Academy's F-111A (WIP)

Will be watching this. I recently finishged the Italeri 72nd 111A in the same unit markings as the one on your box, will be looking forward to seeing your progress.

Hoo-Rah! I used to work F-111 and EF-111s during the Gulf War and several subsequent deployments. Really HUGE, really cool aircraft. Watching them take-off in full afterburner at night was incredible...have fun building the kit, because structurally, the real aircraft was a #@$&% to work on!!!

I built an old Airfix 1:72 F-111A a few years ago...it turned out pretty nice.

I look forward to seeing your progress!

have you tried to remove the paint with a cleaner/degreaser

The earliest kit of the F-111 I remember was the Revell kit of the F-111B (as in Bravo). At the time of the F-111 development the Government had a requirement that all air craft be usable by all of the services, that is the USN, USMC, and USAF, e.g. the F-4. The F-111 B was the Navy version. As it turned out the aircraft was to heavy and to large for carrier operations. The project was the TFX project and it was the first operational variable geometry (swing wing) aircraft to go into production. The aircraft has a lot of "NEW" technology incorporated into it and it went through a lot of developmental growing pains, e.g. the swing wing, crew ejection capsual, ground folowing radar, and a lot more. It survived several attempts by Congress to scrap the project and history has proven the aircraft a great success. I look forward to your build.

I'll definately follow along closely on your build.

Toshi

I love the F-111. That's the planes we had and maintained when I was in the AF in the late 80's. We had the -D versions and our sister base had the EF models. Such a cool aircraft, far underrated in my opinion. Gonna love watching this one come together.

Here's a quick update thus far. Got a little done over the weekend and today on my day off.

So far I have found the plastic to be quite soft, easy to cut and the gluing with Tamiya thin is like WOW. Melts like butter! 

Mostly just the typical scraping seam lines and sanding to fit. One peice I did have a little problem with was the beam in the middle of the rear landing gear. The instructions weren't all that clear, but after quite a bit of grinding and dry fitting, I believe I have got it right.

Here are the sub-assemblies so far:

Thanks for looking, hopefully have more in a week or so!

Nice start, everything looks great.

Toshi

Looking very swell. I like the buildability of Academy kits a lot.

On the bench: Academy 1/72 F-117.

Nice start indeed. I need to watch this one. 

rangerj

The earliest kit of the F-111 I remember was the Revell kit of the F-111B (as in Bravo). At the time of the F-111 development the Government had a requirement that all air craft be usable by all of the services, that is the USN, USMC, and USAF, e.g. the F-4. The F-111 B was the Navy version. As it turned out the aircraft was to heavy and to large for carrier operations. The project was the TFX project and it was the first operational variable geometry (swing wing) aircraft to go into production. The aircraft has a lot of "NEW" technology incorporated into it and it went through a lot of developmental growing pains, e.g. the swing wing, crew ejection capsual, ground folowing radar, and a lot more. It survived several attempts by Congress to scrap the project and history has proven the aircraft a great success. I look forward to your build.

 

And according to my Dad, who flew a few of those, nobody liked them.  The fighter jocks kept calling them a bomber, hoping to pawn them off on the bomber squadrons, and the bomber guys kept saying they were a fighter, hoping to dump them on the fighter squadrons. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Here is my update, thanks for your patience gents. I have gotten the office pretty much painted and ready for assembly. I attempted to apply highlights and am contemplating doing a wash over it all. Any thoughts on that? Here are all the parts for the cockpit:

Here is the front control panel. I like how it turned out. The color gauges are just to busy it up, not for accuracy. I used a toothpick to drop some Pledge into the radar/scope areas. Basically the whole panel was painted then lightly sanded to reveal the raised areas.

The seats were not that great for this kit, but it is what it is. I really like how the head rests came out. Vallejo flat red as a base, then vallejo fire red dry brushed:

The other control panel done the same as the main, painted then sanded back.

The rear bulkhead is pretty plain. Med gray then drybrushed with lighter for some highlights:

Thanks for looking in, hopfully these will all be glued up for my next update soon!

Wonderful.  The Vietnam era jets are my favorite jets.

Great work so far on the pit...look forward to seeing more.

Keep having fun!

Cheers,

Martin :)

Thanks, Bish. The control panels came out a lot better than my last attempt on an F-100.

I have applied a wash and topcoated. I'm going to assemble it and get a pic up soon.

Thanks, UK and Chris.

I've gotten th cockpit completed:

I think this is my personal best, it's a good feeling to have it turn out this well. Now to get the rest of this bird to turn out as well. Thanks for looking in, and for any comments/constructive criticism.

Bish, I see what you're saying. I did dry brush the olive drab areas, but I may have been too reserved. However it does show up a little more than in the pics.

Having the cockpit turn out so well (IMO). I couldn't let these holes get by on the front landing gear. I used Vallejo Plastic Putty in the eyedropper bottle. Has anyone used this before? How long should one wait before cutting or sanding it back? It's the first time using anything like this, just my attempt at producing a better model.

Well, the Vallejo Plastic Putty works excellent. I sanded and used the back of an x-acto knife to shave off the excess after about 30 mins. After applying a coat of Vallejo primer, I am very happy with the results.

The small imperfection at the bottom hopefully will be covered by the wheel itself.

mailwalker

Well, the Vallejo Plastic Putty works excellent. I sanded and used the back of an x-acto knife to shave off the excess after about 30 mins. After applying a coat of Vallejo primer, I am very happy with the results.

 

The small imperfection at the bottom hopefully will be covered by the wheel itself.

 

That looks like it turned out great. I, myself, have not used the Vallejo putting in the eye dropper-style bottle; however, I do use the past from Vallejo quite a bit. I also have a tube of the Deluxe Perfect Plastic Putty that I'm looking forward to trying.

I have the Academy EF-111A in 1/48 that I will be starting soon. I was surprised when I opened the box (I bought it off of eBay) to find that the seller included several extra sprues of parts for the F-111 series as well as a fret of photo etch.

jelliott523

I was surprised when I opened the box (I bought it off of eBay) to find that the seller included several extra sprues of parts for the F-111 series as well as a fret of photo etch.

jelliott523, That's much better than the surprise I got from my F-111A Ebay purchase (kit was painted, But I'm dealing with it). I have the Perfect Plastic Putty also. Never tried it yet either, but I really like the Vallejo products.

I have gotten a little more done. And today after spilling half a bottle of A. Mig Enamel thinner  I tried my hand at applying washes. I'd really like you guys opinion on this. And I will say that after this attempt I have a newfound respect and admiration for those of you who have mastered this process. It seemed like every time I would try to correct something it only made it worse. Any tips?

Here are a few shots of the rear wheel well:

And the front wheel well:

And the landing gears:

I have gotten the weight into the nose for balance, superglue and steel fishing weights:

As I glued the halves together I let the landing gear free-float. Then glued it in place after the halves were together:

Thanks for looking in!