Subject: Re: F-111 build
From: "Steve Bamford" <[email-masked]>
To: "Murphy, Thomas J" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 16:50:19 -0800

----- Original Message -----
From: "Murphy, Thomas J" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 7:42 AM
Subject: F-111 build

Steve,
   My friend is searching for that F-15 photo, it will probably be early
next week before he can find it.  In the meantime, here's one on the
Hasegawa F-111, the two photos included are my preference for the big pics,
with thumbnails to follow.  Let me know if I'm getting on your nerves with
these submissions, but it seems that your Gallery is lacking kits in the
manly scale ;-)

Regards,
Murph
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THE AIRCRAFT

    Conceived in the McNamara Pentagon as an aircraft that was able to do
everything, the F-111 eventually overcame its well documented teething
problems and settled into a premiere single mission (interdiction) aircraft.
In USAF service it provided the "pointy edge of the spear" sitting Victor
Alert in Europe and strategic nuclear alert for SAC.  Fortunately it never
had to perform either of those missions for real; instead it saw
conventional combat in Vietnam, Libya, and Iraq before its retirement from
the U.S. inventory.  In service it had phenomenal range, TFR capability, and
terrific accuracy to perform its role.  On the debit side it had the usual
high wing loading, poor visibility, and limited air to air self defense
capability typical of strike aircraft of the time; although it's debatable
if these were shortcomings in its primary role.  More importantly it was
handicapped by the drastic changes in aircraft equipment during its
production run resulting in small numbers of five significantly different
types (F-111A, F-111D, F-111E, F-111F, and FB-111A) in USAF service at one
time. To say this had a less than positive effect on maintenance and
aircraft availability would be a gross understatement. There were also three
other versions that existed: the EF-111, which was a conversion of A models,
the F-111G which was a conversion of the FB-111A, and the F-111C which was
built for the RAAF, and is still in use today by that service along with
second hand F-111G's. The type that caught my interest, and that I decided
to model was the most effective USAF version, the F-111F, configured for an
anti-runway mission and in the markings of the Lakenheath Wing Commander.
In order to perform this mission the USAF bought the Durandal munition from
France and fitted it to the F-111 fleet.  It wasn't a very popular weapon
with those crews, to put it mildly, since it involved flying down a well
protected runway at generally known headings and heights in order to be
effective.  The F-111F fleet quickly dumped the weapon onto the E model
fleet, and they in turn got rid of it as soon as they could.  During the
Gulf War the USAF relied instead on medium altitude strikes with LGB's to
crater runways.  In addition I elected to hang some CBU's which would also
be dropped to provide unpleasant "surprises" for any runway repair crews.
Finally the inevitable self defense AIM-9P's were also mounted.

THE MODEL

    The Hasegawa 1/72 series of "Varks" has catered for every version of the
F-111 at one time or another.  It is an excellent kit with recessed panel
lines, well detailed cockpit, wheel wells, and intakes. I'm happy to say the
kit wings are not moveable, and I wish Hasegawa (and RofG) had done the same
for their Tornado kits. The wings are designed to be shown swept forward
with flaps and slats deployed; however, there is a guide on the inside of
the fuselage (not mentioned in the instructions) to cut along if the modeler
desires to show them swept back. This would involve a little bit of work on
the wings in order to close up the slats and raise the flaps, but it
certainly isn't too difficult.  The only problem I've heard about this kit
is that the Pave Tack pod is not totally accurate.  In addition the cockpit
does not include the Virtual Image Display.  This was the large hood
installed over the WSO's scopes that allowed him to simultaneously view
radar and Pave Tack video.  The kit itself was assembled OOB, with the only
extras being the weapons.  The fit was good throughout and the model was
ready for painting in relatively short order despite its complexity.  To
make painting easier I left the flaps, slats, nozzles, landing gear doors,
and the horizontal stabs off till they were painted and the kit decaled.
The weapons came from the kit (Durandal), Hasegawa's Weapons Set III
(AIM-9P), Hasegawa Weapons Set IV (AN/ALQ-131), and PP Aeroparts set AC726
(CBU-89).  The PP Aeroparts company has since gone out of business, and
while some of their molds have been picked up by Flightpath, the weapons
sets are unfortunately not among them.  During the mid-90's these sets were
the only source in 1/72 of many of the modern U.S. air to ground weapons
used in Desert Storm.  While many of these items are now done in the later
Hasegawa weapons sets, the PP Aeroparts sets (if you can get them) are still
the only source of Mk-82 AIR's in 1/72 scale.  The Durandals and CBU-89's
both required assembly in the form of attaching their fins.  In the case of
the CBU's this meant folding some etched metal and breaking out the CA glue
to attach them.  The ECM pod required modification to the "shallow"
configuration which meant cutting off the bottom, replacing it with sheet
plastic, and adding the lower antenna back on.

PAINTING AND DECALING

    The majority of the painting was done using Gunze Sangyo paints. The
only masking required, prior to painting, was the canopy, and that was done
with cellophane tape.  The wheel wells and wheel hubs were sprayed with
Model Master Matte White, then stuffed with tissue paper to prevent over
spray.  The radome was then sprayed with H2 gloss black and masked off with
tape.  The top side of the aircraft was done first, with the H310 (Tan
FS#30219) sprayed first.  This was masked off, then H303  (Green FS#34102)
was sprayed.  This also was masked, and finally H309 (Green FS#34079) was
sprayed.  The undersides were the last things to be painted; these were done
with the same gloss black as the radome.  All masking to this point, with
the exception of the radome, was done with paper masks based on the kit
painting instructions.  Being math challenged, I made these the proper size
by copying the kit instructions and enlarging them till they matched in size
outlines I had drawn of the wings, tail, fuselage, etc. prior to assembly. I
then cut out the various colors and applied them as masks.  The flaps and
slats were now masked, using cellophane tape, and the interiors were sprayed
with Model Master Matte White, followed by Tamiya XF-7 Matte Red.  Tamiya
gloss coat was applied to provide a base for the decals and allowed to dry.
The decals, as usual, are a mix of kit and aftermarket items.  The kit
supplied the formation strip lighting, while the unit markings and most of
the stenciling came from Xtradecal sheet X034-72 and Super Scale sheets
72-452 and 72-542.  The aircraft modeled was the Wing Commander's jet, "Miss
Liberty," whose markings were carried on several different tail numbers over
the years.  The most difficult part of the decaling was the multi colored
decal that wrapped around the fin tip.  Several cuts and large amounts of
Micro Sol were needed to get it looking right.  Once the decals had dried a
light coat of gloss was sprayed over the model to seal the decals.  While
all this was going on the weapons were also getting some attention.  The
AIM-9P's were initially painted matte white, then the forward section and
rear wings were masked off, and the body painted H308 (Light Ghost Gray
FS#36375).  The CBU 89's, Pave Tack, and the ECM pod were painted using
Polly Scale 505370 (Olive Drab).  The antennas on the pod were then painted
in Polly Scale 505080 (ANA 613 Olive Drab).  The Durandals were painted H330
(Dark Green) to match photos I had seen.  All these then had their stripes
and stenciling done from decals then sprayed with a matte coat.  The last
things to be painted were the still separate nozzles.  They were sprayed
with Testor's Non-Buffing Metalizers Titanium and Jet Exhaust.

FINISHING UP

   Several of the loose bits flaps, slats, glove vanes, and landing gear
doors were now attached using CA glue and Testors' Matte coat was applied.
Once the matte coat dried the wheels, weapons, and nozzles were added, again
using CA glue.  Being a Wing Commander's jet I elected not to weather the
model, since these aircraft are typically very clean.  Hasegawa's F-111
series sets the standard in accuracy in any scale for the Vark, and are an
easy build despite the large amount of parts: highly recommended!