Pappy Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) G'day people, This will be a placeholder for my WIP Pappy Edited February 22, 2021 by Pappy 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Well, the kick off date has passed so it was time to crack the bags on this one. This is not my first 1/72 Hasegawa F-111, or even my second or third so I think I have a reasonable familiarity with this family of kits. The Hasegawa F-111s are the most accurate F-111 kits in any scale. The re-tooled Academy kit still retains many mistakes and omissions and the less said about the unspeakable monstrosity that is the HB kit the better. I have decided to start with the ABs, I don't know why but it seems to be a habit with me when I build this kit that the donks are the logical place to start. Hasegawa break down the 'zorsts into three main segments and some individual VEN segments The exhaust turbine detail is very fine and looks nice under paint, sadly much of it will be difficult to see once the units are painted and assembled Moving back to the pointy end, the forward fuselage is a separate assembly to the remainder of the fuselage and split vertically. This allowed Hasegawa to produce several different variants as the forward fuselage is more or less common. It also kept the box size small and allowed Hasegawa to capture the complex fuselage shapes. The cockpit halves feature some delicate sidewall detail The cockpit tub is a more barren affair and relies upon decals to capture the instrument console and panel details Interestingly, the EF-111A did not retain the twin flight controls of the other F-111 variants cheers, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 (edited) G'day people, There are several assemblies that need to be trapped inside the fuselage before the halves can be closed. I have made a start on the main gear bay. The main structure is comprised of three main parts with an additional rear bulkhead onto which the main gear 'beam' is built up. Notice the curved sidewalls to accommodate the intake trunking This is accurate and was missed by both the currently available 1/48 kits. In addition there is a representation of the engine compressor faces as well as a representation of the intake walls - notice the delicate vortex generator moulded in So, the nose and main gear units have been assembled and painted up cheers, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desert falcon Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 In 1/72 it's looking well detailed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOD Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Great subject, I'm not familiar with this aircraft. There was me thinking the Gulf War was all about Tornados and A-10's... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rib Man Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Cool choice of subject. There is an EF-111 at the National Museum of the USAF in Ohio, and I always think it is a very interesting looking machine. Somehow very sinister. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rib Man Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 They have some good pictures on their website by the way including inside the cockpit in the "virtual tours section" https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Virtual-Tour/Cockpit360/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 A great choice, especially the lesser known version of the aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 20, 2021 Author Share Posted January 20, 2021 (edited) On 1/19/2021 at 7:13 PM, desert falcon said: In 1/72 it's looking well detailed! G'day DF, it is a great kit and in many ways it is better detailed (and certainly more accurate) than its 1/48 scale counterparts. Generally, the kit goes together really well, one of Hasegawa's finest IMO. On 1/19/2021 at 10:13 PM, TonyOD said: Great subject, I'm not familiar with this aircraft. There was me thinking the Gulf War was all about Tornados and A-10's... The Ravens were used extensively to clear an electronic path through to the target for the other aircraft they were escorting. Due to the classified nature of their equipment and mission profile, Electronic Warfare (WEW) aircraft tend to avoid publicity and keep a low profile On 1/20/2021 at 5:13 AM, The Rib Man said: Cool choice of subject. There is an EF-111 at the National Museum of the USAF in Ohio, and I always think it is a very interesting looking machine. Somehow very sinister. I dunno about sinister, but the big 'football' on the tail and the 'canoe' on the belly certainly makes it look ungainly, but I think they had the nicest paint scheme of all the F-1111 variants and a surprisingly a good variety of nose art. On 1/20/2021 at 5:15 AM, The Rib Man said: They have some good pictures on their website by the way including inside the cockpit in the "virtual tours section" https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Virtual-Tour/Cockpit360/ Hi RM, great link! On 1/20/2021 at 6:27 AM, Jabba said: A great choice, especially the lesser known version of the aircraft. Agreed, so I will try and do my bit to fix that! G'day people, I spent some time assembling the wings today. The kit instructions only show the wings assembled with the high -lift devices (flaps/slats) deployed and swept fully forward, however the wings can be built with the flaps and slats retracted. This will mean that you will need to trim and test fit the slats and flaps. I have done this before and it is a fiddly and time consuming task. Also, Hasegawa do not provide any sort of variable sweep mechanism however, the option to have the wings swept fully back is possible as there is a small shoulder moulded inside the fuselage wing seals. If you cut along this line you will have a wing opening that corresponds to the fully swept position. There are two slots at the wing root. The forward position corresponds to fully forward (16 degrees) position whilst the aft slot is for the fully swept (72 degrees) position. Somewhat annoyingly, Hasegawa have provided the wing station holes already opened I say annoyingly because unlike the rest of the F-111 family, the Ravens rarely carried external stores except for ferry tanks or perhaps a luggage pod, most of the time the pylons were removed and they were flown operationally in a 'clean' configuration to minimise drag and keep pace with the strike package The wing cores have been assembled and some minor sink marks dealt with The slattery and flappery has also been cleaned up I will be having everything 'down' as I like the contrast between the grey airframe and the exposed red bits cheers, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 G'day people, I have started to fill the holes for the wing pylons. To make this as painless as possible, I start by adding some plugs using the kit sprues I use CA for speed and because it doesn't have a tendency to shrink later and leave 'ghost' seams. By using the kit sprue material, the plugs should sand at the same rate as the wing plastic. The excess sprue material is simply cut away, leaving about .5mm protruding and this is then filled and sanded, again for speed I used CA mixed with baking soda cheers, Pappy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 (edited) G'day people, So a good deal of progress made. The pylon locating holes were cleaned up and the underside sprayed in a lightened version of FS36495. The underside colour should actually be FS36492 but as that is not readily available I opted to mix up a batch of FS36495 with 'a few' drops of white. Unlike the F-14s TPS, there is a marked contrast between the upper and lower colours so I think I should be okay. Anyhoo, onto the pics I also painted up the speedbrake/ forward main gear door The speedbrake often had painted non-slip sections. The non-slip pattern varied slightly between units but this seems to be a reasonably common pattern Now, I appear to have had a 'senior moment' as I had taken pics of the cockpit and fuselage assembly but managed to delete these instead of downloading them! We are currently experiencing some hot weather so I went for a surf yesterday and when I returned and tried to download the pics the camera said that there were no images on the card I have attempted to recover them but I fear they are lost. Oh well, moving on. The F-111 fuselage is a complex affair both IRL and in kit form as it includes the nose and main gear wells, intake ducts/compressor faces and cockpit tub. The fuselage has progressed rapidly and despite being a large jet ever in 1/72,, the excellent engineering of the Hasegawa kit has meant that relatively little filler was required I used the kit decals for the cockpit as they look great and the canopy access hatches will be closed. I did add the ejection initiation handles on either side of the centre console, as well a the small floor pedestal in front of the EWO. There is a small CB panel at the base of the aft bulkhead which was usually opened on the ground. I used a scrap piece of decal to depict the CBs and made the small door using some scrap brass sheet painted ZC yellow. The main gear well painted and NWW I left out the undercarriage bulkhead parts to make painting and masking easier. These will be added after painting and weathering to eliminate the possibility of damaging them, thanks for looking, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) G'day people, The fuselage is now complete I couldn't resist some last minute additions such as the nuclear anti-flash blinds the RBF streamers for the twin ejection initiation handles as well as a representation of the seat buckles. These small additions add a few colour accents and a lot more interest IMO The Anti-flash curtains and the three RBF streamers were also added to the cockpit overhead console The canopy was then offered up to the fuselage, no fit issues here! Meanwhile I have started painting up the wings. The F-111 family had the inner sections of the high lift devices painted red. I have masked and sprayed the undersides already The flap sections were dry fitted to ensure no nasty surprises later It looks like there is some red overspray on the right wing that will need to be tidied up. And just to finish off, the wings were plugged into the fuselage for a dry fit Hasegawa do not provide a variable sweep mechanism as this is not a toy. The advantage here is that the wings can be painted separately and attached later to make masking and painting easier. You could even leave the wings off to assist with transport and storage Thanks for looking, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Looking excellent Pappy! I'm really enjoying the extra detail you adding and your detail paintwork is superb - well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 48 minutes ago, Vultures1 said: Looking excellent Pappy! I'm really enjoying the extra detail you adding and your detail paintwork is superb - well done G'day Vulture, Thanks very much, I am really enjoying this build. The Hasegawa F-111 family of kits are great and although they don't exactly fall together like a Tamiya kit, they are pretty viceless as long as you are careful and have a modicum of skill. It also helps that this is my fifth Hasegawa F-111 build! cheers, Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Excellent work, especially in the U/C bays where most people (me included) just paint the area white. The Hasegawa kit does go together well and the only area I find that I have problems with is the joint right behind the cockpit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 (edited) On 1/26/2021 at 6:10 PM, Jabba said: Excellent work, especially in the U/C bays where most people (me included) just paint the area white. The Hasegawa kit does go together well and the only area I find that I have problems with is the joint right behind the cockpit. G'day Jabba, the back end of the main gear bay especially is a very busy place. I didn't want to get bogged down and lose momentum so I just painted up the main ECS hoses and left it at that as the view into the bay is very limited with the main gear and forward door/speed brake unit installed. The upper forward to aft fuselage join was the only area that need a small amount of filler (apart from a few sink marks) and some panel re-scribing as can be seen in the pics, cheers Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) G'day people, I have managed to get the empennage just about done. The smaller details such as the wingtip nav lights and the slat actuators were picked out. The EF-111A Raven was based on the F-111A and actually had two sets of formation lights. The original F-111A lights were small orange strip lights in eight positions which were later augmented with the larger low-viz formation lights and included in the kit decals. Once all the parts were painted their basic colours, the slattery and flappery were offered up the main wing cores A light dirt wash was added once everything had dried. I wanted to have a go at depicting the wing sweep marks which result as the wing sweep was changed I will also add this to the upper side but much more muted as it seems less noticeable against the darker paint. Finally a quick dry-fit just to make sure all the bits play nice, Generally, I am not a believer in pre-spraying but given how light the lower colour is I think it may be warranted in this instance. We will see how the experiment turns out cheers, Pappy Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desert falcon Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Nice work Pappy 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 This is a fantastic thread, Pappy. Everything looks very neat and tidy, and i especially like the exhausts. What is the base color on those? Can you share a few words on how you achieved that look? They almost look dry brushed but in a very neat and orderly manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Nice work. Even with a bit of dirt applied to the red areas on the flaps they still display a bright contrast with the grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted February 2, 2021 Author Share Posted February 2, 2021 (edited) On 2/2/2021 at 3:52 PM, SoftScience said: This is a fantastic thread, Pappy. Everything looks very neat and tidy, and i especially like the exhausts. What is the base color on those? Can you share a few words on how you achieved that look? They almost look dry brushed but in a very neat and orderly manner. G'day SS The base colur was metallic grey with a little dark grey added. There are close to ten different colours used in the exhausts but they were base painted matt black then painted in metallic grey. The rear section (the bit closest to the airframe) was gun metal and the variable nozzles were whatever metllic shades I had available. I just sort of sprayed a 'marbled' pattern of the varous metallic shades ranging from titanium and mangesium at the back and lighter towards the endse individual petals were picked out with a custom colour mixed up until it looked ábout righjt' and then the next process to be applied was a wash. I use artist oils and just mix up lamp black and burnt umber to aratio that once agin was based on appearance, I don't have a formula or ratio. Next a drybrush using aluminim and then a second pin wash to lay in more depth and finally some smaller points were picked out with a brush. The internals were similarly treated but with more sooty accents. On 2/2/2021 at 6:12 PM, Jabba said: Nice work. Even with a bit of dirt applied to the red areas on the flaps they still display a bright contrast with the grey. Hi Jabba, These jets looked to have been kept very clean with minimal fading and wear, although there were a ew panels that were different colours to their surrounding area on the 'football' especially, as if they were taken from another jet. The inner flap areas were a bit grimy, not so much from grease but graphite dust which would tend to stick to the hyd fluid stains. The underfuselage is where most of the dirt was noticeable and this is where I will concentrate my efforts when I get up to it. Edited June 18, 2021 by Pappy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 (edited) G'day people, I spent some time masking up in preparing the fuselage for spraying and managed to get the main colours on Nearly ran out of paint for the underside (the jar was only 1/3 full when I started!) but managed to get there in the end This was my first real attempt at pre-shading and I am not convinced. It is not for me and I think I will stick to post shading. I found it was less controllable than post shading but to each their own. Once the fuselage paint has had time thoroughly dry, I will have some more masking to do as the various dielectric panels and wing seals are different shades of grey as well as various other details that will need to be picked out with a hairy stick, cheers, Pappy Edited February 5, 2021 by Pappy 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Looking good Pappy! As you say, each to their own but I think you have achieved some nice variety in the grey finish using pre-shading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 4 hours ago, Vultures1 said: Looking good Pappy! As you say, each to their own but I think you have achieved some nice variety in the grey finish using pre-shading Hi, Thanks. it is a bit hard to see but there is some tonal variation but it is subtle, which is what I was going for. Some examples end up looking like a tartan blanket which just looks terrible. these jets flew high value missions and operated mostly at night. The pictures show that they were well cared for. I don't think the differences in panel colour are the result of paint fading but are instead a result from swapping panels between jets or touch ups after systems upgrades, so I think masking off panels is more appropriate than the random mottled spray pattern. thanks for looking, Pappy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Just caught up with your build so far Pappy, and wow! I have been missing a cracking build. I love the details you have done and the detail painting in the cockpit and undercarriage areas is fantastic, I also didn't realise how nice the Hasegawa kit is. Your build looks like it could be in 1/48. I well remember the EF-111's and F-111's out of Upper Heyford, actually went on a tour of the base around 1990 and got to crawl over an E in a hangar and got shown around some quite sensitive areas. Got quite a few pictures of the aircraft from Heyford and will have to build one myself some day, though I only have the Academy E/F to work with. Keep up the great work mate, certainly up to your usual very high standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now