SPA Modeler

What do you do when your mojo is waxing and waning and you've got too much to do already.... START MORE KITS!

As I've pretty much missed the boat on the Monogram GB, I might as well post this here. I've currently got on the go these two kits...





I've been working on them off and on for a few weeks.

EF-111A Cockpit...





F-111E cockpit... (Just finished). This is actually as far as I've got on the Aardvark as yet.





Progress on the Raven. Not a bad kit overall. The fit is pretty good in places... mostly. However the fit of the splitter plates is bloody awful!









Just to prove the wings still swing...



One neat feature of the Monogram kit is this nice little flexible fillet to fill in the gap.



Pretty woeful splitter plates though... This is not going to be fun.







I'm just letting the glue dry and I'll get onto the filling!

Cheers!

Man, those splitter plates look horrible. I'm sure you'll get it all sorted out.

Tell me about it! They're not Monogram's finest work lol! I hope the Hasegawa kit is better!

Medicman71 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:05 pm Man, those splitter plates look horrible. I'm sure you'll get it all sorted out.

They're also completely and utterly wrong - what the hell's that splitter doing above the shock cone....





I'm not really sure how to fix that

Looking really good Stuart!

Those are some serious sized kits in 1/72! I thought first it was a 1/48 based on the pics.

+ I love the sticker on your cutting mat! So true, so true! :-)

- Kari

Excellent work Stuart! Having built that Monogram kit myself many years ago, yes; those splitter plates and intakes have always been a major hassle to get right. You got this, this already looks fantastic!

Oh I do love the F-111! Can't wait to see what you do with these two. That gap at the intakes can likely be easily filled with some strip styrene.

and for a little subject motivation, a few photos I took at Edwards AFB of F-111s about 40 years ago...







and my favorite that I need to re do with the phone camera, the fuel dump plume lit by the afterburners...

KSaarni wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:46 pm Looking really good Stuart!

Those are some serious sized kits in 1/72! I thought first it was a 1/48 based on the pics.

+ I love the sticker on your cutting mat! So true, so true! :-)

- Kari

LOl! Thanks Kari - it's a sticker I got from a youtuber a while back for making a donation to Models for Heroes.

The F-111 is indeed a big beast! I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to put these two!

Duke Maddog wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 6:21 pm Excellent work Stuart! Having built that Monogram kit myself many years ago, yes; those splitter plates and intakes have always been a major hassle to get right. You got this, this already looks fantastic!

Thanks Mark! The gaps should be easy enough, it's the shape that's the problem. No matter though, I'm just going to go with it as is.

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:58 pm Oh I do love the F-111! Can't wait to see what you do with these two. That gap at the intakes can likely be easily filled with some strip styrene.

and for a little subject motivation, a few photos I took at Edwards AFB of F-111s about 40 years ago...

Those are some fantastic photo's Carlos - thanks for Sharing. Those were the days!

Looking Stuart. My brother was an avionics tech in the AF and worked on these at Mt Home AFB, ID.

keavdog wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:52 am Looking Stuart. My brother was an avionics tech in the AF and worked on these at Mt Home AFB, ID.

That's cool - the kit comes with markings for Mt Home.