GO!!!!

And we are off with the group build.

I got started on the F-111B this evening and took some pictures of the progress. I will post those later.

Tonight was spent working on the wings. Using the FB-111 kit I got the wings glued together. That is a simple task of gluing two halves per side. Generally they go together nicely but there are two or three things to watch out for with this:
1) Before you do any gluing though, decide if this is a flaps / slats down or up kit. The kit is designed for an all dropped scenario. As you will see when I get to my F-111F though, you can build them up very nicely. If you are going to build with the flaps / slats up, you need to do some cutting and attach them before the wing halves are glued together. We are dropping our flaps so on to building as described in the instructions.
2) The center of the wings are hollow (no supports at all) and the way Hasegawa did the flaps, the back end is open with the front closed up. Because this center section is hollow, be careful not to get any glue in that hollow area or you end up with a badly warped wing. Especially watch down towards the wing tip area where the hollow goes away. Gluing before dry fitting will result in the flaps being a real bear. It would not be a bad idea to stick some extra plastic strips inside the hollow area, though it is not necessary.
3) Make sure you pop out the holes for the weapons pylons first. You can't get things lined up right if you don't.

I set the wings aside to dry and started working inside the fuselage halves.

Tools Used:
1) Set of clippers to remove items from the sprues cleanly
2) Liquid, fast drying cement (I use Ambroid but there are many others)
3) A hobby / Xacto knife with a number 11 blade to trim excess plastics from the manufacturing process and prep work.

Tip for the day:
I like to glue as many things as possible from the non-visible side. If that is confusing lets try this. If I can, I like to place the glue on the inside of a kit. In this particular case the ventral strakes along the back end needed to be attached and were this evening by putting them into their slots and then dabbing glue from the inside of the kit. This generally allows for sufficient but yet very neat gluing. I also glued the wing glove doors, which are not used on the F-111B, from the inside. Again, this allows for the glue signatures / mess to be on the inside of the kit where no post processing work (sanding) is required. Be careful though as this is not always possible. For example, as much as I would have liked to glue the vertical tail on or the weapons pylons, they both would be difficult to paint attached to their surfaces.

F-111B Kit Modifications Completed So Far: Only one modification has taken place thus far. On later versions of the F-111 there is a wing root glove box where a part of the fuselage opens up and the top flutters in the breeze. This was developed to allow for longer slats. This was not present on the F-111B 151972 (and I don't think was present until later AF F-111's either). To correct the problem, simply glue the three (per side) glove doors shut. There are two on the underside, one on top. However, it now presents a new problem on the wing. Somehow I have to think about how to cut off a tiny sliver of the slats and glue them into place while the rest of the wing slat remains "deployed." More on that later though.

F-111B Upcoming Modifications:

- The production tail (sharper corners) which comes on the kit needs to be transformed into the preproduction model (tapered end). I am hoping this will be easy because I have a copy of the original Revell TFX, the part is contained in the kit. I am thinking lots of mods are needed though.

- Again using the TFX kit, a modification needs to be made to the rear of each side ECM pods (if that is what they are) that sit outboard of each exhaust. Again, here is what is the standard production (left side) and what I need to go to (right side).

- As noted above, the wing slats need to be modified to represent a preproduction model with no glove box.

Ready, Set....

The group build rules say that we can't start the models until May 1 so we are going to wait for one more night (even though I am now itching to get started). If we can't start the model then what to do with ones self - how about research?

I have chosen to model F-111B 151972. I noted a couple of reasons in a previous post, but there are more that have come as a result of research.
1) The research has led me to realize that my favorite aircraft, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat may not have been had it not been for the cancellation of the F-111B. Additionally, the Tomcat served as the platform for all the good that came from the B 'vark failure, the AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix missile system, the TF-30 engines, even the proposed Grumman TFX design. So, the F-111B build is now a tribute to the fleet defender that never was.
2) 151972 one of the Phoenix test platforms and what better way to show a model than loaded with a package of Phoenix.

So, what does it take to make '972? A whole bunch. Here is a list of things that I hope to demonstrate over the next few weeks - okay months and will result in a completed F-111B model:
1) Somehow we are going to come up with a way to build the shortened nose (and then maybe someone will buy my mold or design to cast a resin one).
2) Modify the wheels to the smaller version used by the Navy (42x13 vice 47x18 for the USAF)
3) Modify the forward landing gear to the navalized version
4) Add a tailhook
5) Modify the rear in three spots, the burner seperator and the two ECM cones on the fuselage
6) Intakes and forward intakes
7) Add the long wings
8) Add Phoenix missiles
9) Add weapons seperation cameras on wings and tail tip
10) Modify the cockpit including adding ejection seats vice the crew escape module
11) A cool feature to add if at all possible will be the crew access steps on one or both sides of under the cockpit.
12) Forward IR Detector
13) Add / Modify Various antennas


Tomorrow the fun will begin!

What's in a Name?

Wow! Just started and I am already getting questions about the name. Here it is, real simple. I live in Lincoln IL, I am building plastic. I am a fan of the Grumman Iron Works. So, since I am not building iron but plastic, it is the Lincoln Plastic Works.

Let's Get Started

Well, here we go. I have finally launched this thing after talking about it for way too long. So now that it is actually started, what to entertain you with?

First of all, this whole blog is for my plastic model building so the subject of course will be related. However, I firmly believe that modeling is very closely tied with art and history. Through creating the artwork out of the kit, we can teach and or represent a specific time in history. The movie, Night at the Museum talks about the place being where "history comes alive." I would like to think that through model making, history can come alive.

We are going to start by taking you through the construction of a couple of F-111's as part of the Aircraft Resource Center group build. The group build starts on May 1 so starting then we will be posting progress of the research and build process.

The two 'varks to be built are an F-111B and the other an F-111F both in 1/72 scale.

The B I have been threatening to do for years. I have all the parts (minus the nose) and got run off when:
1) I got a good reference book (Naval Fighters Number Forty One - Grumman F-111B Swingwing) and found out about all the differences in the various aircraft that were produced. for example, some were about two feet longer than others and some had higher cockpits to allow for that nose angle. This model will require very specific research to complete correctly. I think I am there but continue to pound the reference material (which is the first step in any good model building).
2) I also found that there are really no good models and no good resin pieces for the conversion. As you will see, most of the model can be built out of kitbashing a couple of Hasegawa kits, but the nose is going to be a different story.

The F-111F on the other hand has a superb kit to build from in the Hasegawa 1/72 scale series. I probably wont add any resin or goodies to this one as it will be an in flight, wings back model depicting the aircraft that was shot down over Libya, April 16th, 1986 - Operation El Dorado Canyon. I will leave the story about that one later. Let me just say this though, the War on Terror did not start on 9/11/01, it started a long time before that. I will argue it was 1979 in the desert of Iran, but you be the judge.