Hello ARC this is my newest build, a 1/48 scale model replica in honor of the
original F-111's deployed during the Vietnam war way back in the late 60's. The
first operational missions of the initial 111's was codenamed "Combat
Lancer". There were initially six F-111's deployed from Nellis AFB to the
Royal Thai airbase at Takhli, Thailand. This model carries the 66-0016 serial
number flown by Lt. Col. Dean Salmeier and Maj. Charlie Arnet and was among the
first F-111's to fly a combat mission against the North on March 18, 1968.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The Model Kit I used here
was fun to build because it left a lot of details to the builder's
imagination, this was a Chinese kit, which is a clone of the academy kit,
however the instruction manual is a little vague and the exact
placement of the parts could not really be determined because of
lack of locating holes on the plastic, aside from this the fit was not so
good as seen on the pictures, I had to use a lot of putty and eons of sanding
jobs. I had to scratchbuild the cockpit and the wheel details including
hydraulics and gear details.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The paint job was done with an
airbrush using Tamiya acrylics, I used partly water colors and chrome silver for
weathering. Over-all this was a difficult build but the outcome was well worth
the while.
Robert
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