Kit Details:

Revell 1:72 EF-111A Raven, Mod no 04357

Aircraft History:

After the prolonged and painful birth of F-111A it became one of the best aircraft US possessed in recent times - it’s still one of the best on precise long-range strike missions. But getting lessons from NVA, the US decided to start replacing their EB-66s on the jamming role. Eventually it was decided to rebuild old F-111As and convert them into EF-111A standard. Work took about 15 years but eventually the first Ravens started to equip new squads. Since then the Ravens are still the only dedicated electronic warfare platform the USAF has.

The Raven provides the USAF with it’s non-lethal SEAD assets, although it’s TJS is from the Prowler it has far better automation, as the Raven has a single EWO. Also the Raven has far superior performance compared to that of the Prowler, enabling it to be used in conjunction with other high-performance jets, such as the F-111 or F-15E. Still, Raven’s are unarmed, but I have heard of plans to upgrade them so that they could wield HARM missiles. In service the EF-111A Raven is also known as “Spark Vark” or “Electronic Fox”. 

Anyway, the Raven’s electronic equipment is quite impressive, mainly AN/ALQ-99 TJS from Prowler reworked to be used by one operator (3 on Prowler). All that could be fitted inside the fuselage was put there. Receivers are in the Football/fin-cap fairing, jamming transmitters are inside internal previous weapons bay (10 transmitters, 5 exciters and 6 digitally-tuned receivers). The equipment covers seven frequency bands. Hostile radar emissions are detected by antennas in the SIR (System Integrated Receiver) pod [the Football]. These face four directions, and are augmented by further receivers lower down on the fin and blade antennas on the sides of the engine intake trunks. Receivers provide information to the central computer, which processes the data, analyses and prioritises the threats for display in the cockpit and automatic operation of the jamming system. 

One set of wing pylons (I believe these are outer pivoting ones) are retained to allow the carrying of Sidewinders for self-defence. The aircraft’s performance (sheer speed and acceleration available at all altitudes) and onboard jammers are its primary means of defence.

A total of 42 aircraft were eventually brought to EF-111A Raven standard and most of these are still operational, with at least two have been lost. Survivors were earmarked for an extensive upgrade program to enhance reliability and capability.

Even the current abilities of Raven are quite impressive, as it is capable of blanketing even the most intense defences. It has three principal roles: stand-off, strike escort and close air support. The Raven operates closely with F-4G Phantom and EC-130H Compass Call to present a powerful counter to any air defence system.

(Used: Encyclopaedia of World Military Aircraft, Aerospace 1996)

What's in the Kit:

In the box are four sprues molded in light grey plastic, one clear canopy (not separately bagged), all bagged, instructions sheet and decal sheet. Panel lines are finely raised, but still lacking some lines and having some errors on it (most remarkably refuelling “hatch” is on the wrong side on top of the fuselage). Parts total is 63, one clear canopy, which is clear enough. Inside the fuselage one can find a mark that says Monogram models USA, so this is clearly reboxing of older kit (I’d say 92 to 94 vintage, mainly because of the versions offered). Decal sheet is about 1/3 of A4 in size, providing some finer stencilling. Instructions sheet is in A4 size, having 12 pages and is typical Revell, front page history in English and German, security text, colour callouts (10 and Revell’s numbers of course), surprisingly no sprue diagrams and finally 29 steps (two colouring and stencilling).

Construction:

• As usual: office. It’s made up of bathtub (with minimal detail), two seats (also minimal detail), control stick and dashboard with raised details. I’d say that dashboard is the most finely detailed part in office.
• Front gear well is made up of two sides (doors attached to it) and part with actuating strut. 
• Nose gear is made of four parts, leg, actuator and a pair of non-weighted wheels. NB when gluing the nose gear bay to fuselage dry fit it first with both sides, as on instructions it is showed to be glued to right side, I found it will glue to the left side only (doors are not same shape).
• Fuselage is made up of separate nose section (to engine faces) and main body (from intakes). Nose section is broken into two halves, nosecone attached. This section starts from nose and ends with main gear bay/engine faces (no intakes here). The main gear bay is made up of two sidewalls (scraped onto fuselage side), back wall (also on fuselage) and separate bottom (when looking upside down) section (with intakes upper sections) to which the engine faces are to be glued. The detail is heavier than the nose gear bay, which had minimal detail. Main gear bay looks nice and looks even better if one was to spice/wire it up.
• Main fuselage is broken into lower half/bottom section and an upper one that is to be attached later. The intake section has to be built up from splitter plates, fairings and outer intake sides (fuselage).
• The wings are made up of a lower side that goes into upper side (no pylons, that’s a mistake, as previously mentioned Raven had one set of them retained).
• The wings are movable, but are attached to the upper fuselage half alongside with movable tailplanes.
• Main landing gear is comprised of five leg parts, two wheels (each made of two sides) and a smaller door that is attached to the gear. Front door/airbrake is made up of door and actuating strut. 
• Vertical tail is represented in two halves, including inner exhaust section/fuel dumping pipe.
• Each exhaust is made of an inner can, engine exhaust and afterburner/exhaust section comprising two parts.
• Bullet and blade antennas are also separate.

The fit could be better, but most gaps are about 1/3mm wide and I found that styrene strips worked just fine. My gripe is mainly over the panel lines, and especially the fuel receptacle, which is on the wrong side!! Yet on the colouring diagrams it shown correctly, Dammit! The most troublesome area are the intakes (what a surprise). Otherwise it is nice model and could be a lot better if one sanded the raised lines off and engrave new ones, and this time correctly.

Options:

Well, there is only one option and that is that the kit provides two parts that are to be used if one wants to depict their model with wings fully forward (these parts replicating fabric covers). If one wants to depict wheels up then nose gear doors must be separated from bay sides (I’m not sure on the fit, as this model assumes it will be built wheels down only). Also there’s a notable lack of those wing pylons and associated missile rails and Sidewinders.

Colour Schemes:

There are 2 versions provided:

• EF-111A Raven, 42nd Electronic Combat Squadron, 66th ECW, Upper Heyford, England 1990;
• EF-111A Raven, 390th ECS, 366th TFW, Operation Desert Storm, 1991

I believe due to these versions that this model was released shortly after Desert Storm, as some years later all F-111 family was sent to Cannon AFB.

Overall Recommendation:

As there’s much work to do on this model, it is not recommended to novices unless they want a toy to play with. Otherwise it is recommended to everyone who has enough ability to do some scratch building and gap-filling works.