(R?)F-111C

[Anatol Pigwa]

Good day mates,

 

Time to enter the fray again. For my first GB of 2021 (the ongoing Interceptor GB is considered to be a 2020 GB) I present to you the mighty Pig. The kit is the well known and equally hard to get 1:72 by Hasegawa and looks like this:

 

 

Now I have some goodies coming for her so depending on if/when they arrive I will take the final desicion if I am building a F-111C or a RF-111C and which markings it will have. However I cansay with certainity that it will be grey and armed with stand off weapons.

 

Building might start this weekend  so watch this space.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello Anatol, Thank you for joining us and its always Nice to see an aardvark.

[trickyrich]

Ooooo an RAAF F-111C very interesting!!

 

Who did you source the Recon pastel from? They are getting very hard to find these days in 1/72nd, no body does them in 1/48th, I had to make and master my own.

 

A8-113 (in the box photo) is one of 4 F-111A models we bought and converted to C to replace lost aircraft. (A8-109, 112, 113, 114)

 

Oh and F-111's look so much better in SEA colours!  

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, trickyrich said:

Oh and F-111's look so much better in SEA colours!

I actually prefer the grey......

 

mind you if I ever build one it would be in the iconic SEA scheme.

 

AW

[Anatol Pigwa]

Funny thing, I have currently plans for seven EF/F/FB-111 planes, yet none of them in the plain SEA scheme! One is about 90% SEA though!)

 

The Pigs will get the grey scheme, due to their tail artwork, and also because this will be consistent with the loadout I intend for them.

 

@trickyrich I ordered the recce pack (grey cersion) from Airgraphics:

https://air-graphics.uk/shop/ols/products/ac-149-dot-b-rf-111c-reconnaissance-pod

 

am still waiting for the delivery though... (stuck in Brexit export hell?) If I don't get it by the time I start building, I will build A8-125, as I recieved the decals on Friday:

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Anatol Pigwa

[trickyrich]

look similar to the one I have.... not too sure about their claim it is suitable for Hasegawa F-111C/G, the G model is a big no no!

 

Don't forget the Recon birds s/n's, A8-126, 134, 143, 146, plus 95% of the time they flew without pylons fitted. The C's (G's came after my time with them) usually had only one pylon fitted to each wing with a single white SUU-20 practice bomb rack generally under the LH wing (except 129, it was mostly fitted to the RH wing as it had a bent wing carry through box and required lots of trim if not fitted).  

 

If you want to have some fun you could do this load-out!!

 

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/gallery/F-111-A8-146/F_111_with_48_Mk82_bombs

 

This was definitely for display only....the Framies would have had a heart attack if someone tried to move the aircraft!!  The Recon birds could carry the same load-out as the normal C's but they were rarely (if ever) fitted.

[Anatol Pigwa]

Thanks for the great insight @trickyrich! This is really appreciated.

 

I am confident I did my homework on the Pigs dilligently (see here).

 

I intend to build a maritime strike aircraft and thought to build either the aforementioned F-111C with a 2x Harpoon + 2 Sidewinder or 2x GBU 24 loadout, as 4 Harpoons seems to be rather unprobable (btw, when did the Harpoon arrive for the Pig?) ,

 or an RF-111C with 1x Popeye 1x Sidewinder and the DLP and a dumb bomb on the other side.

 

I know recce birds usually fly unarmed, but I really, really want to showcase the ASuW loadout of the Pig.

 

As for the 48 iron bombs loadout, I thought about reprising this one on a F-111G, but noticed that it would be too much hassle:

 

I would have to sweep the wing back to 26°, fir it to look alk right which might be tricky on the Hasegawa kit.

Then place the outermost pylons in the correct position as there are no holes prepared for them. Finalky, I would have to pivot the 'pivotable' pylons somehow to align.

 

In fact this picture of the 48 Slicks is the only one I know of, wherea Vark is fitted with eight pylons!

 

Also my research shows, that the non pivotable pylons where plumbed for fuel tanks only, so putting bombs there would give a false impression of the capabilities of the aircraft.

 

I intend though, to build - at a later stage - a Vark where there is at least a tank on station 2 & 8 (the inner non-pivotable pylons).

 

[trickyrich]

you got some great info on that thread. 

 

Yeah those outer 2 pylons were fixed and in the time I was on F-111's (in the 80's) I never saw them fitted operationally, only for display. The real worry with fitting them and stores was unwanted stress on the "wing carry through box", a source of drama through the F-111's entire life.

 

Drop tanks, 2 or 4, on the inner pylons were only fitted when they were flying off on exercise somewhere. On "bombing camps" it was usually a pair of big bombs or a pair of BRU's with 6 bombs 250 or 500lb fitted to each, can't remember which inner pylon they were fitted to, I think 3 & 6. I never got to see any of the more exotic stuff......

 

1 Sqn was the first to get the "Pave Tack" pod, 6 Sqn got them last, they were training and Recon Sqn. The 20mm vibrated badly when fired, one managed to come loose in it's mount during a live fire exercise did some real damage, aircrew were unharmed....can't say the same for their flying suits or undies!!!

 

Here's a 1 Sqn bird with the SUU-20 fitted, for the majority of the time this is what they flew with.

 

 

On exercise "Pitch Black" 1988, with one of my Recon babies up in Darwin, A8-143 from memory. 

 

 

Shorts and T-shirts the work uniform of the day! Plus we had 5 "trainee" fitters here as well, you can tell by there uniforms!!! 

[Anatol Pigwa]

I just checked the link I refered to in the linked thread. It says the Harpoon arrived in the late eighties ( operationally around 1987), while the Popeye got there in 2003. The document is quite well researched. although it is not infallible (i.e. it quotes 48 Mk-84 as the maximum liad of a F-111. See what that picture led too!).

 

Can you tell me something about Sidewinders on the F-111. Did they carry them in pairs or only one missile at a time?

 

Thanks for sharing the stories & pictures. This really makes the contemporary GBs stand out for me.;)

 

 

 

 

[Pappy]

4 hours ago, trickyrich said:

 

On exercise "Pitch Black" 1988, with one of my Recon babies up in Darwin, A8-143 from memory. 

 

 

Shorts and T-shirts the work uniform of the day! Plus we had 5 "trainee" fitters here as well, you can tell by there uniforms!!! 

 

"Fitters" yeah right, they weren't on loan from the Hunnypot bay any chance? There were lots of pics of the various 'fitters' in the SQN trip books

 

• AIM-9s were loaded in singles, beneath the pylon. Since the carriage of the AIM-9/LAU-7 required removal of the MAU-12 (the rack inside the pylon that actually suspends and releases the store) this meant that only a missile could be carried on that station. The LAU-7 did not bolt directly to the pylon lower surface, there was a small gap
• USAF style missile launcher stand-offs were designed to permit carriage of the AIM-9P. ESMAs were trialed, this would have allowed the fitment of AIM-9L/M (which had larger fins than the AIM-9P) while simultaneously carrying stores beneath the pylon but the option was never adopted.

Pappy

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

can't remember where these fitters came from......... I know they didn't like the heat much as they kept removing the work clothes all the time!  

[Anatol Pigwa]

@trickyrich when was the SEA camo phased out on the F-111C? 

[trickyrich]

I'm not actually sure but would say it happened in the 90's, probably around the time the RAAF got the G models.

[Anatol Pigwa]

I will start this one later todayor tomorrow. Since all ordered decals and AM Parts arrived.

 

I am still not sure if I#ll build the Recon version or the strike one. Any suggestions?

 

Sadly the plane will be gunship grey (FS 36118 according to Hasegawa), so no SEA camo on this one I'm afraid (in fact of my planned 7-10 F-111 there are only 2-3 which will be in SEA camo).

    

[Anatol Pigwa]

The plastic has been butchered:

 

 

Mostly basic priming ATM.

[Anatol Pigwa]

I finallz decided which aircraft I#mgoing to build

 

It will be A8-126 in the farwell scheme, with a Popeye slung under its's wing.

 

Here a pictureof the Popeye + Data Link pod (fromt the Skunkmodels Workshop IDF-weapons set):

 

 

Now I need tofindsome goodre sources on the undercarriage of the Pig asI amnot quite sure which parts are to be painted red and which remain white.  

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice start, the gear and wheel wells are white, you can either paint the whole inside of the main door/speed brake red or at one point only a square section in the centre was red with the rest white. There were also black anti slip sections in the red area.

[Anatol Pigwa]

Aaand I'm back.

 

The project in very much on track. Spurred by @bianfuxia I completed the fuselage:

 

state of play:

 

Of course painting the red parts first was a stupid, stupid move, as masking them is a PITA. Mental note for future F-111: main colour first, warning edges after.

 

Also I messed up slightly in the cockpit:

 

 

 For one, the grey used is way lighter then the medium grey sprayed here. second the kit comes with two different IP which vary slightly in their form, and I did not know if I should take the one from the original sprues (which would be that of a F-111A) or the one from the Pave Tack sprue (which would be that of a F-111F?)

 

Of course things are not made easier by the fact, that I am building a late RF-111C, and those may have had different IP layouts than the Pave Tack equiped F-111Cs

@trickyrich to the rescue, please!

 

Oh, and I misplaced the Seats somewhere. Either I find them soon Or I have to break ofen another (E)F(B)-111 kit. Well I have time until cockpit is resprayed, decaled, weathered and sealed.

 

A nice thing about the kit is the hole in front of the cockpit (I believe the Astrotracker went there, and therefore Hasegawa decided to design it this way. This means that I can build the main fuselage together and decide at a fairly late stage how much noseweight I am going to put in. I decided to put in 15g which is ample de to the long nose of the F-111, plus there will be also a fairly resin part with the recon palette between the main and forward landing wheels, so I should be ok.

 

 

  

Speaking of resin. As this is my fitting something bigger than a bang seat, could I ask for some pointers?

 

Especially: how do I straighten the part (it has quite a strong ben, which is not appreciated by the modeller,

 

Thanks for looking

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Anatol Pigwa

[trickyrich]

.... and there's a wee Skyhawk to go with her!!! 

 

Arrrrrr F/RF-111C cockpits.....   you don't know how many hours I've spent trying to dig up accurate photos of these, most pertaining to be F-111C are not. You would think having worked on them for sometime I would have had some good  photos...but alas no...  

 

Ok the RF-111C kept it's original F-111C (A) style model cockpit until the RAAF F-111's went through their major digital upgrade, the plain C went through a minority change for the Nav's position when upgraded to PaveTack. The Recon birds could never have one of these pod fitted.

This site shows (or maybe not) the upgraded cockpit but i suspect it is correct...... and good enough for your needs. Unfortunately this is a real Frankenstein aircraft!!!  A8-134 was a Recon bird, but they have fitted it here with the PaveTack pod in old SEA scheme with the avionics update!

 

https://acesflyinghigh.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/south-australian-aviation-museum-open-cockpits-and-family-fun-day-2017-part-iii/

 

These are basically the only picture that clearly (?) show the earlier analogue cockpits.

 

F-111E (very similar to A & C)

 

RF-111C

 

Oh and the G model was basically an FB-111A with some of it's original Nav system removed, they were given the avionics upgrade with the C's but were never fitted with PaveTack and were only ever grey.

 

..... plus if you want to detail the Recon bay........ again good info on the internals is even harder to find!

 

 

[Anatol Pigwa]

Thanks, that is some really useful stuff.!

 

Btw. I found this thread over on Arcforums to be quite useful when it comes to F-111 cockpits, however it does not cover the RF-111 nor the AUP update.

[bianfuxia]

How did I not see your F-111 build? 

 

It's looking good. I have already learnt a lot for my own model from those links you posted. Thanks!

[trickyrich]

8 hours ago, Anatol Pigwa said:

Thanks, that is some really useful stuff.!

 

Btw. I found this thread over on Arcforums to be quite useful when it comes to F-111 cockpits, however it does not cover the RF-111 nor the AUP update.

that's a great link, good info on cockpits....that guy seems like he may have had something to do with F-111's or just a super nerd! 

 

Now if ResKit & Quinta Studio get together plus with a proper canopy..........  🥰

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

There is a two week extension, a little breathing room for everyone. 

[Anatol Pigwa]

Unfortunately I won't be able to take advantage of the extension  so the following is my (kinda) finished model:

 

Feel free to comment (critically. I want to get better after all). Please read the text below beforehand though.

 

 

 

 

The keen observer will notice a few missing position lights, some silvering of the decals, a pit tube that is not painted, and the missing ordnance, to name but a few.

 

Nevertheless I am quite happy with the result. While the grey is a tad to dark, it showcases the red flaps quite nicely.

 

I am a little proud that I managed to give the aircraft a correct number for an RF-111 AND an aircraft which took part in the retirement ceremony.

 

The recon palette was a challenge to place as it wrapped slightly and needed quite time filler.

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, I still think that the F-111C with it's wings extended is one of the most graceful aircraft to ever take to the air. My personal opinion of course. You've done a very good model of it. Regards, Jeff.