F-111B

[Firefox]

Things to come. Progress will be slow. I was not a fan of F-111B mainly due to its short nose. After knowing that prototype 7 was actually having a longer nose, I immediately decided to make one of it. I'll make this one into VF-84 Jolly Roger. Assuming that F-14 did not exist and the Navy was forced to choose F-111B by the political power and final design was locked on prototype 7 to enforce commonality with the Air Force.

[PR19_Kit]

I've always liked the idea of the F-111B, short nose or not, possibly due to having a plethora of the short noses left over from the original Revell kit, of which I built three. I'm looking forward to seeing how yours come out, what's the base kit please?

[bearmatt]

Always interesting subject! Also looking fwd to see this one!

[Gondor]

Think I will follow this closly as it may be the spur I need to work on my F-111B. Mine is useing the Hasegawa FB-111A with the Pete's Hanger conversion set as a basis for the production example I will be getting around the canopy problem caused by the hightened cockpitby opening the canopy hatches...... well thats the plan

Gondor

[Firefox]

I'm using Hasegawa F-111C as the base model. I thought of doing the raised cockpit in the proposal. But I think it involves too much work and my skill may be limited as well. If someone could do a raised cockpit, I'm keen to see.

[Thorvic]

Looking good so far, the radome of the production F-111B does have the best look not as long as the strike verion but not too stubby of the prototype Bs.
The cockpit is the killer conversion however as the rear cockpit is higher so the section aft of the canopy between the where the wings blend to the fuselage needs to be raised up in a hump so the actually cockpit canopy is set at a higher angle.

We could really do with Hobbyboss scaling down their F-111s complete with seperate cockpit modules, then the aftermarket boys can do an F-111B cocpkit module to replace the kit item and use a resin blister to blend in the new highter cockpit with the exisiting fuselage. the HB kit would also be nice scaled down in having an open bomb bay which is sadly missing in 1/72 kits.

Anyway back on topic it will be nice to see a operational F-111B in full colour squadron markings  , or for that matter in the later toned down schemes

G

[Firefox]

Test fitting seems OK. A lot more sanding to do. Hasegawa is a good kit but over engineered in my opinion. By the way, the nose cone is from F-14. Nothing suits more 

[rickshaw]

I've never seen what the production F-111B was meant to look like.  Does anybody know of a profile or a 3-view drawing?

I was also under the impression that the 1/48 Hobbyboss kits weren't terribly inaccurate (or at least the C wasn't).

[Mossie]

Borrowed from Secret Projects, these diagrams show the external changes:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1965.0.html





Canisd did some profiles that are on the Secret Projects thread, he also posted them on this forum too.  Includes a Jolly Rogers profile to boot!
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,7963.0/highlight,f-111b.html

[PR19_Kit]

I can't imagine that the later Triple Plow II inlets would NOT have been fitted to any production F-111Bs. They made all the difference to the performance of the F-111Es compared to the -A versions.

AFAIK the original Revell and Airfix kits had the Triple Plow Is, and I had to convert them when I did an F-111 review for Scale Models in the 70s. The Airfix kit was a bitch of job, whereas doing the Revell one was a doddle. I presume the Hasegawa kit already has Triple Plow IIs as standard if it's an -E

[rickshaw]

Mossie, thanks for that.  I can see obviously why they raised the cockpit but why did they extend the nose?  Raising the cockpit doesn't look like a hard job actually as they don't appear to have actually changed the profile just the height.

Were the F-111Cs fitted with Triple Plow II?

So, which would be the best kit to convert to a production B configuration?   I built a Revell one 40 years ago but have never touched one since.  I remember it was a huge beast (or so it seemed to me).

[PR19_Kit]

Were the F-111Cs fitted with Triple Plow II?

So, which would be the best kit to convert to a production B configuration?   I built a Revell one 40 years ago but have never touched one since.  I remember it was a huge beast (or so it seemed to me).

I don't think so. The two configurations are relatively easy to differentiate as the earlier TPI config has the HUGE square plates mounted just forward of the intake itself, whereas the TPIIs don't have them at all. You can see from the copywrite date on the pic below they were never updated.

[Firefox]

Here's the final prototype (the seventh aircraft) left to rot. Note the intake. Unfortunately, the the base model I'm using is F-111C (different intake), should have used F-111G instead.

[PR19_Kit]

Ah yes, that's a TPII intake for sure, the longer spike and lack of square boundary plate proves it.

Interesting that they did that to the -B and not to the -C!

[Thorvic]

I was also under the impression that the 1/48 Hobbyboss kits weren't terribly inaccurate (or at least the C wasn't).

EH ?

I think they fluffed the engines and the cockpit canopy is a bit off, but in scaling down they have the chance to fix that, the other aspect is that they should be cheaper and more readily available than the Hasegawa kit which may or may not be in production if somebody did a conversion set and with its excessive over pricing of the hase kit many would not dare convert it. Thus a new affordable kit could prompt a production F-111B conversion set from one of the aftermarket producers.