GoBig

Here's my progress so far. The crew module is original, the rest of it is scratch built (all the skin panels, the "airframe" structure underneath it all...). The frame structure that I've built it around I have fabricated from galvanised steel which I've painted in a colour that emulates zinc chromate and also provides some protection from corrosion. The exterior panels are cut from 2mm aluminium sheet that I have cut using measurements taken off a HobbyMaster 1/72 F-111C that I have scaled up to full size and cross checked for the little details such as access panels from high res. "walkaround" modelling detail photo's. The radome I am going to cut from polystyrene block which I'll shape until its right, then I'll either use that to create a mould for a fiberglass duplicate or I may go with a spray on protective hard finish directly onto the foam plug. Centre fuselage section will need to bolt directly onto the rear of this section, so I'll have tom start drawing up the plans for a frame to base this on before I get cracking on fabricating that up...

Hey All, I'm wondering - Has anyone here gone full size? With the level of detail that 1:5/1:6 scale RC platforms from Skymaster Jets etc have, I am surprised there isn't more of a community of static modellers buying/building/collecting them as "skin only" models and going all out with the custom parts to make something really specatcular? And then it made me think - Why stop at 1:5? or I mean... if you're going to go the the effort of building something as big as 1:2.5, surely its not that much more of a push to just go the rest of the way with a 1:1 scale? So I decided I'm going to build a full 1:1 scale F-111 - just for static display of course, but in complete detail and out of metal... Womdering if anyone else has done this with say an F-16 or an F-18 or a Hawk or any other modern jet?