earlier incarnation and GD’s machinations to get the intakes and engines to work together at the design performane point.

[Lord Riot]

It's stamped with Airfix 1976 inside the fuselage, but I guess that's just for the E version then?

[Lord Riot]

Starting to look a bit better now!

 

[Lord Riot]

Looking tanned ...

 

[Lord Riot]

Looks like some crazy 'what if' scheme! 

 

[Lord Riot]

A bit more like an F-111 now. 

 

 

I'll need to really fix that cockpit capsule down though, it's just blu-tacked for now. A few bits of touching up needed to the paint as well.

[Jabba]

4 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Looks like some crazy 'what if' scheme! 

 

 

If only a winter scheme was ever applied to a F-111, what you have not painted yet could be painted white.

 

In reply to your last post, this older kit is looking rather good.

[Mr T]

The kit started life as an A model and one of the kits they updated a bit like they did with the Tornado and Canberra amongst others. You are doing a good job on what I thought was never a brilliant kit. I used a cheap Esci kit I bought in a sale to build a F111K, it was not bad at all, but you do not see many around.