AREA 88: "A Dill Hill To Die On" (F-111)

Greg Baker
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.

Greg Baker
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?

Dave Flitton
Did you try Tamiya Smoke? Paint it on the inside and it is a nice translucent color.

Dave Flitton
Also....what happens in the next panel of the comic? You left me wanting more

Slavo Hazucha
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 👍

Jeremy Wiltcher
Not to get off subject but when did the F-111 Group Build start? Where is stuff like that posted?

Slavo Hazucha
@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 🙂

Matthew A
Thinks maybe I should build a what if 2Sqn F-111K

Jeremy Wiltcher
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!

Nils Steyaert
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.

Derek Huggett
@ Matthew A - An RAF bird would make a great 'whiffer' (I think you might need an FB-111 as a base kit). 👍 🙂

Greg Baker
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/

Greg Baker
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.

Greg Baker
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.

Slavo Hazucha
Great... they basically give you general-direction material, you have to make your model, then build it...

Greg Baker
I'm scared to take a close look at the intakes... everyone seems to be talking about them...

Nathan Dempsey
Nice rescribe work there Greg!

Greg Baker
I started cutting up the fuselage to rework the intakes. Luckily I have no idea what I'm doing...😉

Slavo Hazucha
it's essentially adding 1/4 of a MiG-21 intake on each side...😉

Greg Baker
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.

Chris Greathouse
Watching!

Greg Baker
Uh oh... now that Chris is here, I'm going to have to up my game...

Slavo Hazucha
And make it yellow...

Bryn Crandell
Watching

Greg Baker
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.

Greg Baker
I closed up the air intakes. Not as elegant as Slavo's effort... but that bar's been set pretty high.

Slavo Hazucha
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 👍

Greg Baker
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?

Slavo Hazucha
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!😉

Matthew A
That does look a lot better.

Matthew A
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?

Greg Baker
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.

Slavo Hazucha
This time they even have legs! 👍

Greg Baker
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!

Greg Baker
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...

Daniel Klink
111, 111, 111,111 hm Aardvark pandemia... And now Greg goes for the smallest and tiniest examples..
Following 👍

Greg Baker
We might not be big, but we're small...😉

Daniel Klink
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

Slavo Hazucha
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!

Daniel Klink
MAde my DAy Slavo..MAster of the right words at the right time 🙂🙂

Spanjaard
interesting, as always

Greg Baker
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.

Matthew A
I am impressed

Lost_Erik
👍

Nathan Dempsey
Nice camo Greg. It certainly has that Area 88 feel 🙂

Chris Greathouse
Cool camo!

Spanjaard
nice camo

Nils Steyaert
i agree, the camouflage looks really good 🙂

Greg Baker
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.😉

Stephan Ryll
Good idea and work on that dio Greg 👍

Donald Dickson II
How I missed this I dont know. Looks great as always!

Chris Greathouse
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?

Matthew A
Eject eject eject!?!

Lost_Erik
Fantastic result Greg.

Greg Baker
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?

Chris Greathouse
I was just wondering where your skills came from 😄

Greg Baker
I have also wondered that... but they're almost undetectable, so probably not worth the time it takes to track them... 😛

Greg Baker
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/

Slavo Hazucha
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 👍

Spanjaard
Great job Greg, as always
Maybe you could put together that training, I am sure a lot of people could make use of it😉