FB-111H

[Gondor]

Played around with the idea of doing this years ago and baulked at the idea of the build due to the high scratch building content. Well this is now several years later and I am still baulking at the idea, but not nearly as much so I will give it a go.
While at Perth for the Scottish Nationals I bought from the Kit Swap an F-111C/G for the princely sum of £15! Way to good a price to miss. This is going to provide the bones upon which the carcass shall be hung to be fleshed out.
It will take me time, especially as I am apprehensive about a lot of the build, the air intakes trunking will be one of the hardest things to get right and it will have to be one of the first things to be attempted as well.
First task is to gather as much information as I can and then to produce a set of scale plans to work from. I am sure I can find some exhaust nozzles for the GE F110 engines used and hopefully at least four good SRAM missiles.
There is going to be loads and loads of PSR as well even when I get the basic shape there are a lot of curves on this aircraft and that also will take time so don't be surprised if this build is taking years to progress.

Gondor

[sandiego89]

Brave man indeed!  Go for it.  It is a large stretch from the stock 111 and I wish you the best.  What scale please?  Perhaps some B-1 bomber pieces may provide useful.  I wonder if you cut a B-1 engine nacelle down the middle, making additional space between the engines, and refitted these to either side of the 111? The nacelle sides looks similar.     

[dwomby]

This will be fascinating to watch.  Good luck.

David

[Gondor]

Nice idea about the B-1 bomber parts, had not thought about that although that would raise the question about what to do with the remainder of the B-1 

I am going to find a spring to help with the intake trunking, one of the courses I did at collage a few years ago eventually becoming useful at last.

Lots to do before I get around to cutting plastic though.

Gondor

[royabulgaf]

One of those things I have mulled over, also.  My intention is to scaleorama a 1/48 Monogram kit to 1/72.  Don't be afraid to cut some corners here and there.  Remember, it was never built and probably wouldn't look exactly like the drawings.

[McColm]

I was going to do something similar to a 1/72 Tu-22M Backfire C as it's larger than the F-111 and smaller than the B-1B.

[tc2324]

Don`t know if it`s because it`s Friday before the Bank Holiday, but I`m having trouble seeing this idea in my mind. 

Good job I can just sit back and watch it as it happens. 

[Gondor]

Don`t know if it`s because it`s Friday before the Bank Holiday, but I`m having trouble seeing this idea in my mind. 

Good job I can just sit back and watch it as it happens. 

I wish I could!

Found my Engine exhausts. I looked at the GE F110 engine page on Wikipedia and found that one of the aircraft powered by the engine is the Mitsubishi F-2 of which I have a couple in the stash with Wolfpack upgrades that include the exhausts. So after a quick rummage around through several boxes I now have two exhausts for the build 

Next idea is the undercarriage which is in-line tandem bogies, I am thinking of something TSR 2ish but not so sure now I think about the layout of that undercarriage compared to the drawing I have seen of the FB-111H.

Gondor

[ajmadison]

I've always liked the FB-111 becoming a BONE-jr. Good luck with your build. Had similar ideas but have way too many projects ahead of it. But I'll be on the look out for a clearance price on the FB-111. At one model meeting, I could have picked up the major components out of the spares boxes offerings for free, but again, didn't want to commit to the project.

[Gondor]

I've always liked the FB-111 becoming a BONE-jr. Good luck with your build. Had similar ideas but have way too many projects ahead of it. But I'll be on the look out for a clearance price on the FB-111. At one model meeting, I could have picked up the major components out of the spares boxes offerings for free, but again, didn't want to commit to the project.

My basis is the F-111C/G boxing by Hasegawa which I got for £15 from the kit swap at the Scottish Nationals. You get both the FB-111A and F-111C lower fuselage sprue's in the same box which will prove handy for additional sections of fuselage and to provide pre formed curved areas.

Sprue's that you get in this boxing are:

A) Forward Fuselage including the cockpit tub and most of both undercarriage bays

B) Upper fuselage and tail fin, side walls of the main  undercarriage bay and lost of undercarriage struts and some cockpit parts

C) Lower fuselage and intake trunking for F-111D,E,F,FB

D) Lower fuselage and intake trunking for F-111A,C

E) Wings, flaps and slats for the F-111C,FB

G) 2x Tail plains, wheels, exhausts external tanks and pylons along with MER's

J) 2x Under wing pylons for the FB-111

K) Rear fuselage parts from between the exhausts and the Astral Tracking nose panel for the FB-111

O) Pave Track pod with modified bomb bay doors and some cockpit parts

P) 2x Durandell runway denial weapons x4

Q) Transparent components for any F-111 version

That's the complete boxing less the decals which are going towards my Australian EF-111A. I have added exhausts nozzles from a pair of Mitsubishi F-2's as they use the modern version of the engine proposed for the FB-111H.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

How do the FB-111A lower fuselage sprues differ from the F-111C ones Alastair? I always thought the RAAF C's were based on the FBs anyway.

[Gondor]

How do the FB-111A lower fuselage sprues differ from the F-111C ones Alastair? I always thought the RAAF C's were based on the FBs anyway.

After a long hard look to compare the two parts I can reasonably safely say that the only differences on the sprue's are the engine intakes with the differences between the Triple Plow version if I remember my nomenclature correctly! 

Gondor

One book I have says the same version of intake was used on the C,D,F and FB so there would be no need if this information is correct, the same book also says that the F-111K had long wings so I am not sure if this is right or not especially as the kit instructions show that the C version has splinter plates and the G dose not!

[Thorvic]

How do the FB-111A lower fuselage sprues differ from the F-111C ones Alastair? I always thought the RAAF C's were based on the FBs anyway.

After a long hard look to compare the two parts I can reasonably safely say that the only differences on the sprue's are the engine intakes with the differences between the Triple Plow version if I remember my nomenclature correctly! 

Gondor

One book I have says the same version of intake was used on the C,D,F and FB so there would be no need if this information is correct, the same book also says that the F-111K had long wings so I am not sure if this is right or not especially as the kit instructions show that the C version has splinter plates and the G dose not!

Which book is that as it might explain where the urban myth of the long span K came from. All official documents and publications at the time clearly show and state the K was based on the A, only the C adopted the longer wings of the FB, so would love to know who got their facts wrongand created this headache  (poor Mike MvEvoy was gutted when he brought out at SMW his newly finished K's after sourcing hard to find C kits, for us to show him the actual features of the F-111K  ).

[PR19_Kit]

The intake with the splitter plates, the Triple Plow 1s (Where DO they get those names from? ) is the very early version as fitted to the A's that went to Viet Nam and also to the RAAF F-111Cs. The later Triple Plow 2 intakes without the splitter plates were fitted to all the others except the E-111s, as they were all converted from F-111As. The F-111Gs were likewise converted from ex-SAC FB-111s so that all the RAAF aircraft had the longer wings. And the proposed F-111Ks did have the long wings too.

It looks like your book is right, apart from the error about the intakes on the F-111Cs.

This takes me back to 1972 or so when I did an article for Scale Models on the various (all two of them....) 1/72 scale kits available at the time. Converting the Revell F-111A to a F-111E was in the 'bitten off more than I could chew' category, but I did manage it in the end.  

[PR19_Kit]

Which book is that as it might explain where the urban myth of the long span K came from. All official documents and publications at the time clearly show and state the K was based on the A, only the C adopted the longer wings of the FB, so would love to know who got their facts wrongand created this headache  (poor Mike MvEvoy was gutted when he brought out at SMW his newly finished K's after sourcing hard to find C kits, for us to show him the actual features of the F-111K  ).

Isn't there a photo of the two F-111K airframes that were built which shows the long wings? They're in the corner of a hangar and the photo is taken from quite high, I've seen it quite recently somewhere.