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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.
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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!
Murph
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