1/48 Academy F-111C

This one will take a bit i think, christmas and all as well as looking into all of the paint colours i need. I've done a bit of research on it so i know a bunch of the rework that needs to be done already, just got to decide on which way to approach a few of the issues like wing movement rework and the terrible fit of the cockpit section to the main body. It's a re-release upgraded kit with extra parts sprues and a new Cartograf decal sheet that is apparently leaps and bounds ahead of the original, which was my main reason for deciding on this kit as well as being an Aussie marked plane and because the F-111 is just a monster of a machine . From a review -
Fairly basic kit overall still for my foray into planes which is what i wanted, no flaps or slats and not much detail in the engine area or wheel bays but i think she should turn out to be a nice looking machine, if a bit plain...











The only one i won't be doing on this sheet is the 30 year anniversary one. I don't like my chances with that massive tail decal!










Decals overall look like a few nights worth of fun










After much deliberation i decided on 1/48 owing to the size and availability. I am going to have to look at getting some sort of decent display area though as my one small shelf setup is already owned by armour. Poor old Tiger commander would have stayed at home if this beast was buzzing around Also note how terribly thick those sprue joins are, that was one of my complaints on the Academy T-34 i had. The Tamiya armour sprues are in a different league.













Before i even start this beast i need to find myself a nice new work area somewhere in the house so i can spread out a bit more.

Looking forward to seeing the build.

… Are we there yet?

Today is sanding the wings, body and nose section where all those sprue connections were. Gotta do a run to the shops and get some 600-800 grit, some gunship gray and a couple of other colours so i can start on the cockpit. Need to finally invest in some putty as well as the nose and that body/nose join is going to require a fair few hours. I did a test fit of the swing wing mechanism and that needs a rework as well. Besides that, it's basically finished

Ended up using 1000 grit on all of the sprue marks, thanks god i didn't get 600. I wouldn't like my chances at rescribing those fine panel lines. Got the cockpit done, looks good enough i think as once the glass frame is painted and the shroud goes over the instrument panel i won't see much of anything anyway. Paint for the seat cushions was a bit thick and i don't really like the red/pinky mess i made up but i can maybe knock it back with some more weathering. See what happens.











I went out and purchased a clear green for the MFD's... and you will never see it. If the panel was a lighter colour they may have stood out.









Test fit, i didn't even notice the tags (circular) under the headrest until i took this pic. Easy snip. Need to repaint the top of one of the seat headrests as well.









The end tips of the lower rear body have to come off and be changed for chaff dispensers. The kit gets the tags wrong for the replacement ones as you can see. The circled tag fits the opposite side and vice versa. Easy enough to chop the tag down to suit but it had me scratching my head for a minute wondering if i was looking at it wrong.








Chopped and glued to the top section of the body. Once the two halves meet they will both need filling and sanding, nothing terrible but the gaps will stand out.








The hole i thought i had to make, small one, versus the hole that had to be made. Making holes in important parts of models always freaks me out. The loadout racks poke through the lower wing and then are glued to the swing wing mech inside the wing so they stay forward facing whilst the wing moves. Sounds good in theory.







I should have got a pic of the before rework to compare but it's all pretty basic anyway. The big plastic teeth on the wings were grabbing the middle triangular mount when opening and closing so i used some card so they slide past smoothly. No chance to fix it once the body is glued. The horizontal piece on top is my attempt to stop the wing arms ever coming loose. There is some more circular card and plastic washers underneath for extra reinforcement. Not my greatest work but it does the job







Open and closed, smooth as a babies butt. She was a herky jerky affair before the fix.










One of the old kit parts versus the new part supplied. Big difference!





Only 6 days (7 for some) until christmas guys and gals! If i don't drop back in by then i wish you all a good one and hope you manage to spend it with family or someone you love. Look after yourselves during the holidays all.

Looking good Ajay.


Wheels

Looks like another great project Ajay, and a very Merry Christmas to you also mate.

Thanks again for sharing.

nice build . Back in the early PC days. I went to a Flight Simulator . It was elaborate U changed into a flight overalls then hit the flight planning room them the a/c ( mock ups some with a cockpit others u just stood in surround by a mock a/c all hooked up to a large screen computer then u started a virtual Flight complete with Tower controllers and GCA. Anyway, My Flight was in a simulated F-111 Fun Times.

I’ve always loved the F-111.

Good project Ajay.

I've heard a bit about the Academy kit, and you've picked a challenging one! Nice fix on the wing mechanism. (I built an early short wing 'C' from the Hobbyboss kit a few years ago. It's a big bugger!)

Looking forward to following the build, have a great Christmas and New Year everyone!

Gareth

Good to hear from you all, even though the net has been around so long it is now second nature, sharing what we enjoy via pics and conversations just never stops being a #%&*$# cool thing.

Managed to knock out most of the front section in the last couple of days despite everything going on with last minute shopping and the semi madness xmas always seems to bring. Staying up to late is still a thing even as you get older it seems.


Jammed some folded card in between the cockpit and the wheel box and loaded some glue around both.. I always get paranoid sections like this will come loose over the years. I also stacked a bolt in a big glob of blu tack then glued it into the nose section so i don't end up with a tail dragger.







You can see how average the two halves fit. This worried me a fair bit as i waited a few hours for the glue to set, i don't mind working with bog/filler on cars but it makes me nervous attempting it on small scale.








Filling and sanding. I had to do one more application of the putty to get a decent result.










I don't know why i didn't take a front on pic once i was at this stage. I think i was trying to capture the shape or maybe i'm just an idiot. The join is much better buuuuut i did end up sanding out a fair chunk of panel lines down the centre. I attempted a rescribe of some of them before painting but it simply wasn't going to end well so it is what it is. If it was 1 to 1 scale i reckon i could do it easily At the end of the day i was happy with the result when compared to what i had started with.










Glass masked and painted. Very worried with my skill level with a brush and undecided whether i should attempt to paint the curves at the corners of the frame. That's 16 little corners i need to get right and i don't want to ruin the clear plastic. Any tips besides pure skill? (Looking at you Goon:) )











Cockpit looks much better know with the shroud filling it out. Needs some touch ups before i glue the shroud down.










Canopy doesn't fit neatly, on any side, front or rear either. Need to decide what do in that area to make a clean fit.








All in all it's coming along pretty nicely with a bunch of little hurdles in the way, one of them being my 50/50 hit or miss skill level. I am actually glad i didn't go to 1/32 scale as i think the detail may have been a bit too much for my first plane. With the armour if you have a crappy section or bad join you can just throw some weathering at it or claim battle damage, here it's all got to be fairly clean and smooth compared. And yes, along with Dart i also now am building a level of hatred for Goon and his particular set of skills that make this stuff look like a walk in the park


Cheers all, seeyas after Chrissy!

Wow, Great job

Hack! I call hack on this!



No way it should look this good.

Gotta be a cheat code or something going on.

It's the "Bawdy House" red padding that does it.

Must have been Aussie special order!

Kangaroo leather.

The Aussie seats are meant to be sheep skin covered..but i am not attempting that.

Looking really good, the cockpit is excellent.



Don't look at me, my brush skills are terrible! Transparency frames need to be super neat, so I always mask. The easiest way, if you have well defined frames, is Tamiya masking tape and brand new number 11 scalpel blade. (And I mean absolutely unused, even a slightly dull one will drag in the tape.) Burnish the tape well in to the corners, a soft pencil is good as you get a line to cut along. Then cut the tape with as little pressure as you can. If you have faint frames, perhaps on a vac form transparency, then a micro punch and die set comes in handy. Make the right sized circles for any rounded corner and sketch in the straight lines with masking tape. I've also got some 0.5mm and 1mm tape that I use to follow curves that the punch won't make suitable circles for. You can tidy up any small gaps in the tape with something like Humbrol Maskol.



I've got a recipe for that! Worked quite well on my Lynx.

Looking forward to seeing more, have a great Christmas down there Ajay! (And every one else, wherever you are.)

Thanks for the heads up Goon. Still procrastinating about whether i will ruin my cockpit glass or not with an attempt though


Got some hours in again. Getting the wing mech all working required filing away with a blade at the weapon mounts join point. They simply do not fit the little wing arm cutouts that swing off the main swing wing mech at the correct angles, some poked inwards and others outwards once fitted. I sliced the joining stubs on the weapon mounts to suit the rectangular hole in the wing lever as good as what you have to work with and then gave them a light glue to set. They sat overnight to harden and then they got another small dose of glue in the morning and a last hit just before bed. Gingerly gave it all a move the next day and voila, she all swings as nice as i feel i could have got it. The whol operation feels much better than out of the box . That was one monkey off my back. The next was the join between the nose and rear section, the fit is just meh. I braced the rear section with some sprue inside to push up where the spine of the plane meets the front section but no matter what they would not meet flush. The only fix is a filler so that's what she got. Joined the two sections, let it dry overnight then plopped some glue in the seam at the top. I ended up digging out one side worth of glue as the join was still terrible and then ran on down to the local hardware and grabbed some plastic clamps. These ended up being slightly overpowered as you will see below



All the bits needed for the swing wing operation and for the rear body to go together.











one side then the next











First full smooth operation of the wing, you can't see, but i was smiling rather stupidly. The white Tamiya seemed to react with the Tamiya primer in the wheel well which was weird, maybe my second coat was a bit heavy. A bit of weathering and once all of the undercarriage and doors are in, it hopefully will not look so tragic.














Both wings had to be puttied due to overlapping upper and lower sections.









The dreaded join at the hump, without the inside sprue pushing the rear section up there was another 2 or so millimetres difference. This is with the sides and bottom of the model perfectly joined.












In hindsight, the clamps had way to much oomph. My teen daughter went first test subject on her pinkie finger and said they felt fine. I blame her pain threshold for fooling me.















First putty pass. I've over sanded for sure but i am going to have to live with some faded/missing panel lines. As long as i get that hump smooth i will be happy.






She is sitting now with a second thin layer of putty for sanding tomorrow afternoon. I've read the horror stories of the Tamiya putty shrinking weeks, months and even years after application but i doubt ( fingers crossed) i will have that issue as the end result will be extremely thin and i am giving it 24 hours between applications and sanding. It's definitely been another learning experience that's for sure!

I rarely use putty anymore to fix gaps...
I would use plastic shims, (you can go down to as much as 0.10), sand, then apply a line of Cyanoacrylate glue, and re-sand flush.

Never shrinks, can re-scribe if needed, and when priming and painting, you won't see the line.

This was my first putty use ever, i'll probably use car bog next time though so i don't have to wait so long for it to set:) Also one tin of bog would last a lifetime of models. If rescribing becones a thing i'll need to look into one of those verlinden rescribe tools for the circular and regtangular lines.

I will have a look into the shims though, maybe it will end up being less work?

Still a little bit more to go on the hump, a couple of little pin holes to fill on the top and the side join needs work. Thought i was nearly done with this section but the camera always shows me more than my #%&*$# eyes can see.

Ajay,

That's some good work you have going there, but I wanted to get an opinion, as you are in Oz as well.

A few years back, I was completely put off of modelling, after I sported out for a long awaited 1/48 scale Lightning F6, and Tornado GR1. Of course, model kits are not as cheap as they used to be (average $90 - $150 for a good 1/48 scale aircraft) but I packed it in on principle; paying a large sum of money for kits that are warped beyond repair, and essentially sub standard. And don't even get me going on scaling, and external appearance ( a GOOD 1/48 A-7 Corsair anybody?) Don't you get pissed off paying good money for what is basically poor quality control?

Your pig is looking great, but aren't you also a bit annoyed? In these days of CAD, and a plethora of good information in the public domain, don't you think that kit quality should be improving exponentially?

Fact of the matter, is this is what put me off of the hobby. Would love to hear your opinion.

Cheers,

AJ.

I tend to buy models that are cheap and mod them to my standards which is fun for me. Perfect models annoy me as there's nothing to fix

I feel ya. The Tamiya armour i did was levels above for fit. Maybe there just isn't a big enough market for a higher quality 111 kit in this scale? I was a bit worried pre purchase but seeing all the fixes that could be done via modelling forums convinced me it was doable at my skill level. The intakes and intake cowl fitment are very average as well, makes you wonder if anyone at Academy has actually built one lol.

For $90 i feel it is just at that edge where it could be too much, the upgraded parts sprue sort of evens that out and was enough to push me into giving it a crack. The bigger thing that annoys me regards price is the putty, $10 and the Tamiya tape $14. I'm sure i can find the same tape in a bigger roll a lot cheaper and car bog will fill in for the putty. That was more a convenience of being there at the shop when i needed it. Paintbrushes, some single ones at $14-$18 and then the spraycan prices.

If this is going to continue i really need to invest in a gun and make myself a proper little area. The cost of extras so far for just this build is more than the kit itself. It really comes down to whether you enjoybthe hobby enough i suppose, when i was building my own engines i wouldn't even leave the house without $500 if i was going to buy even a 'cheap' item. This hobby is at least cheaper though similarly time consuming.

I don't know really would be my answer. This project will feel more rewarding because of the extra work, but yes, it would have been nice if it all just fit neat. I wouldn't want every model to be as flawed as this. I will definitely try and avoid academy from now on though..unless they are the only ones doing a 1/48 Corsair or Crusader!

The pain. Had it all ready to go so i could spend a few days doing the eight million tiny decals on the body and wings. Gave it a coat of the semi gloss prior to this and dodged the paint job. I don't know if it reacted or what the go really was, it's the same paint i used on my last couple of models which went on nicely. Being a wally, after a couple of hours and it still looking terrible i thought... maybe another coat will help. Nope, as usual more is less. Less cleanup anyway.


















I was still holding out hope that a night under my lamp would see it settle but no joy. So a couple hours worth of sanding this morning, no other way around it.












Washed it down with water water and a brush and she is back under the lamp to dry for another day before i remask and repaint it.








On the plus side, she is really smooth now and if i threw it, it would definitely fly further than before. Oh yeh, looks like the bin is full too

Ajay,

Sorry to be so late with this, but as I recall, you can lift enamel based paints off of a plastic kit without damaging it if you give it a bath in water and a small amount of caustic soda.

Has always worked for me in the past.

Cheers,

AJ.

Outsch. I feel for ya...

Since it's summer where you live, is it humid? Humidity can react with propellelant coolant grabbing water in the air andixing it with the clear enamel paint.

Also a Dremel with a buffing pad works wonders at smoothing paint jobs without the risk of going too far to remove paint from the model.

Thanks for the tips chaps, filed away for future reference. It did not feel very humid DaBBQ, about the same as when i have sprayed the primer and top coats. I blamed the paint and threw it away:D I gave her another coat half an hour ago and she looks good, better than pre my stuff up as i got to sand out some blemishes and small bits of crap in the paint. Paranoid about my next semi clear though,fingers crossed.

Working on the load out now, so many tiny decals!

Load out is ready to go. I ended up thinning out and hand brushing the Neutral grey and the Olive drab which came out better than hoped for. I wasn't prepared to buy two spray tins for such a small amount of use.








Touched up the corners of the cockpit, not the best, but better than it was.







Where it is all at so far. The exhaust cans came out decent. After much inner debate on colours i went with a silver mixed with some grey for the end pieces and silver with gun metal for the section that joins to the body. Gave them a slight wash to pull some detail out. and dirtied up the insides a bit. The next few days will be decals on the re-painted and re-semi glossed body and then sticking on all the extra little poky bits and pieces. Tailplanes, loadout and then the undercarriage last.

looking good

Australias stealth fighter force is only held back by a shortage of Tamiya tape.






A Trial fit on one leading edge of the original long black decal looked bleh, so black paint it is. I've also scrapped the two triangular decals where the wing meets behind the cockpit to mask and paint. This whole moment was also where i discovered the gunship grey is far too dark and all of the no step/walkway and basically every other decal will hardly be seen at all. I did one wing top with the lines denoting the walk area and watched in resignment as the decal colour nearly exactly matches the paint colour. Being ever (hopefully) optimistic i thought, she'll be right by morning, it's just the light and my eyes, it will look way better in the sun. Nope, they can barely be seen. Such is life, we press forward and await the next challenge.

Looking good Ajay. There are all sorts of methods for removing paint. You can use brake fluid, Fairy Power Spray dish cleaner (or the Australian equivalent) among other things. (Obviously you are going to want to test it won't destroy the plastic first!)

The weapons look great.

This has been a cool if at sometimes slightly frustrating build Goon, plenty to learn from it!


Tail decal, decided on this version so i could give the plane a splash of colour. This is with a coat of flat clear. There is a pic further down with the nosewheel doors without the clear, big difference. Gives me hope that the decals i have put on the top of the plane will fade in as nicely.










Nose gear test fit, no glue yet.







Rear undercarriage, needs some cleaning up and two more pieces still to add, as well as the wheels obviously.






Another overall shot with all of the remaining pieces besides the small fins and sensors. The difference between the nose gear door decals i just placed and tail decal is night and day.




I'm hoping to be able to flat clear coat the whole plane by the weekend, just a couple of touch ups of the gunship grey needed. I also have to decide on the loadoaut as it is either the AGM 130 (Green missile) on one wing with the white data pod on the other or the AGM 142 (grey missile) with the grey data pod. I'm leaning towards the AGM 142 because of the contrast in colour,. I actually didn't realise i was going to end up with two empty racks,but, there is a few extra what looks like much smaller sized air to air missiles in the kit that will fit without looking crowded . Any jet jockeys here know whether i can stack more missiles on with either of the above choices i have? Also should the air to air missiles be on the outer or inner racks if i can go that route?




edit- these are the others i have in the kit. Looking at the two smaller ones to add.

Looking goof.

--T

Talon

Joined: Nov 1999

Holy Mega lurker!

Matt coat is when it all comes together. Every build I have I feel is going wrong, until the matt goes on and you get a more scale finish. I never get used to it!

You're not wrong mate. It still looked very plasticy and toy like until that final coat. On the home straight now. Spent an hour and a bit shaving the locators for the missile mount today as it just wouldn't fit snug, it was nice to get a load under each wing and then go through the sweep and see it all work smoothly.

Is it just an optical thing or does that missile seem to have a different orientation than the fuselage.

Just optical Grog. I'll throw some more shots up soon

Nearly finished! Still need to do the wing sleeves, the big gap that seals the swing wing sweep. The kit gives you either closed or open options and they are chunky and ugly looking pieces. I've got a few different ideas on ways to approach it and a couple of card templates i have made up, i just need to work out the sleeve material. Canopy still needs to be glued down, some work required for a nice fit. Pave tack pod still to be fitted. Still debating on whether to put the two extra missiles on and i really should have flattened out the tyres a bit before glueing. I may have a hunt around for some aftermarket rubber ones as the kit one look a bit rubbish and undersized in width . I think i've made the jet cans a bit to messy as well, i will look at pulling them off and redoing them. Overall though so far, i'm happy with the result as it ended up being a lot more fiddly than i thought it would be with the hump rework, the swing wing operation, poor fitting fuselage, overlapping wing pieces and my dodgy paint work and rework.



















































size comparison, 1/35th tanks with 1/48 F 111. I'm very glad i didn't go with with 1/32 scale.







and a pic of the real deal

Nice work! Looks great.

Looks amazing.


Wheels

Good job!

Very nice Ajay.

That's museum quality right there.

good job

Thanks for the kind words chaps, it's much appreciated i'll throw up some last pics when she is (finally) done.

Quick update, i added two missiles to this about a week ago.. and sorry in advance to any missile aficionados! Paint and decals courtesy of the most common looking missiles i could find on the net, definitely not legit. The long mount was supplied in kit so i just added the hard points to the existing wing mounts and carved out two grooves to suit so i could attach it.








This one i cut another kit supplied mount in half and then carved out two hard point grooves again and added the brackets. Both missiles are just sitting where it sort of looked right and balanced.






Looking at them now i should have just made copies of the other small mounts so it all matched. Sitting on the shelf it looks ok regardless, those empty pylons were annoying me.