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1/72 Italeri F-111A - Combat Lancer, Thailand '68


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F111A, 66-0025, 428th TFS/474th TFW 'Combat Lancer', Takhli RTAFB, Thailand April 1968

 

The USAF decided to rush a small detachment of F-111As to Southeast Asia under a program known as "Combat Lancer". Six 428th TFS F-111As were allocated to the "Combat Lancer" program, and departed Nellis AFB for Takhli RTAFB on 15 March 1968. By the end of that month, 55 night missions had been flown against targets in North Vietnam, but two aircraft had been lost. 66-0022 had been lost on 28 March, and 66-0017 on 30 March. Replacement aircraft had left Nellis, but the loss of a third F-111A (66-0024) on 22 April halted F-111A combat operations until 1972.  66-0025 was one of the replacement aircraft.

 

The Italeri kit is not too bad a kit to put together - tricky bits were the ill fitting tail area and the forward fuselage.  I do have a Hase version up in the loft 🙂

A very decent sized model even in '72.  With a re-issue due sometime soon I would well recommend picking one up.

 

 

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Cheers all,

 

Phil

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Hi Booty003

 

Wonderful kit, I'm stock with one F-111A but it will have Rolling Thunder 1972 markings 

 

Cheers

Armando

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You've got so many cool SEA camo planes, many of which I'm hoping to do one day. 

 

Well done, this is done to a very high standard :)

Edited by reini
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1 hour ago, jackroadkill said:

That's very cool.  As a matter of interest, what caused those combat losses?

All three had been lost through a malfunction in the horizontal stabiliser, not by enemy action.

September 1972 saw the F-111 back in Southeast Asia, stationed at Takhli Air Base, Thailand.

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3 minutes ago, Booty003 said:

All three had been lost through a malfunction in the horizontal stabiliser, not by enemy action.

September 1972 saw the F-111 back in Southeast Asia, stationed at Takhli Air Base, Thailand.

Thanks, that's very interesting to know.

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Phil,

Wonderful job on the Italeri F-111A kit. I've build a number of those and other company kits. I know the problems you may have had with your build. I've been away from the forum for some time. Greatly under the weather at times and not from the world traveling virus. If you had a build I did not go back in the Work In Progress far enough to see your build.

 

Here is part of a word document converted to an image of the original deployment from Nellis AFB. This document gives the first flight and weapons load plus the known cause of the crash.

Combat Lancer

I have plans for a few aircraft in both 1/72nd and 1/48th scale. I'll have them and any other builds in the WIP section of the forumI have the Two Bob's sets. So again nice finish and one question. I the underside painted a faded Flat Black or Olive Drab. I can't tell my monitor is giving me fits at times.

 

All The Best

Ron VanDerwarker

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7 hours ago, f111guru said:

 

 

I have plans for a few aircraft in both 1/72nd and 1/48th scale. I'll have them and any other builds in the WIP section of the forumI have the Two Bob's sets. So again nice finish and one question. I the underside painted a faded Flat Black or Olive Drab. I can't tell my monitor is giving me fits at times.

 

All The Best

Ron VanDerwarker

 

G'day Ron,

 

The kit undderside is black but the Combat Lancer undersides were a dark green shade, some sources claim (including an ex -crew chief) that it was the FS34079 extended underneath, others that it was O.D, but not black.

The later deployments featured black undersides which became the typical SEA scheme for F-111s

 

Pappy

Edited by Pappy
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Lovely build and finish! And thanks for pointing me to the kit which looks quite acceptable, I gave up looking for a Hasegawa, poo-poohed Airfix and for some reason never knew about the Italeri. 

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Cheers guys.  Thanks for posting the additional info Ron @f111guru, yes the belly is black ( I didn't know that is was green).  Have fun with your future builds and that you are now on the road to recovery health wise. 👍

 

Thanks for the colours update @Pappy, good info for anyone else planning on doing this kit.

 

Phil

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