f111guru Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 (edited) Good day all. As the title suggests, this may turn into a series. May not follow any particular pattern or scale but one thing I do have is plenty of F-111 kits. In my 22 years in the USAF 16 of those were with the F-111. Starting with the FB-111A 509th Bomb Wing Pease AFB Portsmith New Hampshire. Most everybody has some knowledge of the F-111 so I won't go much that way. However, I will start with the F-111A from the beginning of its combat history. This was before my time but is near and dear to me. F-111A 66-0016 is a combat veteran from the first deployment to (SEA) south east Asia. It also is on display on Cannon AFB in its last modification of a EF-111A. Below is a summary of events of the first deployment: Having built a number of Academy and Hasegawa kits for others, I'm starting this one with the ending being in a diorama of the period. I chose the Hobby Boss F-111A because I want to correct the issues with the kit instructions and problems with the kit itself. Over the past several years I've collected a number of aftermarket parts for the F-111. Some I may use during this and will show them at that time. I've had a tug of war with myself to come up with a diorama subject. I've come up with a post flight diorama within a revetment at Takhli RTAFB Takhli Thailand circa 1968. Having not built one of the Hobby Boss kits, but have scanned the instructions for hours and have listed most of the problems. Read online those that have built one and have confirmed my thoughts. So I'll address those as needed. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker Edited October 11, 2021 by f111guru spelling 20 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffry M Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 Good Luck with this project. Looking forward to progress. Geoff M 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewolf Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 I think ot can honestly be said you are better placed than most to identify issues! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 You've got a pretty good collection of goodies there,I'll watch this build up , 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted October 10, 2021 Share Posted October 10, 2021 Excellent, I remember watching the F-111s at Lakenheath many times, fantastic place. Looking forward to seeing this build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 12, 2021 Author Share Posted October 12, 2021 Good day all. Back with an update. I had over the past number of years since Hobby Boss came out with the F-111's had purchase all the different models they produced. Once the box was open, one could see how tightly it was packed. Taking out all the sprue trees and doing a visual scan, Hobby Boss had thoughts at this point to produce other model types at a later time. There are more weapons than this model will use. About the only thing I'll use for my build is maybe the MK-82 GP bombs. The instructions have gone from long folded sheets to a booklet. With instruction at hand I started to write on the sheets what additional details to add. I also started to notice parts that should not be where Hobby Boss says to place. Below are things I noticed: These were just a few. So on with the assembly. Having finally deciding what I'm going to do I set off on the build. Armed with ziplock bags I set off removing parts from the trees to make sub assemblies. Marking them left wing right wing cockpit, etc. Having a built up left wing from one of my Hasegawa models. I compared wings. I white glued together the Hobby Boss wing and found the middle section of the vanes were molded backwards. The fatty part of the vane and flap track should be at the fuselage end of the wing. Thinking that the right would fit the left was tried and failed. The flap tracks don't line up with the wing. Here is the wing of a Hasegawa kit Apologies for the dust. Model has been in a cabinet since built(1997). Wings have warped. So the work will be ahead of me in due time. To start off I have to back date the kit. Meaning to remove the strip lights, slime lights however they are called. The lights were not added until later. So the lights had to be filed and sanded off the wing tips top and bottom. Forward fuselage below the cockpit. Aft fuselage on the engine bay doors and finally. On top of the fuselage aft of the module. Once done I cut out the service engine bay doors for the post flight inspection. As seen here I have white glued parts together to see how they fit. I'll be back again for another up date. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackman Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 It's always a treat when someone with first hand knowledge builds a kit. Looking forward to seeing more. By the way, I'm curious about how you're going to address the "windshield /area just forward of windshield" issue but perhaps at a later time when you are ready. No hurry 👍 https://finescale.com/sitefiles/resources/image.aspx?item={6B408EDC-3ACD-4D48-BB5E-F59CC6FD3081} https://finescale.com/sitefiles/resources/image.aspx?item={6160774D-84B4-4865-B195-7DA507D20A6F} 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 (edited) @Jackman That my friend is a great question and one I've pondered for years. I could bypass that issue all together, but that's not me. I do have a few options I've considered. I have 4 or more Academy kits in various stages of construction at hand. I've set the Academy canopy on the escape module and it fits some what okay. Also have the Squadron products or True Details vacuform canopy. It's still in its original packaging so I'll use it if I can't get the Academy canopy to fit. I will most likely file and sand the area for a more of a straight angle to the radome. The below picture is of the EF-111A and the F-111F at the USAF museum Dayton Ohio. So I have each side of the canopy, other kit canopies to work with and a lot of different books to address that issue. What I noticed in those pictures from the article and not reading the article. The builder followed the instruction to the letter. Weapons bay doors are not like that. They're suppose to look like this. This is a FB-111A from the mid 80's on the transient ramp Cannon AFB New Mexico. In this picture SAC uses the aux flap and the ribs are showing. Also in the picture is the fuel tank guide fins are not in a plus but an X pattern. Hobby Boss and Academy have their tanks in a plus pattern. This is planned for another F-111 project. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker Edited October 13, 2021 by f111guru thought pattern 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackman Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 Nice shot of the weapons bay door as well as the aux flaps. Here's the full article from where the windshield pics came from: https://finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/2010/03/hobbyboss-f-111a-aardvark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 Hello all. The below photo is the 1/72nd scale representation of what I'm going to try to achieve but in 1/48th scale. From there I'll continue on with a diorama base with what I think would have been there for equipment. This is the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale F-111A with model masters oil based paints and Micro Scale decals. I do have the Tow Bobs decals in 1/72nd scale also. On with the slow build. Weapons bay doors and gun enclosure. Simple enough, though Hobby Boss would have you attach part D8 and D9 to the bottom of D11 and D12 respectively. Parts D8 and D9 are not used at all. What I did was take part D12 and lightly scribed until it starting showing a line on the reverse side. Then scribed a straight line until I could fold it 90 degrees or there abouts to represent the open bay door. Having the left bay door some what finished I moved to start on the gun enclosure. I thought of using part D11 and parts C1 and C12 and gluing those flat against D11. But changed my mind due to far too many joints. I elected to use pare D10 instead. D10 is used to show the bay doors closed. To do the doors closed correctly, the builder would have to measure that part to get a half way point in the middle of the door and scribe a line down the middle to represent both doors fully. I did this and used the right side to form the gun enclosure. I used the Academy gun bulge and placed it forward the front and off cent to show where the gun was mounted. Also started the interior of the weapons bay and gun. Using tube and sheet polystyrene I built up the drum assembly. That's about it for today my friends. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Jackman said: Nice shot of the weapons bay door as well as the aux flaps. Here's the full article from where the windshield pics came from: https://finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/2010/03/hobbyboss-f-111a-aardvark Thanks for that. Eleven years ago and do not remember seeing that or remember the author. I arrived at Cannon in February 1980. I'm in edit mode. I do remember a Thomas or Tom. Young airmen was an Avionics troop and in the 524 AMU. He took a couple of models to a Forth Worth IPMS show for display and contest. He could be the same. Never knew his last name. I knew loads of people by first name and visual rec.Thanks again Ron VanDerwarker Edited October 13, 2021 by f111guru remembering things, old man problem 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Ron, The Academy gun fairings needs more work to be accurate as the rear seaction should bulge more in width and height. The gun door should also be closed as it only opened under hyd pressure when the gun was fired. Academy have moulded it open. Apart from getting the fin geometry wrong, Academy and HB both got the jug length completely wrong as these are really undersized. If you can get your hands on a a pair of the Revell-Monogram A-10 external tanks you should be pretty close Pappy 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Oooh, a One-Eleven! Following with interest, sir. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 @PappyFunny you should say that. I have 5 Monogram A-10 tanks. Four are in the FB-111A box to be another Vark project. The lone warrior will be used to update lengthen and fatten if need be. I did buy a set of tanks, wheel well, and FB update sets from OZ Mods a few years back. So should be fairly set to build both scales. I may attempt to do something with the 2 1/144th scale 0ne elevens in my stash. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 8 hours ago, Pappy said: Ron, The Academy gun fairings needs more work to be accurate as the rear seaction should bulge more in width and height. The gun door should also be closed as it only opened under hyd pressure when the gun was fired. Academy have moulded it open. Apart from getting the fin geometry wrong, Academy and HB both got the jug length completely wrong as these are really undersized. If you can get your hands on a a pair of the Revell-Monogram A-10 external tanks you should be pretty close Pappy Pappy, Somewhere I have a master plug on the gun fairing in 1/48th scale. I used the Academy fairing and measured and remeasured for 1/48th scale of the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale fairing. I have yet to discover where I put it. Mt original thought was it was with the master blanks for the F-4 and F-111 intake covers. These all were going to be vacuformed. The below photo is of the F-111A mounted on a stick at Nellis AFB Las Vegas Nevada. The nose rotates for firing and the back plate opens to vent exhaust gasses. The eyelet is the forward mount for the forward ECM pod rack. Another angle from the rear right. The next is a comparison of the differences between the Academy(top) and Monogram fuel tank. The second photo is the sprue of the Hobby Boos and the Monogram and Academy laid on top. So I have my work cut out for me when I get to that issue for the FB-111A that I have in mind. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 G'day Ron, Ref the Academy jugs, these look to have a better shape than the HB kit. The A-10 jugs look okay for length and general shape, the Academy items look a little crisper. Could you perhaps lengthen these by placing a plug in the centre (where the diameter is constant) from another Academy kit? One of the RAAF pigs shot itself when the muzzle door failed to rotate open. The round exited through the cockpit bulkhead near the Nav's head - new flightsuit please! cheers, Pappy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsaircorp Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 33 minutes ago, Pappy said: G'day Ron, Ref the Academy jugs, these look to have a better shape than the HB kit. The A-10 jugs look okay for length and general shape, the Academy items look a little crisper. Could you perhaps lengthen these by placing a plug in the centre (where the diameter is constant) from another Academy kit? One of the RAAF pigs shot itself when the muzzle door failed to rotate open. The round exited through the cockpit bulkhead near the Nav's head - new flightsuit please! cheers, Pappy Poor nav !! That's a hell of a bad joke... I Hope that he was'nt wounded ?? Hello Ron !! Serie build !! of F-111 !! By an expert with load of pics and advices !! WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE !! Thanks man !! May I take a seat at the bar, peering over your shoulder... Sincerely. CC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 19, 2021 Author Share Posted October 19, 2021 On 10/15/2021 at 2:37 AM, Pappy said: G'day Ron, Ref the Academy jugs, these look to have a better shape than the HB kit. The A-10 jugs look okay for length and general shape, the Academy items look a little crisper. Could you perhaps lengthen these by placing a plug in the centre (where the diameter is constant) from another Academy kit? One of the RAAF pigs shot itself when the muzzle door failed to rotate open. The round exited through the cockpit bulkhead near the Nav's head - new flightsuit please! cheers, Pappy Hello Pappy, I'm sure that was a surprise for the nav let alone the AC. I do recall but not fully sure if it was RAF Lakenheath in the late 70's or the F-111D at Cannon in the early 80's. Could have been both. The D and the F at the time still carried the gun and was part of both wings firing the M61. But a ball round took out a corner of the nose cover and a chunk bounced four or five time along the bottom fuselage heading forward. The right nose gear door had to be replaced because 3 large chunks of metal were missing. On 10/15/2021 at 3:13 AM, corsaircorp said: Poor nav !! That's a hell of a bad joke... I Hope that he was'nt wounded ?? Hello Ron !! Serie build !! of F-111 !! By an expert with load of pics and advices !! WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE !! Thanks man !! May I take a seat at the bar, peering over your shoulder... Sincerely. CC Hello CC, Sure grab a seat, a beer and a hefty bag of popcorn if your into that. Welcome to have you and anyone else who wants a seat. I'm not speedy at this sort of thing but will progress as fast as my feeble mind will let me. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 19, 2021 Author Share Posted October 19, 2021 Hello All, Not a lot accomplished this past weekend. I did however, get to test fit the engines in the fuselage. My mind tells me to use a length of PCV pipe and cast those parts that are seen from the kit. This jet will be in a diorama of the post flight operations a crewchief does. Both engine bay doors up and locked to do his inspection checks after flight. I did some minor work on those doors. I have lots of work still to do to make them look like the lower photo. This happens to be of an FB-111A that past through Cannon AFB in the mid 80's. Also did some small work on the cockpit. Starting with the rear bulkhead. Up toward the top are 2 small depressions and I drilled those out. Those are holder for a thermos for each crew member. In the verlinden F update set and the Eduard Interior sets have the brackets to hold the thermos in place. Other work to be done is to cut out toward the bottom of the center lighting panel an indented switch panel and door. There again the Verlinden does and Eduard does not have this panel. In the lower part of this photo it shows part of that door. So some progress has been made but not much. I'm still working to get my work shop completed so I can paint when it comes time. Then I should gain some speed on this build. As previously said I think. I have plans for all the models of F-111 I worked on. I came across these Scaledown F-111 external fuel tanks I purchased from Ozmods some years back. With this in mind, I did a comparison with the Monogram A-10 kit tank. The lower photo shows the A-10 tank on top. So without having a tank to do a measurement test the A-10 tanks I have will do for the FB-111A diorama set for the future. All for now folks. Happy modelling. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 (edited) Here's a post of mine comparing tanks (and I'm relieved to see that your image agrees pretty well with my conclusions: (sorry, scroll down to the image, not very far. Note that the actual measurements (per GD drawing) are given a bit further down the page) Edited October 19, 2021 by gingerbob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 19, 2021 Author Share Posted October 19, 2021 @gingerbobWing tanks and the FB style weapons pylons were always a thorn in my side for most of the manufacturers. Hasegawa in 1/72nd scale got it closer than anyone else. Same goes for the fuel dump mast. The FB again being different. These I made some four or more years ago from the Academy kit. Over the years the noses curled some what. Somewhere in my parts bin I have 1 Academy fuel tank that I cut 8 ways. Down the full length, front joint tail joint and the fins. Completely made larger fins, placed a 80 thousands sheet plastic in the horizontal cur and the fitted seam. Added a PCV cut section and glued it all together. Trimmed and sanded. But it still looked out of shape. So I'll take your dimensions and see how close the Scaledown tanks are. Thanks for the page and the dimensions. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/14/2021 at 3:10 AM, Hook said: Oooh, a One-Eleven! Following with interest, sir. Thanks and I'll try to keep it interesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 Hi again folks, Back with a small update. Not really a whole lot accomplished but some bits and bobs assembled. I did assembly the nose wheel well and gear. This has to be assembled before the nose wheel well is added to the forward fuselage section. I may very well in a future build attempt to make it the where I can wait until after painting to add the nose gear and main gear as in the Academy kit. Time will tell. Another angle to show the detail. Also added a set of throttles and ejection handles to the cockpit. I'm thinking about adding to the inside of the lower control stick area a small rectangle to simulate the water pump the control stick is used in the event of a water landing. This is what we were told in the indoctrination of the F-111. It is seen from the outside with no one in the cockpit. Assembled the main wheel well. A different angle. Had done some deep thought to make the main wheel well more accurate. That thought was to use the Hasegawa main wheel well to make an inside arc or convex arc to simulate the inside portion of the intake tunnel. Winds were calm in the high desert of New Mexico so I broke out the airbrush and painted the wings to get ready to trim and cut the flap vanes to make them the correct direction in the wings. I have multiple sizes of evergreen channel and I beam to make the flap tracks. This is why I painted those also. At the beginning of this WIP, I was going to make this into a diorama and to to that make it as real as possible. The next few photos are of equipment the aircraft would have installed after flight. These are from G-Factor and are intake covers for the F-111. I've trimmed these to fit the Hobby Boss intakes and painted.th Way back when I made these for making vaccuform intake covers. All the previous aircraft I made for others had these in place. Have not vaccuform any for the Hobby Boss intakes. So I don't know if they fit or not. They do fit the Academy intakes. About all that was accomplished in the last week or so. Another update when I can. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 Nice start of a potentially huge project! I like those tanks!! As obvious a Aardvark nerd, what are you going to do about canopy and nozzles? I see you have at least 2 sets of resin nozzles... G-factor and Ozmods? I guess you are aware of the new Reskit gems! and there is an interesting replacement part for the intake/ airbrake section!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted October 24, 2021 Author Share Posted October 24, 2021 4 hours ago, exdraken said: Nice start of a potentially huge project! I like those tanks!! As obvious a Aardvark nerd, what are you going to do about canopy and nozzles? I see you have at least 2 sets of resin nozzles... G-factor and Ozmods? I guess you are aware of the new Reskit gems! and there is an interesting replacement part for the intake/ airbrake section!! Yes I am aware of the problems with the canopy and engine nozzles but hope to remedy that with some after market replacements. I did get a couple OzMods/Scaledown afterburner kits. Still have to use the tail feathers with these. I was hoping that G-Factor would reproduce their afterburner set but as of this writing have not. So in the near future I'm inclined to purchase a few F-111A-E and F afterburner kits from Reskit. I do have 2 sets of F engine afterburner castings from Xtra Parts a very long time ago. Now as for the canopy and the front of the cockpit. I'm again inclined to fill, sand and shape to get the angle near correct. I have a True Details or Squadron product F-111 vaccuform canopy. Still in the bag and untouched. Some 20 or more years ago I bought up a great number of canopies and wheel sets from those 2 companies. Also may have 6 or more F-111F update sets from Verlinden. All these were on sale so I bought them. Below is the nose and main wheel well set from OzMods/Scaledown. I may use them in a FB-111A build. They're some great detail to work with and the opening for the original built in boarding ladder is there. Only once did I see one boarding ladder extend in flight and quite often we had the peg extend during flight. The peg fit the slot of the ground boarding ladder. Which brings up a ladder kit from FlightPath. I also have a number of (Hoping to reissue the Italeri Ground Crew Set) boarding ladders made up and ready. I have been over the years making stuff for a couple of aircraft I started when the Academy company issued there first F-111. These below are forward equipment bay panels I made some 30 or more tears ago. They are made from thin brass and lined with sheet plastic. I am a aardvark nerd and very proud of it. Not and expert by any means but try to put as much detail as possible into every build. All The Best, Ron VanDerwarker 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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