General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark

Martin o been planning this for a while so your article is a nice reference. also feel a little less confident now as your result will be tough to match

Bill Gilman Hi Martin, the entire build was documented in these articles:

https://britmodeller.com/for..dynamics-f-111b-beta-tomcat/

https://britmodeller.com/for..s-f-111b-beta-tomcat-part-2/

I hope these will be helpful in your project! Cheers, Bill

Martin o That is incredible! I was dreading all the research I would have to do for this and here it is all done! thanks

Bill Gilman Glad to be of some help. Cheers, Bill

Sergej I Bill, thanks for sharing. Also one of my future projects.

Hans Robben Just noticed there is a gun fairing included in my Academy F111E kit, I guess it is generic for all Academy kits. Maybe it is in the Hobby Boss F111A kit too, not in my F111D/E kit.

Slavo Hazucha I would also be interested to know if HB provided an alternative short wing for the "A" - you can check pic 6 in my Album for silhouette comparison if you want...

Soeren . I wouldnt count on it.
HB is making great kits, but also known for a lot of errors and mistakes.

But maybe I'm wrong

Soeren . The more frustrating part is that HB doesn't even consider the front and back hard points in.the kit....

Hans Robben The Academy kits have a representation of them including ECM pods but both pylon and ECM pod are not very accurate.

Soeren . Advantages and disadvantages
Where.the pods on pylons or directly on the frame?

Hans Robben On pylons:
f-111.net/models/ECM/index.htm

Soeren . Of course they are ....

Hans Robben The official painting guide, actual a/c will surely have slight variations of this:
[img1]

Augie Part of the Vark GB.

Slavo Hazucha Growing every day! And with the right stuff with the FB base model! Longer wings & stuff

Maciej Bellos Count me in!

Jos Jansen Iam in..!

Kerry COX Have you found the cockpit when you dry fit, it is not nestling in to a comfortable place. ?
You will have to do some 'modifications' to get it in the right position to eliminate any and all gaps that will happen.

Augie Paining at moment, not dry fitted, but think i can feel were its going to bind.

Kerry COX Your pace Augie. I will fill in the details as you go.
NO pressure.

Roland Sachsenhofer Interesting project! I will follow this- keep on the god work!

Augie One thing to note.. the HB instructions have you use the wrong intake for a FB-111 /G. They instruct to use the translational inlet.. not the one with blow in doors!

Augie So quick update, had to do a little repair work on the sides after installation of the weapons bays tore the sides out...

The other is my attempt to reproduce the internal exhaust, needs some fettling to get it in full

Michael Hickey Yeah there are a few now, it's great to see.

Michael Hickey Change of plans, going to bight of way more than I can chew... Off to do some electrical work for this beast, but I don't won't to give away to much just yet.

Donald Dickson II I dont know if I will be able to keep up with everyone's stuff. LOL

Slavo Hazucha The first one with power functions! Now I am curious

Michael Hickey Yes, and after being to Jaycar this morning and Bunnings I can honestly say what I have in mind just might come to reality.

Peter Hardy Is that five on the go now? Us spectators are going to be entertained delux!

Michael Hickey ummm, Pig, Grief, Hustler, not to mention my SLT-56 truck & trailer and half a helo on the back and my patriot missile that's been taking forever. Plus about 10 Fw 190's that are just about ready for the paint shop, but I.m defiantly not veering of to the left or right on the Pig.

Dave Flitton Watching

Slavo Hazucha I want to start an Australian F-111 in the next months and for the sake of contribution to good Austrian-Australian relationships, I do not want to mess-up anything important too badly

Hence the first round of questions:

1; I really like the clean swept-wing silhouette, but would prefer to do a normal gear-down/on the ground version, not in-flight. I saw some pics showing this setup, but is it a reasonable service-life situation config?

2; F-111C vs F-111G - I want a grey, late service one, is it OK to go for a normal C or were these the upgraded G versions?

3; I want to do a properly weathered (not Russian-neglect level, but as much as real life has dealt) specimen - any tips on a good plane/squadron that delivers in this field + can it be a C or is G needed?

Any further general tips/references - web, books, etc... warmly welcome, thanks in advance!

Nathan Dempsey I hate to be the first to respond as the Yank in the room, but the following site is a great resource. I've used it myself:

f-111.net/

Mathieu Duvivier Wathever the path you choose, Following this.
Have fun

Kerry COX The "Boneyard Wrangler" . | Album by RedRoo

Slavo Hazucha Thanks Nathan and Kerry, Mathieu welcome aboard!

Nathan, all nations are welcome to contribute - the source page is great indeed, already verified the "Boneyard Wrangler" there.

Kerry your photo session is a great help indeed - lots of details & I already look forward to new weathering techniques to achieve the slightly irregular fading of the grey!

So if I get this correctly I need an FB-111A model to start with - I want to use the Hobby Boss. Now I need to work out the differences to make it a "G"

Kerry COX The Hobby Boss is the 'G', as it has the longer wings than the 'Ardvark' which had the wings 12" shorter.

Thomas Hopfensperger Hello mates, this is made in 1996....

Janne Eklund I got this nightmare for free... :-D

Greg Baker Ohh... sign me up!

Erik Leijdens Going big Jos!! Great subject, looking forward to your progress mate.

Jos Jansen Haha ... me too Erik, unfortunately I don't always have much time to build. I do have a lot of inspiration (and kits) My work is time-consuming ...!

Palo M To je snad jeden z mala čo som ti nerozbil. Či si zle pamatam?

Scott Roach Looking for this kit. I have found one but need a second. Making the Australian version of the two options in the box.

Tim Mansfield With Italer I kit.
[img1]
[img2]

Tim Mansfield [img1]
[img2]

Calvin Gifford

Ekki Watching.

Łukasz Gliński Welcome. Your interest made me feel obliged to upload some pics. Sorry, but I lost the picture of the kit before the cleanup.

Cuajete Following another AARDVARK from Esci. Good luck on restoration!

Łukasz Gliński Canopy ready for closing, stay tuned

Cuajete That cockpit looks great,

Łukasz Gliński Gracias seńor

Łukasz Gliński Finished! I added few macro pics at the end, so you can see more details and errors

Cuajete Very nice restoration, Łukasz. Well deserved second chance! Congrats.

Łukasz Gliński Gracias my friend

Cuajete

Scott Dutton Ohhh my beating heart, the pig at Amberley in GS grey, I'm following

Peter Hardy The C model. The real one, with the proper wings!

Scott Dutton Proper wings, remind me, the longer ones? I think we went shorter ones in the end, I recall them doing fatique test on them at work and thought went shortter then, so had both on these, but no expert and horrible memory

Peter Hardy C model had the longer wings. Don't know what the advantages or disadvantages were

Ekki Watching,

Peter Mollenhauer ..watching..

Cuajete Me 3

Łukasz Gliński Me 4 - currently revivinng my own too

Marko Trnski Decals and canopy only

Patrick Hagelstein Pictures pleasssssssse....

Günther Debiscop i agree

Cuajete And I.

Ekki Me too.

Dave Flitton Yes! Yes! Pictures

Thomas Hopfensperger first i have to make pics, never made them in 20 years!

Patrick Hagelstein Awww...

Thomas Hopfensperger Awwwegschossn! Nailing the camo-pattern and detailing the intakes took most of the time, i think.

Cuajete Very nice, Thomas. Congratulations!

Patrick Hagelstein Really nice!!!

Erik Leijdens Really nice project mate. Definitely following!

Patrick Hagelstein Following!

Van Lee I look forward to seeing the finished product

playtime 222 In my stash so watching this one.

Clifford Keesler Thank you all.

John E Very nice job, Clifford!

soheil moghisi very nice job.

Clifford Keesler Thank you mates.

Dutch Beautiful work Clifford. I intend to build mine as an F-111F with 366th TFW markings. Glad to know it goes together well. Keep up the great work. R/ Dutch

Choppa Nutta looks good Cliff !

Stephan Ryll oh it seems I missed that nice Aardvark - great job Clifford

Clifford Keesler Thank you all very much. Your kind words are much appericated. @ Dutch, look forward to seeing yours.

Ekki Following.

Bill Gilman I'll be relying heavily on Tommy Thomason's excellent F-111B monograph for instructions on how to do this properly! Using the Hasegawa FB-111 as a starting point limits me to just a couple of the F-111B prototypes, mainly due to the intakes. First problem - my Hasegawa FB-111 is already built, and painted in a nice SAC bomber scheme. I think I'll get out my bottle of Testors ELO (Easy lift Off), remove the paint and try to get back to the bare plastic. One of these days I'll do something easy, really I will.

Bill Gilman Ignore the previous comment from 2013! This will now be a new build using the Hasegawa F-111C/G kit. My FB-111A is free to live another day.

Kees Kleijwegt Nice subject Bill, following with interest!

Bill Gilman I've wanted to build the F-111B for a long time, but I didn't want to use just the old Revell kit. Now that I've collected enough stuff, I can finally start.

playtime 222 Tomcat Beta Version I'm in.

Clifford Keesler Following.

Rex Bill, will this be the Revell nose on the Hasegawa base kit? I was once searching for the proper base kit, but, forgot which one I was looking for because it took me so long. I have a Revell kit in the stash, waiting for its turn in a few years. I will be watching your build for guidance.

Bill Gilman Hi Rex, I'll be using a resin nose from Pete's Hangar (Australia). This is long out of production, but it is a better starting point than the old Revell kit. Its radome is quite misshapen. What I will use from the Revell kit are the boat tail and the speed bumps (those pointed fairings inboard of the tailplanes).

Burkhard D Whoa, count me in

Rex Ahh, cool. I missed Pete's nose and decals back then. Two or three years ago, right? I had Tommy sign his F-111 book at the Nats. He wrote "Rex, if both live long enough, there may be a 1/72 conversion for these." But, lol, I think both Tommy and I would have to live to 112 years old for him to have the time to design and release that conversion.

Augie Hehe one day bill it will be easy, but I will be watching your master work on this one

Bill Gilman Just in case, I made a resin mould of Pete's nose...and several copies.

Tim Mansfield Build thread
arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/151917-tims-f-111a/

wilky I'm jealous. I haven't been able to afford this kit yet

Scott Dutton Think mine came from swap meet. Hoping Verlinden fits it, well the cockpit anyway

Łukasz Gliński Interesting

Ekki Quite

Dave Flitton Watching this!

Mark Medwell Me too, the hasegawa kit looks nice...

Glenn . These are nice kits and go together well. I've done a F-111C in old 3 tone and a F-111G in the grey. But have many more in the stash. I want to do in various special tail art markings! And a RF-111C plus some USAF ones as well. Oh and a navy prototype!

Daniel Mysak Hi Didi. Good choice I started with de australian Super Hornet yesterday.

Glenn . Hi guys if your looking for good images of Aussie aircraft check this link!
https://images.defence.gov.a..efence%20Imagery/?q=Aircraft
Cheers

Brian Joy Bargain..£2.99 in Charity shop

Aris aka Amen Great scheme for an F-111. Lovely model too. Any problem with the photos why they all rotated?

Łukasz Gliński Very nice Vark indeed

Roland Sorne Thanks for the nice comments guys.
Dark brown wash weathering was stained which creates good results and also I toned down the paints that I used instead of dark tan I used light Tan so as the greens.

Bryn Crandell Very nice! Great work on the pre-shade and overall appearance. Looks like it has some road miles.

Burkhard D Very well done!

Dick Hunter Beautiful! Looking at the pictures I had no idea that it is 1/72 scale. I love the paint work

Soeren . Great work!

John Pouch Nice looking "Vark", being at Cannon AFB at the time if I may suggest that the upper part of the tail was painted in their respected squadron colors, 524th was yellow and that squadrons "fireballs" colors was red. Other than that she looks ready for a Red Flag mission.

Roland Sorne Thanks again for the nice words guys.
John actually my first plan is for LN Lakenheath markings since the decals is old & fragile it didn't work well so I switched to CC Cannon AFB
but through Hasegawa intructions it's bright blue on the upper tail. Thanks for the info.
Dick, that Aardvark is a huge plane I saw an RAAF Vark in Singapore air show in 2012 she's really huge in dark grey scheme.