This item is a Mini Hobby 1/144 scale plastic kit of a US Air Force F-111E That can be built, with a little artistic license, as a US Navy F-111B. There are a few different F-111E's in 1/144 scale and some of them have a distinctly shorter nose that the others. This makes them more closely resemble the US Navy version.

But, but at the end of evaluations, the Navy passed on them. The F-111 was designed FOR the US Navy after all, so when the Air Force took an interest, and not being constrained by the dimensions required for Carrier stowage, The Aardvard flourished and thrived as an attack bomber and served for many years.

They had a rough start, and the first 12 [I think] missions into North Vietnam ended with losses of aircraft and crews with no explanations. But finally, there was a survivor, and it was learned that the terrain-following radar which essentially flew the plane, worked so well, and the extremes of the terrain were so steep, that the tails of the aircraft broke off without warning from the stresses put on them, and doomed the men flying them. Once they figured that out, they were able to get down to business.

  A few of the early plastic kits 1/144 scale, had the short nose,. and this Mini Hobby kit has the short nose also. The built up model in the photos is an actual 1/144 Shapeways F-111B kit, built by expert model builder Yuuichi Kurakami, who also does all our decals for our resin kits, and lately, our special decals for our plastic kits. I built the one model on the red canvas, and it has the short nose. I think it was an Academy kit, but I wouldn't swear to it. i also built a revell kit of the Aardvark, and it has a long Aardvark nose.

Ozmods in Australia does a set of wings to convert the 1/144 F-111's to the longer wings of the F-111B. but, all things considered, if you display your model with the wings spread, it looks just about right. So Yuichi made us some decals for the F-111B, and so here we are. With the paint and decals, you can build a resonable facsimile of the beloved Navy aardvark.

The decals for all of our 1/144 scale resin kits as well as our "special decals" for our 1/144 scale plastic kits were printed by Yuuichi Kurakami at Y-Kraft in Japan. Built up model in the photos was also built by Yuuichi.