Hello everybody!
I wanted to build the F-111A for a long time… Years ago I’ve bought a Hasegawa kit of the FB-111A (only one I could get my hands on back than) - but it wasn’t the right variant for Vietnam, so I traded it for this one:
Since then Hasegawa reissued (and they are gone again) the “righteous” F-111A, but I decided to stick with my plan of converting the above kit to an F-111A. Most of the necessary parts are there anyhow, what’s actually missing is the lower hull. Then again, from my friends in Poland I got two lower hulls with wide air intakes (thanks a lot guys!). So I’ll try to put it all together, let’s see how this turns out.
I’m starting with the toughest nut, the lower hull, but first I have to take care of the main landing gear bay and the air intakes. Here’s how the bay looks now:
I added some simple details. The rear wall will be detailed with the kit part for the main landing gear. This part will be installed after the hull is done. The front bulkhead would stay blank as per kit instructions, but I intend to put some gizmology ther to make it look as busy as it should be.Then again I don’t think a lot will be seen of it, because it looks like the airbrake/gear door will obscure the view.
Right after glue dried on the gear bay and the intakes I broke out the saw and let it rip:
I installed two ribs pointed to by two red arrows that will help to stiffen the rear hull that is surprisingly flimsy. Those ribs are 6mm high for those who would like to build something similar in their models:
So the hull is already drying and in the meantime I started working on the cockpit:
That’d be it for now - thanks for looking and have a nice day!
Paweł
