W3lly_Nightraider Posted September 28, 2024 Posted September 28, 2024 (edited) Greetings from the beautiful island of Malta, right in the heart of the Mediterranean! I present to you my HobbyBoss 1:48 General Dynamics F-111C Aardvark, which was built using the FB-111A tooling with decals from Hawkeye Models. The kit is painted as Aardvark A8-132, which began flying as a test platform with the RAAF's Aircraft Research & Development Unit (ARDU) from 1979 to 1998. The Pig now sits on public display at the South Australian Aviation Museum in Port Adelaide, Australia. One fun fact about this airplane was that 132 participated in the 2007 Red Flag exercise while wearing the overall grey colour scheme, in which she flew with No.1 Squadron RAAF, the ‘Fighting First’. A website article and build video can be accessed via these links here: https://malcsmodels.wordpress.com/2024/03/30/building-hobbybosss-148-f-111c-aardvark/ In April 2024, I participated in a model exhibition organised by my local IPMS on the island at the Malta Maritime Museum in Birgu with the 111, where I was presented with the Medal for the Highly-Commended Award. Edited September 29, 2024 by W3lly_Nightraider Addition of photos 34 6
Bell209 Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Nice! I really miss seeing these in the skies. Yours is a nice tribute, although I do really like the original SE Asia scheme most of them are statically displayed in now. A8-132 has its ARDU scheme of two greens, tan and white. 1
Pete in a shed Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Gorgeous. Fabulous work on all those open panels and the ensuing detailing. Pete 1
Tomcat101 Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Nice pig! I like the open electronics bay. The F-111 was a great sight to see at airshows. I remember as a kid watching them do 'zippos' where the F-111 would jettison fuel between the engine exhausts and then ignite it resulting in a 30-50 foot fiery plume behind the aircraft. Awesome. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. 1
Scooby Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Great build, worked around F-111s a few times, brings back memories. 1
W3lly_Nightraider Posted September 29, 2024 Author Posted September 29, 2024 6 hours ago, Tomcat101 said: Nice pig! I like the open electronics bay. The F-111 was a great sight to see at airshows. I remember as a kid watching them do 'zippos' where the F-111 would jettison fuel between the engine exhausts and then ignite it resulting in a 30-50 foot fiery plume behind the aircraft. Awesome. Thanks for bringing back some good memories. It was described as a 'dump and burn', the crazy trick that the 111 had up its sleeves!😍
exdraken Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Very nice one!! Congrats! The long wing F-111 are the sleeves ines 1
kapam Posted September 29, 2024 Posted September 29, 2024 Extremely impressive F-111!! The commendation award was well deserved! 👏 I'm sure I've read somewhere why the aircraft is nicknamed "pig", but I can't remember the reason. 😬 1
Model cobber Posted September 30, 2024 Posted September 30, 2024 Very nice. Love the camo finish. Ill have a look at the build video Regards, MC 1
W3lly_Nightraider Posted September 30, 2024 Author Posted September 30, 2024 7 hours ago, kapam said: Extremely impressive F-111!! The commendation award was well deserved! 👏 I'm sure I've read somewhere why the aircraft is nicknamed "pig", but I can't remember the reason. 😬 It's because of the way the snout on the nose was designed and that the Aussie 111s were equipped with a Terrain-Following radar. That's why the RAAF Aardvarks nicknamed the "Pig" by aircrews and ground technicians
russ c Posted September 30, 2024 Posted September 30, 2024 Great looking F-111 there, really nice work 1
RedhillPhil Posted September 30, 2024 Posted September 30, 2024 9 hours ago, kapam said: Extremely impressive F-111!! The commendation award was well deserved! 👏 I'm sure I've read somewhere why the aircraft is nicknamed "pig", but I can't remember the reason. 😬 Because of the shape of the nose it was referred to by the U.S. operators as the "Ardvaark", an African animal that finds it's food by rooting around in the ground. Ardvaark is Afrikaans for earth pig. The Aussies simply shortened it to pig. The U.S. ECM version became the Sparkvaark. 1
W3lly_Nightraider Posted September 30, 2024 Author Posted September 30, 2024 8 hours ago, RedhillPhil said: Because of the shape of the nose it was referred to by the U.S. operators as the "Ardvaark", an African animal that finds it's food by rooting around in the ground. Ardvaark is Afrikaans for earth pig. The Aussies simply shortened it to pig. The U.S. ECM version became the Sparkvaark. The EF-111A's official name was the Raven. The latter was nicknamed "Spark-Vark" because it was an F-111A Aardvark airframe fitted with an AN/ALQ-99 Electronic Countermeasures system.
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