The FB-111A with its display of weapons was built by Gary Bayer, a "career" F-111 guy working F-16s at Aviano AB, Italy. The model was presented to Mike Kaplan in November 2001 by Gary and his coworkers when he left Aviano for the CONUS. Gary spent about 6 months building it. Aircraft 68-0270 was the jet in which Mike Kaplan got an incentive ride in Plattsburgh with LTC Orin Godsey as the pilot. Both names appear on the model. (Photo by Mike Kaplan)
The above kit is a 1/72 Hasegawa FB-111A built by Yves Fournier. It depicts aircraft 68-0244 from the 380th Bomb Wing at Plattsburgh AFB, NY, (Circa 1985). This model was built straight out of the box. (Photo by Yves Fournier)
This FB-111A was built for Robert Chapman who was a crew chief with the 509th OMS at Pease AFB, NH, 1980-1985. (Photo via Bob Chapman)
This is one of those kits that I never had an inkling to build and never thought I would until I had one of those "wild hair..." kind of days! I already had four other Hasegawa Vark variants in the cache that I planned to build "someday" and figured anymore would've been overkill... and I never was too fond of the FB with the white undersurfaces of the SIOP scheme... (would've looked better in black like the BUFF!)... but I guess that would've been too much like the other tactical Varks in the inventory and it would be just like SAC to have to be different somehow. Anyhow, one day I was going through the decal stash and got to look at the Superscale Vark sheets I had hoarded away long ago and noticed that a couple of my sheets included markings for a SIOP FB and the later 'Dark-Vark' FB's. Hmmm... they ARE different and one doesn't see FB's built very often (unless they're as Aussie G's, but no offense though)... I do have the rest of that bottle of SAC Bomber Green paint that I used on my Ryan's Raiders EF-105F and it would be a shame to waste the rest of it... hmmm... what else wears that color of paint?... (gears are a tickin)... where to get an FB?... hmmm, E-bay seems a little overpriced... and my LHS does have a Hasegawa F-111E kit that has been sitting forlornly overlooked on the shelves for many years (and a lot cheaper than E-bay)... I wonder how tough it woud be to convert to an FB? Geez I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes!
I decided to do the wings fully swept and this took a little bit of surgery, but thankfully Hasegawa provides guides inside the fuselage pieces to show where to trim for this option. It wasn't the greatest fit, so careful filling and sanding was required to seal this area up tightly. Getting the slats and flaps closed up on the wings was another adventure too, but it's doable. Considering the lengths to which Hasegawa went to detail this kit, I'm surprised that they did not include decals on their decal sheet to replicate the RAM panels inside the intakes. I drew these out in Corel and printed them with my lazer printer. They're not perfect by any means, but look a lot better than plain white intakes. I decided to paint it in the earlier SIOP scheme as it was more colorful than the later Dark Vark scheme of the 1980's. The Dark Vark scheme was appealing since I don't believe I've ever seen a Vark model done in this scheme, but it's fairly monotone and I'm already planning to do my Aussie C-model in the all-over gray scheme and my EF-Raven in another all-over gray scheme... so another nearly monotone scheme just wasn't working for me amongst my Vark collection... SIOP it would be!
The Superscale decals for "Lucky Strike" were not complete as they did not include the blue stripe for the top of the vertical stab and the # 244 on the nose-gear doors. The stripe was painted on clear decal film using Tamiya Blue and then trimmed out with an Xacto and applied. The # 244 was done with my lazer printer. In service, one of the standard armament options for the FB was tanks on the outer swivel pylons and AGM-69 SRAM's on the inner swivel pylons (and whatever was in the bomb-bay). I initially had some reservations about whether I could do this load-out with the wings swept, but then I ran across a photo of an FB in this configuration in flight that proved that it could be done. Makes for a tight fit of the SRAM's up against the fuselage sides though. Special thanks to Mike Winn for some SRAM's out of his Testors B-2 kit, much appreciated Mike! And there it is... a kit build totally motivated by a decal sheet, a bottle of paint and an overwhelming urge to modify a kit to a different variant, just because! Now what else wears SAC Bomber Tan?...
Oh, and I haven't seen this discussed on any other on-line Hasegawa Vark builds, but I've found an error with Hasegawa's instructions to be aware of. They show attaching the landing light (part Q6) to the forward strut (part A14)... but it should really be attached to the peg that sticks out of the side of part A6.I'd like to close this article out by saying that the mission for which the FB was designed/tasked, was an intriguing, awe-inspiring and awesome endeavor... but thank God it was never asked to complete that mission and now they reside in museums as relics to the Cold War! J.C.Bahr
General Dynamics FB-111A, 393rd Bomb Squadron, 509th Bomb Wing. USAF Strategic Air Command, Pease AFB, New Hampshire, 1979. By Scott Persons
Using the Academy 1/48 scale FB-111 as a basis, I proceeded to modify and detail the kit. Starting with the cockpit, I totally discarded the kit provided parts and used the Verlinden F-111F cockpit, which I modified to FB standard. Modifications included the addition of FB specific console and main panel details and added the Combat Mission Folder (CMF) storage boxes located at the rear of both the Aircraft Commander and Radar-Navigator consoles. I cut the canopy open using a razor saw and added the appropriate latches and other small canopy details including the flash curtains. Lastly, the canopy was tinted using Tamiya smoke. I next turned my attention to the fuselage where I rebuilt and detailed the main and nose gear wells, detailed the gear struts with brake/hydraulic/electrical lines and added MV lenses for landing/taxi lights. I also boxed in the intakes and added fan blade fronts to represent the intakes for the first stage engine compressors. To give my FB a more candid appearance, I decided to open the weapons bay. Using photos and an actual FB-111 Technical Order as a guide, I cut the bay area open, scratch built the bay and fabricated new doors and door hinges from sheet styrene. Finally, numerous small details were added such as antennas, dielectric panels, and the window for the stellar navigation system was located on the raised area between the canopy and radome.In keeping with my desire to create a more candid appearance, I decided to drop/extend the flaps and slats on my model. Since the FB-111 uses the extended span wing (3 ½ ft longer) of the B/C model), I was unable to use Paragon's exquisite flap/slat set which is appropriate for the A/D/E/F/EF models only. I cut the flap/slat surfaces from the kit wings and scratch built new flaps, leading edge slats and fuselage glove vanes using sheet styrene once again. Maybe someone could convince Paragon to produce a long wing set too! One final note. The wings and fuselage were assembled in a manner that would allow me to slide them in position after final painting and decaling was completed.
My model depicts a late 70's SIOP EWO configured FB-111A from the 393rd BMS, 509th BMW. The configuration consist of four external tanks, two external AGM-69 SRAMs, and two B-61 nuclear gravity bombs in the weapons bay. The external tanks provided with the kit were inaccurate and I replaced them with four tanks taken from Monogram's A-10. The outboard tank and pylon are positioned to represent the 10 degree nose in angle with the wing at full forward sweep. In addition to the tanks, the kit pylons are incorrect for the FB-111 and were replaced by two sets of Maintrack Models FB-111 pylons which were also modified to represent the differences between weapons and tank pylons. The AGM-69 SRAMs came form the Revell B-1B kit and were modified with the aerodynamic fairing that cover the rear of the missile when carried externally. The two B-61s in the weapons bay were taken from the Testor's/Italeri F-117 kit. My FB is finished in the standard 70's SAC SIOP scheme consisting of FS 34079 Green, FS 34159 Green, FS 34201 Tan, with the standard white anti-flash bottom. All colors were from Testor's Model Master line. (SAC used different colors and pattern from the F-111s assigned to TAC and USAFE) Additional pictures of the finished model are provided below. Photos and text © 2000 by Scott Persons
