F-15E Strike Eagle what-if 1:48 Academy kit in RAF colours... FINISHED!

[Kallisti]

Well having just completed my 3rd 22" Space:1999 Eagle transporter build, I thought I'd have a go at something a little less complicated and more fun! I had a search through the stash and found this kit I bought for half price or so from Modelzone a good few years back

 

 

Its not that great a kit but I thought why not... then I remembered the F-18 Hornet I did a few years ago in FAA colours in the What IF GB

 

 

and a thought crossed my mind...

 

(swirly FX)

 

What if on the mid-90s, a major fault had been discovered in the Tornado fleet? This fault grounds the entire RAF fleet of Tornados for an indeterminate length of time. In desperation to fulfil their commitments to NATO and the EU in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo, the RAF resort to leasing some US aircraft to fill the gaps. One of these is the F-15 Strike Eagle to take the place of the grounded GR1 and F3 Tornados.

 

I like that idea, and it just so happens I have some old Tornado decals left over from my 5 Sqn F3 build from a couple of years back!

 

 

27 Sqn with the Elephant on the tail looks like it might be fun! So away we go - first is the box contents:

 

 

Next some extra that will be used since the weapons load in this kit isn't very good

 

 

I don't want to spend too much on this as its a 'fun' build and not meant to be taken seriously, so I don't want to spend money on PE for the cockpit and the seats aren't very good in the kit so instead I dug into my stash of PJ Productions RAF pilots and found these two

 

 

They should do the job! Some more weapons from the spares box

 

 

So thats the materials, lets start building. I didn't originally intend to do a build thread on this so there aren't many photos of the build up to this point, but its pretty bog-standard. First off the cockpit and this is mostly painting anyway...

 

 

 

The most difficult bit of construction SO FAR has been attaching the nose to the main fuselage. Having read a few other builds of this and other versions of this kit, I did the sensible thing and added some plastic tabs to the inside of the joint to help guide the sides, but even still there was a bit of filler required

 

 

The main parts are all together now

 

 

The wing joint was okay, a few spots of Mr Surfacer 500 helped fill the gaps

 

 

 

But there were places where a significant amount of filler was required!

 

 

Not included in the photos are the tailpipes which are in the process of being painted with Alclad. I'm going to mask the rear of the fuselage and Alclad that with Aluminium when the time comes. 

Finally in this initial post I've been collecting the pieces for the weapons load:

 

 

Not included in the pic is the large fuel tank that will be attached on the centre-line and the Sniper-XR pod that will replace the kit supplied (and quite poorly moulded) Litening pod. I'll be adding the conformal fuel tanks as well and the hardpoints on them will have to be filled up

 

Oh you want to know the colour scheme I'll be using? Well I had a thought and if I did it grey, it'd just look like a normal US F-15... however if I did it in green and grey...

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2017 by Kallisti

[Max Headroom]

You have my undivided atterntion

 

Trevor

[Kallisti]

Hmm just been doing some checking up and Sniper didn't come into service until the early 2000s, so thats too late for what I'm aiming at - looks like I'll have to go back to the Litening pod, but the Hasegawa sets have a nice replacement so I'll use that.

[corsaircorp]

Pretty good idea !

Or a English Mirage 2000C for air superiority !

Remind me this drawing from Jean Barbaud

The F-18 has been propectively the jack of all trades

Will take a seat and look sipping my beer ! If you don't mind !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp

[Kallisti]

Been priming missiles and mowing the lawn today so not much progress to report

[Kallisti]

Been busy with things so this build has had large gaps in progress, so here is a bit of an update: First engine exhausts have been painted with Alclad - this isn't a great photo sadly

 

 

The wings and tails and engine intakes have been attached, the latter of which needed a significant amount of filler

 

 

 

Here is what it looks like right side up

 

 

Attaching the wing pylons was a silly thing to do and they had to be removed when it came to the painting and masking. The wing joints needed some filler, I used Mr Surfacer 500 applied with a toothpick to get a good finish. The canopies had a really obvious mould line down the middle of each transparency

 

 

So out came the micromesh and after a suitable amount of elbow grease...

 

 

Ditto with the main canopy

 

 

I've put a lot of work into the weapons load, I've now got a complete set of Hasegawa weapons sets and used quite a few bits from them.  I need to do some photographs of the weapons as they've now all been painted up, decaled and are about to be weathered. Tonight, the main aircraft got sprayed with its green/grey camo and now looks quite nifty... I'll put some photos of it up next time.

 

 

[neil5208]

It would have to be green and grey for the colour scheme, RAF would be down on the deck rather than high altitude

[PLC1966]

Think this is an 'If only' not a 'What If' !!

[Kallisti]

So here it is complete.

To be brutally honest its not one of my best builds, I got a bit bored towards the end and rushed things a bit. Had a huge problem with the final matt varnish layer - it kept going chalky so was having to re-spray with gloss then matt again very carefully!

It was intended as a bit of fun anyway so I'm not going to be too precious about it  Its different...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also think I need a better display base