Though now, sadly, out of service, the F-111 started its life in a rather stormy way. Initially called the TFX, it started as one of Defense secretary Robert McNamara's  loser ideas to offer all services basically the same plane. McNamara should have stayed at Ford where his ideas may have worked, Unfortunately, it basically gave none of the services what they were really seeking. The Marines got out early while the Navy went through the motions, mostly to get their Phoenix missile program up and running. However, the plane was just too big to be an effective carrier based plane. Oddly, there was already a multi-service plane that all users liked, and that was the F-4. But I digress.

The USAF did go for it as they were looking for a low-level strike aircraft that was capable of high speed. The F-111 was the first successful use of the swing-wing, which allowed for economical cruising and high speed dash capability. The engines were a bit of a mess at first, but later were quite reliable and used on other airframes, including the F-14, the plane the Navy really wanted. The F-111 also had terrain following radar which allowed very low altitudes without having to worry about crashing into things. Actually, it worked too well and was an incredibly bumpy ride until the harshness was finally worked out of the system.

Initially wanted by none, it was developed into a highly successful airframe that had a long service life from the late 60s until the mid 90s. Currently the type is flown by the Australians, who have a plentiful supply of parts sitting in the Arizona desert!

This is an old Microscale/Superscale sheet that covers four aircraft. Two are FB-111s and painted in the SAC SIOP scheme fo greens and tans. The other two are painted in the standard modified SEA scheme with the black undersides. The sheet offers no data markings, which must be gleaned from the kit or a data sheet sold by Superscale. Actually, this sheet has long been out of production and is probably very hard to find.

First two planes are FB-111As from the 380 BW that was at Plattsburgh NY. Both the unit and base are now gone. Both have nose art on the starboard side. One being 'Silver Lady' and the other being 'Liberty Belle'. You could probably also do these planes in the 'lizard' scheme that was used after the SIOP scheme went away.

The UH coded F-111E was from Upper Heyford in the UK as part of the 20th TFW. This one has nose art as well and is titled 'Whispering Death'

Finally is the Cannon AFB based 'City of Clovis'. The instructions state it is an F-111A, but it really is an F-111D as the 27th TFW never flew A models. All A model F-111s were converted to  EF-111As or sent to the boneyard to act as spares sources.

If you are doing an Academy or the Zhengdefu copy, then you'll want this or a similar sheet as the kit decals are not very good.

 Please note that the sheet may look a bit short as I'll often crop off common markings to save on server space.

Review sheet courtesy of the reviewer

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