Subject: Re: 1:17 WOODEN F-111F
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: David Landívar <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:53:02 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Landívar 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2013 2:54 PM
  Subject: 1:17 WOODEN F-111F

  "1:17 Wooden General Dynamics F-111F" 

  by "David Landívar"
  --------------------

       

  It was a rainy January afternoon in 2008 (something very usual here in the Ecuadorian Amazon), when I was watching a documentary about Operation Eldorado Canyon and I got impressed about the mighty F-111, to the point of thinking of building my own wooden model. The following day I started checking as much information as available concerning the facts of this aircraft, to see how could I build it and what features would be complicated to scale down.

  At first it promised to be easy to build, because the overall shape of the fuselage seemed to be easy to carve. Then I decided to double up the challenge by increasing accuracy as much as possible. That meant the addition of a functional "swing-wing" mechanism, as well as detailed nozzles and exhausts and full metal accurate landing gear.

  After many hours of searching and downloading pictures, fact sheets and everything that could be useful, I started the official building around late-February 2008. Three major wood pieces were used for the fuselage. But soon the problems appeared, because it was obvious that swing-wing system would be all but complicated to build with wood, no matter how strong it was. Furthermore, the swing wing system itself represented another major challenge that I was not going to give up at all.

  So I went back to the drawing board and started trying to solve problems one by one. Firstly, I decided to use metal sheets to build an entire section of the upper fuselage (the one that accommodates the wings) and then I began to squeeze my brain in order to find the way to make swing-wing mechanism work out. Eventually, after hours and hours I evaluated two alternatives for the swing wing, based on the plastic models that I had previously built. Basically, I had to choose between the swing-wing concept employed in the 1:72 Heller F-14A and that of the 1:72 Revell Tornado F3. The mechanism of the F-14 seemed to be easy to build, with less movable parts, but it was also vulnerable to damage and once I finally put all the pieces together, there would be no way back and no possibility to fix any internal damage. With all that in mind I chose the concept of the Tornado F3, and after some trial and error test it worked as expected. The wings were attached to a welded-metal section that I called "The T-shirt" and then I got a functional swing wing F-111.

  The rest of the features represented reasonable challenges. The intakes and exhausts were made completely metallic and the AN/AVQ-26 Pave Tack pod was also made to be retractable. However, the landing gear became a real nightmare, because of the particular characteristics of the F-111. The solution was to build the most complex landing gear ever, with five fully movable parts.

       

  The painting job was the debut of my airbrush, and after mixing colors I finally got the right SEA pattern. The ordnance I chose for this Aardvark was the GBU-24 Paveway III and two AIM-9 Sidewinders. Another interesting fact is that this model was built with no previous reference or plastic model to guide the job, it was necessary to spend a thousand hours on the computer, watching a lot of pictures of this aircraft to have a complete idea of the details to highlight. That meant the model was finally completed around early-September 2009 and in many ways this model was the baptism of some of the concepts that I employ in my current projects, i.e. the use of rubber for the wheels, a strong retractable landing gear able to deal with any weight, etc.

  This model represents an F-111F of the 492nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, stationed at RAF Lakenheath back in the early 90's, a tribute to one of the best fighter-bombers ever produced and the first aircraft to employ the swing-wing concept that revolutionized military aviation.

         

  Enjoy the pictures.

  "David"