Raven Two (another Esci EF-111A in 1/72)

[bianfuxia]

My other build for this GB will be this EF-111A I scored on ebay last year when I couldn't find an affordable Hasegawa one! 

 

@Jasonb13 is squadron leader for this one, as he already has his Esci EF-111A up and running. I think I saw in the chat that we may get a third too!

 

 

Mine is some kind of joint release between Esci and Gunze Sangyo  - these days I guess the box would say:

 

Esci X Gunze

 

or 

Esci feat. G-Sang.

 

But anyway it seems to be the exact same kit as Jasonb13's.

 

 

I will do the one with the chicken thing on it:

 

 

If all goes to plan I will do this in parallel with the Hasegawa F-111G I got later (at an outrageous price) and see how the two kits compare. I'm doing the -G in the ANZAC group build and will get started on both this week.

[Thom216]

Nice, maybe we'll get a conspiracy of ravens!

Edited April 18, 2021 by Thom216

[Brad]

Excellent choice, welcome along.

[Jasonb13]

Excellent, looking forward to how you get on with this. I can't help but feel the Hasagawa one will go together easier!

[Jasonb13]

By the way, I should have said, I'm perfectly happy for you to lead this squadron! Have you looked closely at the instructions yet? There are parts in the box that I know where they go on the aircraft, but they're not in the instructions. There are parts in the instructions that are labelled, but have no directions to tell you where they go. There are parts in the instructions that aren't labelled AND don't tell you where they go!

[bianfuxia]

9 hours ago, Jasonb13 said:

By the way, I should have said, I'm perfectly happy for you to lead this squadron! Have you looked closely at the instructions yet? There are parts in the box that I know where they go on the aircraft, but they're not in the instructions. There are parts in the instructions that are labelled, but have no directions to tell you where they go. There are parts in the instructions that aren't labelled AND don't tell you where they go!

Haven't had a chance to get started yet. Hopefully this week!

[bianfuxia]

OK, we are out of the hangar and ready to start the engines.

 

First up:

 

 

There is considerably less plastic here than in the Hasegawa F-111G I just started today as well for the ANZAC Group Build:

 

But so far it's hard to say which is better. Of course one may look more accurate than the other - I don't know (or mind that much). But from the builder's perspective, it's much of a muchness. Of course, I am sure that is about to change. Or as the Hasegawa might say to the Esci feat. G-Sang, "things about to get SERIOUS".

 

 

Since the pic I've painted it all a base grey and now will rustle up some pics to work out what else to do in there. Given the simplicity of those seats and the whole cockpit area, I am planning to put pilots in. It will take four out of my Revell set but these are among my last big modern jet kits that still don't have any pilots, so I guess that's ok.

 

I also did this, to avoid the likely tail-sitting. The other half has the same so that's a total of four screws and blue tack right up front. I will then do a test and there is still plenty of room for more weight if needed.

 

 

 

 

[Brad]

Good start, looking nice.

[theplasticsurgeon]

5 hours ago, bianfuxia said:

I also did this, to avoid the likely tail-sitting. The other half has the same so that's a total of four screws and blue tack right up front. I will then do a test and there is still plenty of room for more weight if needed.

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't use any ballast when I built my Italeri issue of this kit.

[bianfuxia]

1 hour ago, theplasticsurgeon said:

 

I didn't use any ballast when I built my Italeri issue of this kit.

That's good to know. I'll see how it goes then!

[Jasonb13]

Nice start! I was wondering if it will need nose weight or not.

[bianfuxia]

25 minutes ago, Jasonb13 said:

Nice start! I was wondering if it will need nose weight or not.

I just instinctively add noseweight to everything - been burned too many times without it!

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

4 minutes ago, bianfuxia said:

I just instinctively add nose weight to everything - been burned too many times without it!

I built the AMT (Esci) F-111A a couple of years back and I added nose weight just in case as well

 

 

Looking forward to more progress

[Jasonb13]

Hey there... I just found this, thought it might come in handy.

 

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/7/4/5/154745-93-instructions.pdf

 

It's the Revell instructions for their version of the kit. It's already helped me, as it shows what to do with Part 20b in the main undercarriage (which isn't clear in the ESCI/ERTL instructions) and also what to do with part 27b in the main undercarriage, which isn't even in the instructions at all! 🙄

[bianfuxia]

 

Just did a bunch of painting of the white parts today. There are plenty of wheel struts and a few wheel bays to do. I did the same on the F-111G I am parallel building. 

 

Not very exciting but progress is progress!

[bianfuxia]

 

EF-111A left, F-111G right. 

 

My RAAF F-111G pilots are the same but I have tried to pose them in a different position. The fellow on the left I imagine is giving the thumbs up. Might have to modify the position of his left arm a bit.

 

The USAF guys in the EF-111A are also from the Revell pilot set though maybe not as good as the ones I used for the RAAF jet. The fellow on the right is....waving? I think I will lower their left arms a bit so they sit nearer the instrument panel area.

[Brad]

He might be "keeping up foreign relations"

[bianfuxia]

Made a little more progress on this one today.

 

I am working on my F-111G for the Anzac group build at the same time. So far, they've been much of a muchness. But the first serious construction step has already revealed the superiority of the Hasegawa kit. The two are basically identical in design for the nose section - the cockpit goes into two fuselage halves. The Hasegawa kit fit perfectly; the Esci one needed superglue and a strong grip to bring the two sides together at the area behind the cockpit.

 

 

Left side (pilots with gold visors) is Esci, the other is Hasegawa.

 

 

The interior is almost certainly not as accurate as it could be if you had more scratchbuilding skills (or motivation) than me.

 

Here's where I am up to now. Green is Esci, grey is Hasegawa.

 

That ugly glue spill on the green one was deliberate - I just wanted a bunch of glue to drip into that seam. It will be covered by the instrument panel coaming.

 

[Jasonb13]

Nice work, the pilots definitely add to it! I had the same issue with getting the fuselage halves to fit together...

[bianfuxia]

My pilots on my Hasegawa F-111G build are way too big or high-sitting or something. For this one, it's better and the canopy looks like it will close if I lower that guy's arm.

 

I'm waiting on the spray paint to come, but I have done the main u/c for both jets. Hasegawa left, Esci right. The Hasegawa version looks better and was easier to build (and as Jasonb13 noted above, the instructions on the Esci one weren't as clear. The green bit alongside the Esci part isn't marked on the sheet but it belongs on this unit. You can see the equivalent part on the hasegawa version. It's the big flat centre strut.

 

 

 

 

[bianfuxia]

Finally...I got some spraycans for the colours I want to use on this build. 

 

Here are the wing undersides. Still need to do the top. Yes, there is a bit of a seam there and I will probably not worry about it. Some paint in there will fix it up well enough.

 

Once the wings are painted, construction can continue. The Hasegawa kit is better for this because the wings just pop in as the last step. The flipside is they can't be swept like they can on this kit.

 

[Jasonb13]

Nice to see some colour on it! I have the same seam in the wings, and I'm as equally not bothered by it!

[bianfuxia]

this is the topside colour - Tamiya dark ghost grey. 

 

In the sun it looked a little bluer than this, so next time I'll photograph it outside.

 

With the wings now done I can move along with building the rest of the airframe. Let the sanding begin, I guess!

 

[bianfuxia]

I took a close look at the way this kit goes together today. In doing so, I managed to ruin the wing sweep mechanism. When I tried to remove one of the wings after testing it out, it was stuck as if by glue to the little pin the wing pivots on. In the end, that snapped off. Not exactly sure how I am going to salvage that one.

 

But the other thing I decided is that I can probably assemble the top and bottom halves of the main fuselage after painting them. There isn't really a seam, because the wings take up a lot of the space, and then the tailplanes will cover the join of the rest. I will obviously need to do some putty work to join the nose to the main body, as seen in Jasonb13's build. But I figure that it will be easier to sand that and respray with general masking over the wings than it will be to mask them carefully so that the spray doesn't get into the join area between swing wing and body.

 

So to test this out I sprayed the top (and one side of the tail) in Dark Ghost Grey. I photographed it outside in normal light to hopefully give a better sense of the colour.

 

 

[bianfuxia]

 

 

Now I've sprayed the bottom halves too. I still need to assemble the intakes (the parts are already sprayed) so there will almost certainly be some filling and sanding needed there, as well as when I join the front and rear fuselage together. I'll clean all that up and respray that area and hopefully it will be fine.