Academy 1/48 FB-111 Length Question

[Drifterdon]

I've always loved the look of SAC's early FB-111's in the SIOP camo.   I'd like to do one up in 1/48 and was curious if the Academy kit has the proper dimensions.   I've read where the FB was 2 feet longer than the standard TAC F-111's.   Does anyone know where the additional 2 feet were included when GD built them and does the Academy FB-111 include the extra 2 foot fuselage length?   I did a commission build of the F-111A many years back which included all the Paragon resin as well as Verlinden bits so I'm sort of aware of the basic kits shortcomings. 

[habu2]

The FB (and C) had a greater wingspan but I believe the length was largely unchanged.     

[jenshb]

The Detail and Scale book claims the FB-111 is 2 feet longer, and I have seen that repeated in other publications.  Personally I can't see where they would just "splice" a 2 feet section.  The nose looks ahead of the cockpit looks the same, the area between the cockpit and intakes would impact the sweep angle of the wing glove, and I don't see any change there.  The distance between the canopy and the wing glove root is the same.  Extending the fuselage from intake to exhaust?  That would change the geometry of the intake as the engines would most likely be the same length.  Hopefully Jim Rotramel will be around shortly to confirm, but I don't think the fuselage length changed.  Could it be a case of including the pitot tube in the overall length?

[DET1460]

The FB's were built on, basically, the D, E and F airframes and were originally built as F-111's for the RAF. When their order was cancelled they were given to the SAC FB program. There were very few external dimension changes other than wing span increase of seven feet and the TP II intakes. A lot of books were written on these acft and they all seemed to quote the original, incorrect dimensions from a 'trusted' publication. The different 'peanut' fairing between the engines may have led to the idea there was a large (two feet is a lot) change in the length. I crewed FB's at Plattsburgh and from what I saw for almost two years there was little to no difference in fuselage length between FB's and ALL the other models, except the EF. The dome on the tail did add, I believe, about two feet to its overall length.

Hope this helps.

 

DET1460

[Drifterdon]

Thanks guys for the input.   I couldn't figure out where this supposedly extra 2 feet was in the fuselage length so I asked.   Maybe it's an extra two feet over the F-111B which also had the larger wings.   In any case, I'll just use the Academy fuselage as is and not worry about it.   The Academy fuselage has enough issues to start without having to insert a scale 2 feet into it.....

[mrvark]

This question comes up periodically. Length is normally defined from the front of the radome to the aft most part of the airframe. Somewhere along the line someone added the two-foot long pitot tube length to the FB-111's dimensions. There is no length difference between the FB and the other Varks. Just to make sure, I was a Cannon AFB when the F-111Gs began showing up, so I went out on the flight line one evening where a F-111D *& a F-111G were parked adjacent to each other and took some measurements--they were the same.

 

What you may want to correct on the Academy (or for that matter Hobby Boss) kit are the intakes from DMold, pylons, wheels, external tanks, and boat tail from OzMods, and nozzles from Reskit. If you haven't bought the FB-111 kit, I suggest you get the F-111C kit 12220 instead, as it has a number of subtle improvements.

 

And, if you're feeling really bold, here are a couple of papers I've been working on explaining other improvements you may want to attempt:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t9cg9bi73xeph4o/Correcting 1-48 F-111 Triple Plow II Intakes.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u81gbyxhv8ciq89/Making an FB-111A Astrotracker Bump.pdf?dl=0

[jenshb]

Thanks for confirming that Jim.

 

Jens

[Drifterdon]

Thanks Jim for weighing in.   Also thanks for posting your articles on the TP II intakes and astrotracker.