1/72 F-111K Build

[Gondor]

So I decided to print out and scale the drawings mentioned above in the link given be sandiego89 and found out that at the scale they were drawn there were larger than 1/72. However I did notice something else.....



It looks like the roof of the weapons bay matches a panel line that has been there all the time  the picture shows that panel line and the Escape Pod highlighted by pencil.

So that makes life a lot easier now  that I know where the roof goes so I can  start cutting and working on the forward section of the build and  not just the undercarriage bays.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Sometimes the runes fall your way and things go right.

Not often, but when it does it's great. 

[sandiego89]

Ahh! it does make sence to have a panel line there- gotta put those rivets somewhere!   

Glad the link helped-  happy modelling- Dave

[Gondor]

Plastic has been cut and drilled in several places, there has even been some plastic stuck together!



The parts on the left side of the picture are the weapons bay as supplied by Hasegawa, the right hand one has had holes drilled into it so that I can remove the doors which I intend to cut out of the other part then reposition them in the open position. I have just enough for the task at the moment but I am worried that I may make a mess of this somewhere down the line so if anyone happens to have a spare part B23 from a 1/72 scale EF-111A by Hasegawa could you send it in my direction please.
In the centre of the picture are two forward fuselage half's. The left hand half, in the picture, still has its floor which will be removed later as this part is from a kit I intend to make a production F-111B out of along with AIM-54's inside the weapons bay. The fuselage half on the right in the picture has had it's floor removed and joined to a floor from a left fuselage half. These parts will form a roof slightly higher than the weapons bay roof and will provide a base to mound the bay I will make from.

Gondor

[Gondor]

A quick update at the end of the evening. The main doors have been cut out but not all of the excess plastic has been removed yet. I unfortunately snapped one of the sides. It's only roughly 1mm thick there but I must have been applying just a little bit too much pressure while trying to file into the corners without removing any detail.



A quick dab with the Liquid Polly and everything is as right as rain but I thought it might be an idea to give up for the night. Probably will not be much progress until Saturday as I have other commitments tomorrow.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Unlike the F-111B build I am also undertaking, the K version was to use only free fall ordinance from Weapons Bay so for this build I will need to make bomb shackles  to fit onto the roof of the bay.

I have found that I need to modify the rear of the forward undercarriage bay. This also forms the front of the weapons bay so it needed to be thinned. It looks as if the roof of both are at the same hight which will help me align everything. Work does progress, though it is getting fiddly as the removal of plastic is making some bits very difficult to work with. My fault I suppose for taking this on 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Yes those North Star ones would be a treat !

Nice work so far. Nice to see the bomb bay cut out and looking so clean. Love the F-111.

[Gondor]

The weapons bay is progressing.



I am trying to take my time over this part of the build as it's too easy to mess it up. I am thinking that I will have to cut my own inner bay doors so that I can fold the doors correctly. The small doors at the front of the weapons bay will have to be made as the kit plastic is far too thick to use for them as they open up into the bay. I think that for the most part I have finished opening up the weapons bay, now I have to build the darn thing

I am thinking that I will end up making two and a half weapons bays. The fully opened weapons bay for an F-111B build with two AIM-52's, the empty weapons bay of this F-111K which will show off the centre pylon and have lots more detail because it will be open and a the half one will be for an F-111A used on Combat Lancer when some aircraft carried both the M-61 gun and AIM-9 Sidewinders so I will need half the bay open to show the trapeze.

Mad eh! 

Gondor

[scooter]

IIRC, my F-111K had the weapons bay essentially deleted for a fuel cell and ammo stowage for either an ADEN, DEFA, or Mauser 30mm cannon.

[Gondor]

IIRC, my F-111K had the weapons bay essentially deleted for a fuel cell and ammo stowage for either an ADEN, DEFA, or Mauser 30mm cannon.

I am afraid to say that you are incorrect. All the F-111 weapons bays could carry fuel tanks. There was no difference with the actual weapons bay, the doors were modified so that the central pylon could be carried or not but that was the only change in that part of the airframe.



The above picture shows what I mean and is part of what I am working from. It also clearly shows that the wings were standard shorter wings not the long wings that have become an urban myth. The drawing by the way is from the General Dynamics brochure for the F-111K.

Gondor

[KiwiZac]

To be fair on scooter, I think he may have meant his own K build rather than the real-world proposal? Just going by "my F-111K"

[Gondor]

To be fair on scooter, I think he may have meant his own K build rather than the real-world proposal? Just going by "my F-111K"

Apologies to scooter, I misread your post and thought you were talking about the way the modifications were made to make a K version where as my build is a stock, as planned build.

Gondor

[scooter]

To be fair on scooter, I think he may have meant his own K build rather than the real-world proposal? Just going by "my F-111K"

Apologies to scooter, I misread your post and thought you were talking about the way the modifications were made to make a K version where as my build is a stock, as planned build.

Gondor

'Tis fine.  I'll chalk it up to "lack of sleep" 

[Captain Canada]

interesting stuff. Thanks for that diagram above...never seen those fuel tanks before.

[Gondor]

interesting stuff. Thanks for that diagram above...never seen those fuel tanks before.

Which fuel tanks Captain? The Weapons Bay tanks at the bottom of the diagram or the ones for under the wings. If the latter I have some spares is you want some.

Started work on the camera bay. The fact that I am working on a B version at the same time is coming in handy as the cut off nose is providing a handy template for the forward bulkhead of the forward avionics bay where the cameras were to be located.

This is lot's of fun as I intend to have the door hanging open so the structure of the door including the three "windows" will be visible.
Pass me my nice new jacket Dr, the one with the funny extra long arms ........

Gondor