50th Anniversary Vietnam War Group Build

I'm starting late but I'll join in with a 1/72  M113 ACAV,

Welcome aboard sir! An ACAV sounds perfect!

Thanks pawel. The ones that come with the Kora set does look like a standard MER and their guide says it only goes on the inner pylon with a TER on the second. I think I will just stick with that, I have already painted those 18 bombs anyway, so will save me doing the extra.

Another question for you guys. I would like to use an MHU-12 trailer to out a few bombs on. But the cradles that come with the hase set are not suitable for the MK 82's. Does anyone have any pics of these. If possible I would like to scratch build them, but if its to complicated I will just put the trailer out of sight off the edge of the base.

Bish, from what I have seen in photos, F-111s carried TERs or MERs at the same time if carried on all four articulated pylons, not a combination. Also, the MER type was actually an aircraft specific type, IIRC, that was slightly different from the standard generic MER.  

But I have no idea or info about your bomb cart question.

Thanks Stik. I just had another look at F-111.net and I can see the issue. They use BRU's instead of MER's and theres a pic which does show the difference, Kora have certainly included MER in there set. The kit pylons are MER's as well. But I think a bit of conversion is in order.

Thanks for all the help guys, sorry to be a pain in the butt.

And pawel, I just read your post on page 15 which mentioned the BRU's. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had just read that earlier. Thanks for the info.

Update time again. This last week has gone from really pleased with the progress and happy to be getting the paint on, to near disaster to a nice recovery I was really pleased with. I started out last Tues spraying the tan. This was foilloe by mask, first green mask again and second green, so by sat the top 3 colours were all on. Problem is I have never been able to get a soft edge finish using putty masks and I really wanted a soft edge on this. So I decided to freehand the edges using the hard edge as a guide with the fine tip on my airbrush.

Unfortunately I started having issues with the airbrush, with air blowing back into the cup and it not spraying until the needle was pulled well back. So I spent the best part of sat and Sun cleaning the airbrush, replacing the needle and washer and re tying several times. I finally decided to replace the tip, but while I have a spare, I don't have the tool to remove it (now that was god planning on my part). But I did have a spare head I have had for about 15 years from when I got my badger 150. So I replaced the head on my 2 year old badger 100 (go figure) and BINGO. The only thing I can think of is that I have been lazy lately in not cleaning the airbrush properly straight after spraying but leaving it till later. So I think the more rigorous cleaning has damaged the tip.

So, after all that, I got a soft edge I was really happy with an di think in future I will just ditch the masking, even at this scale.

So next up, which I will leave till Wed to be safe, will be masking and painting the black undersides, should be a breeze. (famous last words) 

I have also been working on those bomb racks. I took the two MER's from the kit, which were far from perfect and 2 from a hase weapons set, which are nice but then I have 2 resin ones to replace them, and converted them into what I think are passable BRU's.. In my defence (ok, poor excuse). I only had 2 pics of 48th resin ones both pics being from the side. So they are far from perfect, but they will be covered in bombs anyone.

Anyone want a wager on how long before someone releases some 72nd AM BRU-3's.

I put a coat of primer on just after taking these so they are now ready for paint. Another question (you knew it was coming) am I right in thinking these were white at this time period.

So that's it for now. I had hoped to start on the access ladders tonight. I got some PP areoparts ladders 20 or so years ago, I still have a few, the company is now gone. For some reason the F-111 ladders came as singles, I thought I had 2 but can only find one. So I have just ordered a set from Flightpath, they do come as a pair and funnily enough look identical to the PP ladders. So tomorrow night I will get to paiting the bombs, bomb racks and loader and try to pick out some figures.

The sides and sponsons have mounting holes and raised guides for the side skirts, these will have to be filled and sanded smooth as I won't  be adding the skirts

The interior also has raised supports which I cut and sanded smooth

I sanded the backs of the resin interior pieces to make sure fit is good

That's a nice looking interior. There doesn't seem to be much these AM companies don't cover now, I think this is the first 72nd AFV resin set I have seen.

That SEA camo is right on Bish! Not too soft but not razor sharp lines. What paints do u use again? I had similar issues on the camo for my F-100. Trying to get used to an airbrush with a smaller tip and my freehand skills suffered.

That SEA camo looks great Bish!

Bish, your Aardvark looks real good in warpaint so far. I am no expert on the BRUs, but I think that those will look the part.

EN, that 113 is coming along well!

I will get mine back up and going here tomorrow now that I have finished my other project...

Thanks guys. I have been working on my free hand camo over the last couple of years, mainly on my German aircraft with the mottling. It took several touch up's but I think this is my best yet.

Nathan, its Xtracolor enamels.

Great cam pattern Bish! Great start EqNeal...

Bish, those Xtracolor enamels are great to use. My only gripe about them is the slow drying time. But boy do they give a great finish, as your 111 shows so well!

Bish - I dunno, the colours just don't look right to me. Maybe it's the lighting? The edges are very nice, though, great airbrushing!

EqNeal - nice M113! What company does that interior?

Good luck with your builds and have a nice day

Paweł

Stik, thanks. The slower drying time doesn't really worry me as that's when I get to work on the base, figures, ground equipment etc. I generally find its touch dry in 24 hours max, I just leave it 48 before masking to be safe.

Thanks pawel. I am far from an expert on these colours. I used the right FS numbers from the Xtracolor range, but it is very possible they are not 100% accurate.

Hello!

What's up guys? I see this thread is getting pretty slow again?

I'm happy to report some progress - I painted the engines for my Whale:

I figured the engins will be hard to get at once installed, so I tried to put as much work as practicable in them before glueing them to the wings. Now I'm going to install them, fill a little gap on the leading edge of the wing and paint the whole aircraft light gull grey.

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Nice work on those engine. Defiantly seems a good idea doing them before fitting.

I will have an update before the end of the weekend. I got some pics a few days ago after all the painting was done. I have since added the decals and just finishing off the wash before getting some more.

pawel, I think I have seen what you mean about the colours. The lighter of the to greens seems to dark, there is not enough contrast with the darker green. This does look worse under my desk lights, and so in the pics, but even when not under that light, its to dark. Will have to work on that for next time.

Those engine pods are looking real good there Pawel... I have just been too busy with real life over the past couple of weeks to get ant meaningful bench time in... Maybe on my days off this week I will get the free time needed to make some progress worth posting on here.

Real nice engines Pawel!

stikpusher

Those engine pods are looking real good there Pawel... I have just been too busy with real life over the past couple of weeks to get ant meaningful bench time in... Maybe on my days off this week I will get the free time needed to make some progress worth posting on here.

Man, I hear ya' stik...you guys all know that I'm normally blasting away at the bench non-stop, but, with the job and trying to do college courses on the side, I'm suddenly swamped!! NO progress yet on the Crusader 

Another question for you guys. Were Remove Before Flight tags in use in the early 70's, and if so, does anyone know where they would be attached on an F-111. I can't find any pics of them.

Bish, this pic has loads of tags on the weapons of the F-111

commons.wikimedia.org/.../File:F-111_with_Durandal.jpg

Thanks Rob, that does help. I just hope I have enough tags.

So here is the promised update. first, from earlier in the week, all the decals are on, there were not many. And as I mentioned I was going to do before, I masked and painted the yellow tail stripe. There were no markings on the underside, I was surprised to see no star and bar, I assume that's correct.

Then it was onto the weathering. I am never sure what to do with modern aircraft, they always look so clean. So I just gave a light wash with Flory black and remove as much excess as possible. Then today I gave it a matt coat and added the wheels. This is my first time using Alclad varnish and this stuff is brilliant. I really like how it sprays and its so simple to clean up, much better than the Microscale I have been using for years.

I also added the covers over the opening for the wings to sweep back into. I used Tamiya masking tape on some very thin sheet styrene. Its been painted dark grey and still needs some dry brushing.

So that's it for now. next up, remove the tissue in the pit and add the bombs and exhaust cans. 

Super job Bish!  The camo turned out awesome!

Eagle90

Looks excellent bish..well done thus far!

Bish, that does look pretty sharp.

As far as weathering goes, on the F-111, you are correct is light weathering here. They were still pretty new and well cared for during their combat service period in Vietnam. They arrived near the end of the US involvement and did not have a long period of heavy operations. But other long serving warhorses did indeed weather to match anything else out there. At least those that survived long enough to do so.

I can see what you mean there Stik, they look well beaten. I have of course often looked at more modern aircraft, 80's/90's era, and notice how clean they are. And the F-15 I see every day all look extremely clean. But I guess that's the main difference between being at a peace time base where you may only get only get op deployments for a few months every so often and being in a conflict like Vietnam. And I imagine the climate was not helpful either.

I have been paying a lot of attention to the aircraft, ground equipment and even the markings on the taxiways since I started working at Lakenheath a few months ago, and even after 22 years in the forces, I have learnt a hell of a lot about modern aircraft and all that's need to support them. And building these kits certainly makes a nice change from building aircraft on the muddy Russian Steppe or the N African desert.

Thanks for the comments and all the help guys. I hope to have her done in a day or two.

Cold War aircraft in Europe are a whole different subject. Especially for the latter portion of the 70s & 80s. For that era most NATO aircraft spent their time in hardened shelters out of the weather when they were not involved in flight ops, or prepping or recovering from them. Those are much more conducive to an aircraft looking good for longer. At least all the tactical fighter & strike types were in the HASs. In south East Asia, they had pens to protect them from attacks, but they were open aired and still exposed to the tropical weather as well as those pesky mortars and rockets...

I'm looking forward to you having the Aardvark done here.