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ResKit F-111 Cockpits/Escape Capsule


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39 minutes ago, Piker38 said:

 

Am I correct in assuming that the current 'early F-111F' release is suitable for aircraft up to/before Pacer Strike ?

Yes. From looking at the pictures at the website, it clearly shows the PAVE Tack virtual image display, so it is applicable for both the Eldorado Canyon mission and Desert Storm.

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A note on the decals:

 

The good news: They fit PERFECTLY and look GREAT!!! There are small openings for the throttles fit into the consoles and they lined up first try--great job!

 

The caution: Like all 3D decals that I've worked with (small sample size), they don't adhere as well as 2D decals typically do. I laid them down over a glossy surface and let them dry for several days. As long as you don't touch them, they're fine. HOWEVER, on the AC's quarter panel (decal 10), you need to add the PE landing gear (P19), arresting hook and brake (P18) handles. In the process of trying to butt join these tiny pieces, the whole decal lifted off! The good news is that these decals are stiff enough that they don't fold up on themselves, so i was able to reattach it using MiG Ultra Glue.

 

After attaching all the seat belt parts to the seats on the rear bulkhead, I sprayed a flat coat and once again, both decals (1 & 2) lifted off from the air pressure and had to be reattached using Ultra Glue. I think from now on when applying 3D decals from any vendor, I'm going to attach them over a thin smear of Ultra Glue, just to be on the safe side.

 

One last observation. On the parts of the panels that don't have instruments, the decal is a light grey-blue color (you'll know it when you see it) instead of the cockpit's normal 36231 gray. In the areas with lots of instruments, it's not really noticeable, but at the back of the consoles it is. Just overpaint those areas with 36231--takes about 30 sec. out of your day.

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3 hours ago, mrvark said:

A note on the decals:

 

The good news: They fit PERFECTLY and look GREAT!!! There are small openings for the throttles fit into the consoles and they lined up first try--great job!

 

The caution: Like all 3D decals that I've worked with (small sample size), they don't adhere as well as 2D decals typically do. I laid them down over a glossy surface and let them dry for several days. As long as you don't touch them, they're fine. HOWEVER, on the AC's quarter panel (decal 10), you need to add the PE landing gear (P19), arresting hook and brake (P18) handles. In the process of trying to butt join these tiny pieces, the whole decal lifted off! The good news is that these decals are stiff enough that they don't fold up on themselves, so i was able to reattach it using MiG Ultra Glue.

 

After attaching all the seat belt parts to the seats on the rear bulkhead, I sprayed a flat coat and once again, both decals (1 & 2) lifted off from the air pressure and had to be reattached using Ultra Glue. I think from now on when applying 3D decals from any vendor, I'm going to attach them over a thin smear of Ultra Glue, just to be on the safe side.

 

One last observation. On the parts of the panels that don't have instruments, the decal is a light grey-blue color (you'll know it when you see it) instead of the cockpit's normal 36231 gray. In the areas with lots of instruments, it's not really noticeable, but at the back of the consoles it is. Just overpaint those areas with 36231--takes about 30 sec. out of your day.

Appreciate the heads up Jim, thanks. How about sharing some pics of your cockpit ?

Steve

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4 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

Appreciate the heads up Jim, thanks. How about sharing some pics of your cockpit ?

Steve

Here is what it's looking like. A couple of things to realize:

  • I'm a passable modeler--not a great one, especially when it comes to painting. So, you may very well come up with something that looks much better than what I've done here.
  • This is going to be a Combat Lancer jet from 1968. At that time, the seat cushions were red. According to friends who were there at the time, by the time they returned to SEA in 1972 they were still red, but were probably transitioning to green, which was pretty much standard for the rest of its service. (I remember flying with a red seat cushion once when I was flying an F-111D about 1990.) The headrests were a different issue--they were always bright red. So, for most models, red headrests, green seat cushions (about 34102).
  • I discovered tonight that when I re-glued decal 1 (see my previous post), I put it on upside down. The three white knobs should go on the bottom of the panel.
  • The throttles were overall gray, the control sticks overall black. The sticks butt joint the actuators on the floor. I didn't like that, so I drilled into each and inserted a bit of 0.015" dia. wire to strengthen the attachment.
  • At the bottom are a pair of centerline beams, one for an open canopy, one for a closed canopy. The tiny yellow things are PE. They represent handles used after the escape capsule lands after an ejection. You only see two handles on mine. There are also a pair of 'T' handles you'e supposed to glue to the 'larger' handles. I fussed with those 1mm long handles utterly without success and in the end elected to leave them off rather than losing the larger handles to the carpet monster. If your eyes are sharper than mine and your fingers more nimble, you may have better luck. To me this was by far the worse part of the kit.
  • The only thing I changed on the instrument panel was to add a drop of transparent red to the TFR's E-Scope.
  • Behind the pilot's headrest you'll notice the 'hit & run' survival kit. Check the instructions for which side of the cockpit this goes on. Some variants have this behind the pilot, others behind the WSO.
  • My particular kit showed up without the canopy frames (R30 & 31) They're on the way, but I can't comment on the at the moment.

220613a_reskit_rsu48-0166_1-48_f-111a_cockpit___capsule_m.jpg

220613b_reskit_rsu48-0166_1-48_f-111a_cockpit_m.jpg

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44 minutes ago, Hooker169 said:

In your opinion Jim, does the correction set fix the profile 100%?

From that angle it looks pretty darn good to me!

INFINITELY better than the Hobby Boss canopy. It's pretty close to the Academy shape. I'll try to take a sit-by-side of them tomorrow. Looks like a Vark now.

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9 hours ago, mrvark said:

Yes!

I cant wait to have a look at them, I had mine shipped to PL because the shipping was much cheaper. Im just waiting for a few other things, but will get them soon.

 

About the seat cushions, in the early days while the F was at Lakenheath they had the red ones fitted now and again, it was like that for a long time and then later they had the green ones.

 

Nice work on the cockpit.

 

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8 minutes ago, ElectroSoldier said:

About the seat cushions, in the early days while the F was at Lakenheath they had the red ones fitted now and again, it was like that for a long time and then later they had the green ones.

They started out red, but by the time I got into the program in the early 1980s they were virtually all green. Every once in a while a red one would pop out of the supply system, but it was a rare occurrence. BTW, the back cushion and seat cushion were independent. The time I remember flying with a red seat cushion, the back one was green.

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2 minutes ago, mrvark said:

They started out red, but by the time I got into the program in the early 1980s they were virtually all green. Every once in a while a red one would pop out of the supply system, but it was a rare occurrence. BTW, the back cushion and seat cushion were independent. The time I remember flying with a red seat cushion, the back one was green.

Yeah thats pretty much what it was. Im not sure why it was though. Nobody really cared until they wore out.

They faded to an olive drab in the summer in the air show season with the open canopy

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This is a picture of an Academy canopy on the ResKit escape capsule. This afternoon I played around with ResKit's Hobby Boss cockpit to see if it would work in the Academy kit. Close, but not recommended. As you can see from the arrows, the Academy cockpit area is just a tad narrower than the Hobby Boss one. So, while the crew area will fit, the glare shield and instrument panel won't. The good news for all you out there with Academy kits (like moi), they ARE going to do cockpit sets for them as well.

 

One more tidbit I got to thinking about today. When the ordies loaded weapons on a jet, the flaps and slats were retracted and they would stay that way until just before takeoff. So, while having a model with bombs loaded and flaps & slats down with no one in the cockpit may look cool, it is unrealistic...

220615-1-48_academy_canopy_on_reskit_capsule.thumb.jpg.02ed54dada2fd52cd17ad1cfec48e347.jpg

Edited by mrvark
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"One more tidbit I got to thinking about today. When the ordies loaded weapons on a jet, the flaps and slats were retracted and they would stay that way until just before takeoff. So, while having a model with bombs loaded and flaps & slats down with no one in the cockpit may look cool, it is unrealistic... "

 

Good point Jim.

Steve

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Its actually before taxi

The same goes for the blow in doors, shut down engines, rbf tags, red covers ...

 

Many many things are missed.

 

I never ever add crew, it makes me think about the people and the ideology of the people. Which would make me not be able to make most all of the models I do.

 

Edited by ElectroSoldier
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Did Hobby Boss actually produce a 1/48 F-111F kit?  I've looked all over the webs and found no evidence of one.   I've seen the F-111A, FB-111, F-111C and F-111D/E, but no F-111F or EF-111A?  Just making sure I didn't miss something.  Keenly waiting for Reskit to release cockpits for the Academy kits I've collected all the fixings for.

 

Cameron

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15 minutes ago, Cameron Lynch said:

Did Hobby Boss actually produce a 1/48 F-111F kit?  I've looked all over the webs and found no evidence of one.   I've seen the F-111A, FB-111, F-111C and F-111D/E, but no F-111F or EF-111A?  Just making sure I didn't miss something.  Keenly waiting for Reskit to release cockpits for the Academy kits I've collected all the fixings for.

Don't know, don't care. Both of the 1:48 kits are rife with errors. What you really need to look for are whether or not it has short (F-111A/D/E/F & EF) or long (B/C/G & FB) wings. The both the Hobby Boss and Academy F-111C kits have PAVE Tack pods (the former is inaccurate, the latter an accurate, but scab-on like the Hasegawa F-111F 1-72 kit), but they have long wings, not short wings like the F-111F. The inlets on both kits assumed (incorrectly) that the difference between Triple Plow I & II inlets was the removal of the large rectangular panel, not realizing that the TP2 spike was about 18" longer (which Hasegawa also missed). D-Mold did a correction for the Academy kit, but due to the Putin invasion of Ukraine, he's taken down his website for the duration. ResKit has already done the F-unique nozzles (RSU48-0026 for Academy and  -0033 for Hobby Boss).

If you have one of the short winged Hobby Boss kits, you can use the ResKit PAVE Tack cockpit (RSU48-0176), which is correct for both Operation Eldorado Canyon and Desert Storm jets. If you have a short-winged Academy kit, they will be doing that option in the future (I have no idea when in the future). I believe they also have plans for other parts of the aircraft...

Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate the differences between the TP1 & 2 inlets. The inlets were the same size, but the TP2s were about 3" farther from the fuselage:

Bottom view of a TP1 inlet:

080101-05_f-111a_gun_inlets.thumb.jpg.ba803f2c0b74b059b328f1cce590928b.jpg

 

slide13.jpg.0c6a98c79c3a1ea125aadd72d955e8f6.jpg

Note that the TP2 inlets featured Radar Adsorbing Material (RAM) panels:

slide12.jpg.5c269c6f2fbc081dc481fb3208f54733.jpg

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4 minutes ago, mrvark said:

Don't know, don't care. Both of the 1:48 kits are rife with errors. What you really need to look for are whether or not it has short (F-111A/D/E/F & EF) or long (B/C/G & FB) wings. The both the Hobby Boss and Academy F-111C kits have PAVE Tack pods (the former is inaccurate, the latter an accurate, but scab-on like the Hasegawa F-111F 1-72 kit), but they have long wings, not short wings like the F-111F. The inlets on both kits assumed (incorrectly) that the difference between Triple Plow I & II inlets was the removal of the large rectangular panel, not realizing that the TP2 spike was about 18" longer (which Hasegawa also missed). D-Mold did a correction for the Academy kit, but due to the Putin invasion of Ukraine, he's taken down his website for the duration. ResKit has already done the F-unique nozzles (RSU48-0026 for Academy and  -0033 for Hobby Boss).

If you have one of the short winged Hobby Boss kits, you can use the ResKit PAVE Tack cockpit (RSU48-0176), which is correct for both Operation Eldorado Canyon and Desert Storm jets. If you have a short-winged Academy kit, they will be doing that option in the future (I have no idea when in the future). I believe they also have plans for other parts of the aircraft...

 

No there was no F-111F. The F-111D/E could be used for the F as it has all the parts to do it but almost none of them are accurate.
The Hobby boss kit is probably the worst of the two but its in some ways a better start. It all depends on how much work you want to do, or not to, to add the details.

If you want the bomb bay for instance then the Academy kit has nothing at all, while the HB kit has one that is at least somewhere to start.

 

Ive done both a few times... quite a few times. They are both much of a muchness and in a masochistic kind of way I enjoyed building all of them because there isnt one that doesnt stretch your modelling skill. The Academy one stretches it less in some ways, but it depends on what details you dont want to add for that to be the case.

 

The TP I and TP II inlets are completely different in all but overall shape.

The TP I has a splitter plate to remove boundry layer air, short spike and the translation cowles. Which is the entire outler of the inlet moves forwards while the engine is hunting for air.

The TP II has no splitter, a narrower gap between the inlet and fusalage, longer movig inlet spike and 3 blow in doors that open when the engine is hunting for air.

 

I think Ill see my grave before I see an F-111F that is an "easy" build.

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I understand and appreciate all the deficiencies in the Hobby Boss f-111 kits.  That's why I haven't ever bought one.  I was just struck that Reskit put in the time and effort to produce a cockpit set for a version of the F-111 that Hobby Boss never appeared to have released.

 

I was planning on waiting for their cockpits for the Academy kits...for which I already have the full meal deal.  Dmold TP II intakes, Reskit Exhausts, Scaledown wings and mainwheel well.  I've got the old Verlinden update (yes I know), the Flightpath Pave Tack pod and picked up a lovely Eduard Brassin Pave Tack (its for the F-4, but I think it could be modified for the F-111...perhaps with a Black Dog weapons bay).

 

Both kits are dogs with different fleas.  Perhaps somebody out there with some influence can persuade somebody like GWH to invest in a new-tool 1/48 F-111 series.  Not likely...but we can always hope.

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11 hours ago, Cameron Lynch said:

I understand and appreciate all the deficiencies in the Hobby Boss f-111 kits.  That's why I haven't ever bought one.  I was just struck that Reskit put in the time and effort to produce a cockpit set for a version of the F-111 that Hobby Boss never appeared to have released.

 

I was planning on waiting for their cockpits for the Academy kits...for which I already have the full meal deal.  Dmold TP II intakes, Reskit Exhausts, Scaledown wings and mainwheel well.  I've got the old Verlinden update (yes I know), the Flightpath Pave Tack pod and picked up a lovely Eduard Brassin Pave Tack (its for the F-4, but I think it could be modified for the F-111...perhaps with a Black Dog weapons bay).

 

Both kits are dogs with different fleas.  Perhaps somebody out there with some influence can persuade somebody like GWH to invest in a new-tool 1/48 F-111 series.  Not likely...but we can always hope.

They didnt release an F-111F per say.

If you forgive or ignore the inaccuracies of the kit over all.

The the F-111D/E kit has the decals to make an E only, there is no D option in there so Im not sure why its an F-111D/E kit, as OOB its an F-111E. Having said that its possible to make a D, E or F from that kit if you use after market decals to make it. So they never released an F but they did make it.

 

I used the Paragon Designs exhausts on mine but the rest of it was pretty much the same.

The Academy kit does need the pave tack cockpit, the scope for it is noticeably absent.

 

Cant say Im to impressed with GWH myself, I think they are over priced for what they are. Kinetic did a Harrier line that impressed.

 

 

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