F-15E, 1/144 Revell #Finished#

[parip]

Hi

Having the MiG21 almost finished, I have decided to join GB with this entry

This will be OOB build and I will go for in-flight position, which means I will have to order some pilots.

Cheers!!!

Rade

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by parip
Finished

[parip]

Hi 

I have started by removing upper and lower halves sprayed white for intakes, and glued fans. After spraying the fans, I googled for photos of real aircraft and noticed that intakes (at least visible part) are in the color of the aircraft (no masking required).

My pilots finally arrived from summer vacation, secured in bubble wrap

I will continue my build once I am finished with popping bubble wrap.

Cheers!

Rade

[Dazzio]

 

 Looking good Parip, this is a great little model built a few of my own.  You may want to get some new exhaust cones as well. The ones in the kit look wrong. You have two options, RetroWings (I can't recommend them enough!) do resin cans (think maybe Ozmods carry them?) and a company called Shelf Oddities do a PE set, should you want to go down that route?  Looking forward to more

[parip]

1 hour ago, Dazzio said:

 

 Looking good Parip, this is a great little model built a few of my own.  You may want to get some new exhaust cones as well. The ones in the kit look wrong. You have two options, RetroWings (I can't recommend them enough!) do resin cans (think maybe Ozmods carry them?) and a company called Shelf Oddities do a PE set, should you want to go down that route?  Looking forward to more

Hi Dazzio,

Thanks for the pointers, I had a look on retrokit site and there are few things worth buying, especially for future 1/144 builds.

This is where I am with my build

I have sprayed two front halves, as well as cockpit and instrument panels in grey. Since Revell is not providing any decals for the interior, I tried my best with brush to provide some dials and improve the look of interior (this is where retrokit tub would come handy, because it has raised details). I'v painted seats, glued fuselage halves together and glued landing gear doors. Fit is nice but there is small gap where wings are joining.

Then I have turned my attention to the pilots, gave them bath in soapy water, when I have noticed that one of the chaps is missing upper part of the helmet (mr surfacer treatment is ongoing).

Some dry fitting (without canopy) showed that pilots will probably require some shimming.

Here is one photo showing most of the above mentioned things.

Cheers!!!

Rade

 

[Dazzio]

 

  That is looking good there. Cockpit looks fantastic also I would offer my decals I have spare but I've got no idea where they are...

 

  I highly recommend the RetroWings bits and bobs. Need to find all the stuff I bought for this GB now I think of it... :/

 

  Kind Regards,

 

  Dazz

[parip]

On 8/13/2017 at 12:45, Dazzio said:

 

  That is looking good there. Cockpit looks fantastic also I would offer my decals I have spare but I've got no idea where they are...

Thanks Dazzio

 

Mini update

As usual, these seated pilots are posed for seating in F1 racing cars, not for planes - legs are interfering with other bits in cockpit, in this case instrument panel. This is my attempt in solving the problem, cut the legs and than sand-back and glue at different angle (try not to mix left and right leg).

Here you can see the difference, hopefully glue will hold.

After some test fitting in cockpit (seats are not glued) it is looking much better (sorry no photo). I doubt  that installing of control stick will be possible.

Cheers!!!

Rade 

 

[parip]

Mini update #2

During the process of leg correction, cutting on pilot no2, one of the legs flew over the room never to be found again. For the sake of symmetry, legs were removed from the pilot no1 as well. Painting went as follows:light olive for jump suit, light grey for mask and hose, white for helmet, light blue for straps and black for visor and gloves. Here is one photo with Revell paint pots for the scale 

and close up 

Next steps will be gluing down remaining pieces of cockpit and those two fellas, and sorting the gap below the wings.

Cheers!!!

Rade

[helium]

That's amazing Rade! 👍 In that scale ... cool!

No wonder that you cannot find the leg anymore 😂

Edited August 15, 2017 by helium

[azureglo]

Kudos to you Rade, I've got the same kit on the go and watching millimetre sized pieces ping off into the distance is my new evening pastime. I've go canopy masking to do am am wussing  out till Friday. Enjoy and remember to book an eye-test for when you're done!

 

A

[Murdo]

I love seeing these 1/144 small planes being built!

[parip]

Hi,

Sorry for luck of updates during last couple of weeks.

Since last update I have purchased some clear acrylic rod on e-bay for posing in flight, nothing has been done so far because I have to find a base, but here is a photo to give you idea

 

Yesterday I have revisited cockpit and painted yellow on the seats, and "head cushions" black. While still not glued I painted black on fuselage halves. This morning cockpit was glued and fuselage closed.

After allowing some time to cure, front nose wheel was closed, and joined with rest of fuselage.

Joint line is more like step which i don't know how to tackle without removing all the details (no skinny or superskinny sanding sticks in my possession). On the underside there is small gap which will be filled (I have filled gaps below the wings, just don't remember when).

Closer inspection revealed tiny gap on the nose which will also require my attention.

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers!!!

Rade

[parip]

Hi

I have glued intakes and CFT's, sanded seam line in the cockpit

There are two ejector pin marks, per intake, which I haven't filled. What is the best way to tackle them? Any suggestions, welcome.

I have sorted out gap and closed locator holes for under-wing pylons.

Puttied nose as well (we will see under the paint if more work is required)

Tried something behind cockpit with putty

Puttied intakes and resprayed gloss black on front instrument panel cover for the decals.

Thanks for looking...

Cheers!!!

Rade

[azureglo]

On 9/5/2017 at 10:10 PM, parip said:

 

 

There are two ejector pin marks, per intake, which I haven't filled. What is the best way to tackle them? Any suggestions, welcome.

 

i used my RP Toolz punch set , stamped out some discs from very thin plastic and used one of my home made sanders (McDonalds Stirrers, double sided tape & wet/dry paper) which fitted nicely into the gap. You could improvise as any thin plastic disc of the roughly the right size will work, I use Zapagap+ accelerator that fills/glues and is ready to sand in  30 secs, but ordinary putty could work as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Ideally , this works best before glue-ing on the intakes. And If you want to make it simpler, just make your own skinny sander like mine, and use putty? Lastly if you're in no rush, I could stamp out some discs of approximately  the right size and send them to you by mail.

 

Cheers

 

A

[parip]

 

22 hours ago, azureglo said:

i used my RP Toolz punch set , stamped out some discs from very thin plastic and used one of my home made sanders (McDonalds Stirrers, double sided tape & wet/dry paper) which fitted nicely into the gap. You could improvise as any thin plastic disc of the roughly the right size will work, I use Zapagap+ accelerator that fills/glues and is ready to sand in  30 secs, but ordinary putty could work as well.

Ideally , this works best before glue-ing on the intakes. And If you want to make it simpler, just make your own skinny sander like mine, and use putty? Lastly if you're in no rush, I could stamp out some discs of approximately  the right size and send them to you by mail.

 

Cheers

 

A

Hi Azureglo,

Thanks for the tip on how to make DIY skinny sander. I will give it a try.

Also thank you for offering to send me discs, but that want be necessary; my idea is to try to fill in the marks with vallejo putty and smooth it out with wet brush, if this does not work (and it probably wont) i will remove paint and glue down plastic (fabricated from the sheet .13mm which I intent to by in LHS over the weekend) with extension into the engine area in order to cover step which is also noticeable.

You have nice looking plane by the way .

Cheers!!!

Rade

[parip]

Hi

As expected trick with Vallejo putty didn't work. After trip to LHS I bought Evergreen transparent sheet (white one in thickness 0.13mm was not on the shelf) I have roughly transferred what i need on masking tape, cut strip and started sanding test fitting, until I was happy how it looks. Here you can see two strips next to the model.

Paint removed ready for installation.

Glued down with Tamiya green cap, next photo is with flash.

White paint applied.

and again one with flash.

As you can see on the left intake glue did attacked a bit plastic strip.

Also I haven't glued strips flush with intake edges (note to me just take your time).

I am happy with result (way better than it used to look like).

Cheers!!!

Rade

[azureglo]

Nicely done, have fun with the cft bomb carriers...

 

A

[helium]

Nice one parip

It seems you have fun improving the kit!

[parip]

On 9/9/2017 at 16:45, azureglo said:

Nicely done, have fun with the cft bomb carriers...

 

A

Thanks Azureglo,

I think I will follow your approach with decaling and afterwards adding these parts.

52 minutes ago, helium said:

Nice one parip

It seems you have fun improving the kit!

Thanks Helium,

I am trying to .

 

Here is mini (scale related) update,

As you recall I have closed locator holes for wing pylons, as real plane on the photos I've found didn't have them mounted. 

She did have Lantirn pods installed, so here is my "approximation".

For the rails I used 0.75 mm sheet styrene, for targeting pod donor was missile from Academy mig-23 kit and for navigation pod missile from Zvezdas mig-21 kit. Additional parts were fabricated from 1.5x2.5mm strips. Wet spot on targeting pod is liquid plastic filling the ejector pin mark.

I glued down rails for the pods as well as kit supplied ones.

View from different perspective (sorry for blurry photo)

Cheers!!!

Rade

 

[parip]

Hi

I have placed two decals in the cockpit and masked canopy,

and decided to glue cft bomb carriers, which will force me to split the decals and try to apply them individually. 

I had problem attaching them because they are really small. I have tried to attach them with tweezers, but at the end i had to place small dot of glue, place them with fingers, adjust position with tip of tweezers and apply glue around (long live Tamiya green cap). Have I mentioned that Revell instructions are misleading in which part goes on which side?

Hopefully I will do more over the weekend.

Cheers!!!

Rade

[Dazzio]

 

 That's looking fantastic Rade! Sorry I didn't warn you about the ejector marks in the intakes. I had completely forgotten about them. Revell instructions do leave a lot to be desired sometimes. I should continue with mine soon.

 

  Kind Regards,

 

  Dazz

[parip]

On 9/16/2017 at 12:42, Dazzio said:

 

 That's looking fantastic Rade! Sorry I didn't warn you about the ejector marks in the intakes. I had completely forgotten about them. Revell instructions do leave a lot to be desired sometimes. I should continue with mine soon.

 

  Kind Regards,

 

  Dazz

Thanks Dazz,

 

Here is an update:

Pilots glued down, canopy glued and applied coat of revell mat black as primer in the morning

Left to dry and applied gunze 305 in the eavning

This morning i went in with second coat of 305 (no photo)

I have started with painting which is always the best part.

Cheers!!!

Rade

[parip]

Hi

I have applied Mr.Hobby 8 silver on top and below, no paint lifting overspray whatsoever.

As you can see intakes look really poor so most likely I will remove strips without too much damage (fingers crossed) and reapply thicker ones. In the box you can also see exhaust nozzles painted with mixture of revell aluminium and black. Still have to paint intermediate pieces in burnt metal.

Very close to gloss coating and decaling phase, but still far away...

Cheers!!!

Rade

[parip]

Intake repair part two.

After cutting new strip 0.25mm, I prepared several sections (you never know), and cut rest in small pieces

I glued small sections with revel conntacta (left) and tamiya green cap (right) to same leftover sprue gates in order to see how it will react to additional glue. I came to conclusion that application of glue from the bottom is required - capillary action is no go (at least for me)

I glued down the strips, all the way to the edge. Looking from this direction it doesn't look that bad, but side view showed due to the thickness of the strip it looks very odd, so i have removed it and started again.

Tried to scrape a bit in the right intake (clear strip was glued to the edge originally)

Same story again, but this time I checked from side, forced each strip inside until I was happy and ended with this

Different angle

Until next update...

Cheers!!!

Rade

[parip]

Intakes resprayed.

And gloss coat applied over cfts.

Let the decaling games begin.

Since I have glued down pylons, the only way was to cut decals into several smaller ones and force them down 

Cut as much film as possible

 

Decal at the bottom. This bugger was killing me, rolling around brush so i had to place him into "bath", and somehow with brush and tweezers I managed to place him.

Move forward

repeat 

 

Slightly oversized...

then I changed side

And finally figured out that it is possible to take photos without handling the model

More

And left side done

As well as right side

Graveyard of decal backing sheets

Six decals applied over three hours work, at least this part is done. I have soak them with decal setting solution and leave them to rest. There is slight silvering going on but there is no coming back.

I am happy how this worked out.

Cheers!!!

Rade
 

[parip]

Before continuing with decals I have resprayed nose with mix 305&308 in ratio 3:1, it is difficult to see but there is slight difference. This was followed by clear coating areas which are to receive decals.

Both nose sections have been done, here are photos rotated for clarity (or maybe not).

I have continued with individual decal application, as you can see film is visible but additional heavy coat of varnish shall do the trick. During this session eagles on the inside have been applied as well.

This has been soaked in setting solution...

Still to do decals on right horizontal stabilizer, verticals, both wings and top.

 

Cheers!!!

Rade

Edited September 26, 2017 by parip
typo