I was hoping to get a ton done over the Labor Day weekend, but life issues got in the way, so it was only ounces.
Long ago I had a hankering to turn out a Combat Lancer F-111A. I had a work buddy once who crewed Sparkvarks and complained loudly about the Air Force using the F-111A airframe for the Raven, apparently the age of the A model lent to maintenance headaches. Anyway, I'm glad they did because a modeling buddy pointed out that Hasegawa's EF-111A Raven kit came with all the necessary parts to build up an F-111A except the weapons.
So, naturally I went out and snagged one. Someone has a built up one in the gallery, it looks spectacular enough to make me want to get another, and build it SOB, but the Hasegawa F-111 in general has become scarce and expensive. There's one guy on eBay who has an FB-111A for $68 with free shipping, but another who has an F-111G for $130 and $11.95 shipping, the first guy suddenly seem very reasonable.
I bought some goodies to make up for missing items. The kit has collected dust long enough for Caracal Models to turn out F-111A decals featuring Combat Lancer markings. I spent some time trying to build up the ResKit exhaust stuff and pretty much trogged it. I forgot to put the PE part in first and cut out the gear looking piece. I did a nice job of it, but there was little tab meant to key every part to the 12 o'clock position that was over size enough for it to be impossible to fit. I finally got it on by taking a jeweler's file to it, and in my excitement, glued it in place, forgetting the PE part. The whole thing was a fiasco, but I did learn not what to do.
Anyway, the previous photo, and this one shows you can't see much anyway. In this one, if you squint real hard, you can just make out the the flame holder in the AMT burner cans I had already installed. I'm not in the mood to try grinding them out and risking irreparable damage, and the resin exhaust cones themselves went together okay, so I'll just cut off the Reskit cans and use the cones. The spares I'll save for the other set and see if I can build it up right for the Hasegawa kit. The main reason I dug up this kit was to use it for masks to recreate the panel lines that I've sanded off, I don't have one of those new fangled computerized mask cutters, so I have to do it the old fashioned way.
One step forward. Two steps back...
More later,
Dave
8 attached images. Click to enlarge.
