Steppin' up - Steppin' to one side !

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Got an Esci F-111A and (somewhere) a Hasegawa F-111E. Will probably do the Esci one - will almost definitely be RAF. The question then arises, which camouflage pattern ??

Glossy Dk Grn/Dk Sea Grey/White - Initial scheme, short lived from 1970-71.
Glossy Dk Grn/Dk Sea Grey/Lt A/c Grey - Second scheme 1971-75.
(as above, matt) - From 1975-1982.
Wraparound Dk Grn/Dk Sea Grey - 1982 to 1995.
Matt Dk Grn/Dk Sea Grey/Black (for 'Black Buck II' missions).
NATO Grn/Lichen Grn 1995 - retirement 2005.

Oh decisions, decisions....

Ian

[pyro-manic]

Anti-flash White?

[Mossie]

Just to add to the decisions....

Desert Sand Op Granby
Raspberry Ripple
Overall Camouflage Grey Op Telic
Late service Dark sea grey topsides over Dark Camouflage Grey
Overall Camouflage grey with replacement parts in Medium Sea Grey, extended past retirement for War on Terror (not sure what our Operation name for it is)
That just about covers the lot, apart from a pre-Raspberry Ripple RAE scheme which you can pretty much make up yourself!

Euro I, a non-RAF option that's subtle but different would be Euro I.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Mornin' Pyro & Simon

Anti-flash white was phased-out in the early to mid sixties, therefore is prior to the F-111 in service date of 1969 (?) - I have this from the authority on all things nuclear - The EKFG - Truth is I'd asked him about this 'scheme' for another (and still very secret) project that I have lined-up.

Yep considered the 'Granby Pink' scheme, but rejected it, as someone else (Falcon ?) did that, I know Chris did a (very nice) Aden scheme F-111 aswell, which looks superb, and (Uncle) Mike McEvoy did a pre-Rapberry Ripple ETPS machine in Light A/c Grey with dayglo orange stripes. Think the masking would be very complicated for the RR scheme, so rejected that too. Greys..... not really, easy to do, but not nearly as satisfying.

ATM, I simply cannot decide. The third scheme (1975-82) would be easy to do, I'd use the Tornado camouflage pattern as a template, and could use any squadron markings from the Tonka to brighten it up.

Oh the responsibility !

Ian

[Army of One]

Ian.....Black Buck 2 missions........with some ordanance under the wing.......great colour scheme and prob look as mean as hell.......H

[nev]

Early 70s full colour roundels in glossy green/grey/grey it is then

[Riksbar]

Not to mention temprorary Earth/Tan wraparound for Red Flag 78 or snow camo over grey/green.

[GTX]

Yep considered the 'Granby Pink' scheme, but rejected it, as someone else (Falcon ?) did that, I know Chris did a (very nice) Aden scheme F-111 aswell, which looks superb, and (Uncle) Mike McEvoy did a pre-Rapberry Ripple ETPS machine in Light A/c Grey with dayglo orange stripes. Think the masking would be very complicated for the RR scheme, so rejected that too. Greys..... not really, easy to do, but not nearly as satisfying.

Oh, I don't know - might be nice to see another F-111 in these markings:



Maybe someone else?

Regards,

Comrade Gregorski (Commissar of all F-111 GB things)

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Along with my two builds for the Vive la France GB, I started my 'Pig' yesterday morning. Only glued together the wings and rear fuselage - lots of clamping needed to stop them springing apart. Also dug-out the decals, two Modeldecal sheets caught my eye forget the numbers, but one has about eight Tornado's on, from the mid-eighties the second is their Vulcan sheet. Loads of choices on both. Pics when I've got the whole thing built and rubbed-down.

Ian

[Radish]

PINK would be nice.....with a curly tail??

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Well the rear fuselage is together, but it seems to me that Esci forgot to 'finish the kit'. There's a space on the underside of the tailplane root (both sides) where the upper and lower halves (don't) meet.... not a gap, a space, as if there should be another two parts go-in. The tailcone parts, that sit between the exhausts are entirely the wrong size for the rear fuselage, being a full 2mm too high, which means I have to pull the thinner upper fuselage half upward to meet it, thereby exasipating the problem with the aforementioned tailplane roots.

And the fin/rudder.... Dear G*d  - It is supposed to sit atop the fuselage fore to aft then run along the top of the tailcone. For some illogical, inexplicable, insane reason, Esci have molded the bottom of the rudder with a 20deg 'wedge' shaped cut-out at the bottom edge.

What the H*ll were they looking at when they designed this kit. No F-111 that exists in the real world, I'm certain.

The question is, do I soldier-on with what could turn-out to be an even bigger p.o.s./waste of my time or just cut my losses and focus on the Vive la France builds instead. As I write this, I'm thinking very seriously about sending the thing on a low-level training mission to the back of the bin.



Ian

[Radish]

Perhaps it's the Fairy version?

Ad lots of plastic card strips here and there, sand it down so these appear as bumps/lumps, spray silver and add Soviet or Warsaw Pact markings.

That sounds like a plan to me......

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

No I've decided to put this thing on the back-burner. I will finish it but in-my-own-time. I'm going to throw a lot of effort at my Vive la France builds, especially the Rafale and I'm also comitted to finishing the two models for the Operation Downfall theme at this years Nationals, which admitedly are 90% done, but I am RUBBISH at 'bottoming-out' any project.

Greg, I will try, I promise but I really think that this is going to a post GB completion - there's just far too much to do to make it presentable.

Ian

[ysi_maniac]

Those British F-111 are first rate, really.