AREA 88: "A Dill Hill To Die On" (F-111)
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The box... slightly crushed as always when ordering from Aliexpress...
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So yeah... the sprues... Not a ton of details on these sprues, but we can fix that.
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Quick dry...fit...ish proves it will look more or less like a 'Vark when it's done. This one's gonna need some love.
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The canopy on the F-111 is pretty distinctive, so and this is not it - even after I added a bit of framing to the canopy... we'll need to explore Plan B
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First thing to do is start scribing some panel lines... like... ALL of them. Painted the interior of the canopy with Tamiya Smoke (X-19) just to see if it's going to work.
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Conveniently, Trumpeter decided to off only one wing for both sides instead of a mirror image. So I had to make a copy of the scribe lines I'd already done, make a mirror image, and then glue some paper onto the wing and scribe out the details. It work
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Let’s get to work on the air intakes... another distinctive 'Vark feature... which was also largely incorrect on this kit.
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A bit of cut tubing covers most of the gaps.
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A bit more plastic sheet and some missile tips sanded to about a quarter round (but not quite) seems to have done the trick.
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Yeah, I think I can live with that. Still a bit more scribing to do on the nose though.
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Ok... let’s add some lights...
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Yeah... I think this’ll work.
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Closed off the air intakes. I also managed to break off the wing posts, so now they’re glued in place. Oh, well.
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Ok... I took the business end of a file to the canopy. Does that look better?
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I couldn’t bear to blow anyone up, so these two safety dummies will be practically invisible inside the cockpit.
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Everyone nestled safely in place, so time for some putty... and sanding!
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First coat of paint on.
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Skipped a couple of rounds of masking and painting... but now it’s got camouflage.
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The lights still work... whew!
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Final bit of paint... now to work on the base.
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Base done, panel line wash, check. Explosion fireball, attached.
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Looks like we’re done here.
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Comentários
1 25 July 2019, 15:17
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Ok... so I decided to join the Aardvark fun too! This project wasn't at the top of my priority list and I've got several others on the go already, but I fell victim to peer pressure... and some from Don too.
Anyway, this F-111 kit is... not good. So I'm trying to decide a couple of things. FIrst off, since there's absolutely not cockpit, I'm thinking of trying to make a bit of a reflective and/or smokey coating on the canopy to obscure the fact that I'm too lazy to scratch build an entire cockpit. I don't want to just paint it though... I'm looking for an interesting solution here.
25 July 2019, 15:31
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Second of all, as per the whopping four pages of story that the F-111 has a "speaking part" in (which I posted), they basically just get immediately shot down by an anti-aircraft mine. So I'm trying to decide if I should try to blow this baby up... or just leave it a moment before impact with the missile on its way. Anyone want to venture an opinion?
25 July 2019, 15:33
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Did you try Tamiya Smoke? Paint it on the inside and it is a nice translucent color.
25 July 2019, 15:39
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Also....what happens in the next panel of the comic? You left me wanting more
25 July 2019, 15:40
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Perfect, will add you to the list later today! Yours is the No.11 build, which, provided it's unlikely to reach full 111 entries, is I guess as good as it can get!😉
My humble recommendation would be to perhaps start with the "just before impact" plan - this can still be switched to the "blown-up" option, the other way around would likely be more challenging... Also 2 missiles with curved trails as in the manga would IMO look rather cool 👍
25 July 2019, 16:41
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Not to get off subject but when did the F-111 Group Build start? Where is stuff like that posted?
25 July 2019, 17:04
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@Jeremy, the "group" basically started as a lose intention of a few people who decided to build an F-111 and that caused a minor outbreak... I guess because it´s a great plane and a lot of fun to share the experience... That was early July I think... I am not aware of any official "Group build" type of posts, it´s more like seeing all the Varks pop-up in the newsfeed regularly and many of them have the group-builders links posted in the project header text...
Nor am I aware of any start/end (in at least my own case = not soon!!) conditions, no competition, no scale/aftermarket/OOB rules, just build one/more if you feel like it & enjoy all the others being built around you 🙂
25 July 2019, 18:14
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Thanks, I've got an old one I'll get started on this weekend I've got an idea for it but I'll keep that a secret for now..... and no it's not another one of my fictional navy aircraft!
25 July 2019, 23:16
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looks good, i had no idea there were F-111's in Area 88, i did see a nose section of one in the manga's but that was it. will be following this one closely.
26 July 2019, 07:31
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@ Matthew A - An RAF bird would make a great 'whiffer' (I think you might need an FB-111 as a base kit). 👍 🙂
26 July 2019, 07:56
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Matthew... I'd love to see that!
Nils, there are a few peeks at the F-111 in the manga, but this scene is the most robust. I've been working on an Area 88 fan website that has lots of reference details. It's still a work in progress, but the vehicles section is pretty robust (and complete, I believe) area88.strobez.ca/mission-briefing/vehicles/
26 July 2019, 15:25
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Ok... so I'm still a bit up in the air about the cockpit... so I painted the inside of the canopy with Tamiya "smoke" and will decide later what to do about that. In the meantime, I've started scribing up a few panel lines to break up the monotony a bit.
29 July 2019, 15:16
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Nice of Trumpeter not to go through the hassle of making two mirror image wings. Instead they just flipped the same wing over and called it done. So I had to get a bit creative on putting in new scribed panel lines. Took a picture of the first wing all done, then flipped it and printed out some paper guides. Glued them on the plastic and traced the lines with a knife. That gave me the guide to scribe. Only real trouble was I forgot to sand down the raised panel lines all the way first. So after I pulled off the paper I had lines going everywhere.
30 July 2019, 09:00
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Great... they basically give you general-direction material, you have to make your model, then build it...
30 July 2019, 10:36
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I'm scared to take a close look at the intakes... everyone seems to be talking about them...
30 July 2019, 12:20
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I started cutting up the fuselage to rework the intakes. Luckily I have no idea what I'm doing...😉
30 July 2019, 14:50
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I think that 1/4 MiG-21 idea did the trick... I used more leftover missiles from my MiG-21 project to do more or less the same thing I did for the intakes on that project... and then sanded them more or less a quarter round. Given the slightly misshapen fuselage, it would've been impossible to do it perfectly, so I massaged everything into place. i'm Pretty happy with the result.
31 July 2019, 14:51
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Now that the Nausicaa project is finished, I dusted off my F-111 project, before I get left too far behind. Not a ton of progress, but we now have lights.
14 August 2019, 16:22
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I closed up the air intakes. Not as elegant as Slavo's effort... but that bar's been set pretty high.
15 August 2019, 14:39
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Provided your plane would almost fit in one of those intakes, your bar is set in it´s own league😉
I think I understand where this effort is going, if I am right it´s going to be seriously cool 👍
15 August 2019, 14:45
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Thanks Slave. Let's hope it gets there. business end of a file to the canopy. Does that look better? Compared to pic 12... should I keep going, or is that close enough?
16 August 2019, 12:19
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IMHo this should do fine, once the distinctive cross frame is painted on the canopy it should blend into the overall shape nicely. Happy polishing!😉
17 August 2019, 11:04
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Anyone know if the British F-111K would have had a US recon pack like the RF-111C, or one based on the TSR.2?
17 August 2019, 12:45
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I'd hate to have to blow up any real pilots, so luckily I had a couple of safety dummies to put in the cockpit instead.😉. They'll be practically invisible inside anyway.
23 August 2019, 00:28
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They actually have quite a bit of leg room... but it's hard to see through the windscreen... almost like I planned it that way. The cockpit is now put together, may the sanding begin!
24 August 2019, 04:30
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Finally time to get some paint on this one. I did some pre-shading. It's a little hard to see in the pic because I wanted to make sure it was subtle, but it looks pretty good up close and personal. Now for some camouflage masking...
28 August 2019, 15:36
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111, 111, 111,111 hm Aardvark pandemia... And now Greg goes for the smallest and tiniest examples..
Following 👍
28 August 2019, 15:38
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And as all of your builds full of live, special effects and fantastic skills even in this small scale. 👍 Especially with this crappy kit .respect mate
28 August 2019, 15:47
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I thought pre-shading in this scale is basically an on/off decission for the whole model 🙂 This looks good, looking forward to the scene & action!
28 August 2019, 16:21
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After a couple of rounds of masking and painting... we have camouflage. Not quite happy with it, but too lacy to try and repaint it.
31 August 2019, 14:29
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Thanks guys. I appreciate the encouragement. I got the last bit of painting done, gave it a panel wash and attached the fireball and base... looks like I survived the SCM F-111 Aardvark GB after all.😉
1 September 2019, 14:36
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Um... Greg... Your marshmallow is on fire 😛 Another fine craft by the one and only Greg 😄
Question about the electronics and lights in general. How did you learn how to do it all? Do you have background experience with electronics? Where did you learn?
1 September 2019, 17:33
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Thanks guys.
Chris - thanks! Now I can't unsee the marshmallow!😉 As for the lights and electronics, my only background in them is flipping the switch when I enter/leave a room. 😄 Necessity is the mother of education. I had a goal and I learned enough to reach that goal. It's really not all that hard. Most of my projects are very simple circuits. 2-3 LED lights, a 5v usb cord as a power source. All you need is to solder a few wires and a resistor together. Are you interested in a basic tutorial?
1 September 2019, 22:33
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I have also wondered that... but they're almost undetectable, so probably not worth the time it takes to track them... 😛
1 September 2019, 23:15
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BTW - In case anyone's interested, I've updated my blog with this build. Same pics, more rambling commentary... but a bonus page of the manga story! strobez.ca/wp/index...l-to-die-on-area-88/
1 September 2019, 23:37
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A rather flamboyant ending to a basically "scratch-build with use Trumpeter parts" project... Going down with style 🙂 It's a pleasure to watch your Area 88 builds, looking forward for more 👍
2 September 2019, 05:49
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Great job Greg, as always
Maybe you could put together that training, I am sure a lot of people could make use of it😉
2 September 2019, 06:52
Album info
Eric and Harrison, in their F-111 Aardvark are the first victims of Project 4's anti-aircraft mines.
Part of the 2019 F-111 Group build!