Pappy

Wow, very nice! The bombs look great, and the office is also pretty nice with many features that were missed by Meng/KH and Italeri present. I missed the tinted canopy, good to see it was not overlooked though. The weapons bay is the most accurate yet of any kit and importantly the two bays are not simply a mirror image of each other. I can see one or two of these in my near future! Pappy

G'day people, I think that people should wait for some of the review sites to show pics of the surface detail before passing judgement on the RAM tape. The shot from the rear in Homebee's post makes me think that the surface detail is actually quite restrained. Two things I have noticed however, 1. They are the first manufacturer to depict the production version of the ejection seat, even the resin guys don't offer the production version 2 . Tamiya have depicted the canopy FLSC and 'H' patches, again something no other manufacturers have done. They have also left the canopy clear which means the modeller will need to tint this and the EOTS windows to be accurate. I have not seen pics of the weapons but hopefully Tamiya's bombs are better than the rubbish bombs included in the Italeri 1/48 F-35B kit, the pics seem to support this, cheers, Pappy

I see what you did there G'day Dennis, I have several blues I could use to mix and adjust but I was hoping for an out of the bottle solution. I am using FS35109 as suggested by the decal sheet but I am not feeling it, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, Lots of family commitments this long weekend but still managed to squeeze some bench time in. The wing seams are finally done The underside seams were very quick and easy to sort The upper seams were not especially difficult, it was just a matter of doing the work. I ended up using CA as a filler as it sands well if sanded soon after setting and does not shrink and can be easily scribed without cracking. Now that my darker blue shade has arrived I sprayed the light blue tank To my eye this looks a little too grey and light, more like a blue-grey instead of the blue that I see in my reference pictures.... cheers, Pappy

I disagree about the filthy part. The bays do look busy but I would not conclude that they are dirty. and ceratinly not if based on that picture. What I do see in that picture is that the cabling and plumbing details are not symmetrical and a mirror image of each other as most (all?) manufacturers depict this area. I think that the electrical cable details being dark combined with the shadows are giving the impression of grime. I also don't understand where the grime would come from as hyd fluid is typically red (to make spotting leaks easier against a white painted bay) and the stores are released using compressed air. cheers, Pappy

G'day Tom, Very nice work going on here. Two points which are likely too late to correct but which may help others, 1. When underwing pylons are installed the three cover plates for each hard oint are removed, so to be accurate these raised plates should be sanded off before installing the corresponding pylon 2. GBU-12s can have 'mismatched' guidance sections i.e. green with grey as these two parts come as separate kits but the adapter collar (immediately behind the fwd steering fins) is included with the rear aerofoil kit, so this should be the same colour as the tail., so grey in this instance The bombs IItaleri have included in their 1/72 kit looks a lot better than the ones they supplied in the 1/48 kit which are complete rubbish! Otherwise this is looking very tasty, cheers, Pappy

Yeah, I agree, sometimes you can lose your enthusiasm when you are in the FSR loop. Hi Craig, I actually prefer 1/72 sometimes as the seams or things like the wing and fuselage are smaller so you can gt more done. Most people tend to rush stores, especially if they are done at the end of a build when people just want to be done and this can leave these looking less than great. Many modelers also find the building the stores to be something of a chore but I actually really like doing them. Also, if done well they can really set a kit off and become another focal point. We are indeed lucky these days as we now have lots of wonderful AM alternatives for accurate stores. The jammer pod for example had something like 8 decals alone! G'day Chris Thanks. I still don't know why I had a gap. It wasn't the cockpit tub assembly as the gap was present even with this assembly removed. The resin avionics bay inserts were well forward of the rear edge and did not foul on anything. I was especially diligent to make sure these did not interfere with the fit of the cockpit tub assembly as well. perhaps during the attachment of the intakes and lower fuselage I managed to get something out of kilter? In any case, I am back on track, but the kit breakdown of the wings (they are simply butt joined) means that I have some decent sanding an filling to look forward to as the resultant seam where the wings join needs to be eliminated completely and panels restored., cheers, Pappy

Thanks very much Chris, G'day people, I have spent the past few days sanding seams and there was not much to show. I have finally joined the forward fuselage to the rear. The upper seams were not an issue but unsurprisingly, the lower seam was more problematic I ended up with a sizeable gap and don't know why? I ended up adding a strip of plastic strip and sanding back With the fuselage assembled the wings were also attached. I also temporarily attached the stores just because cheers, Pappy

G'day Amos, Hang in there mate. I am enjoying watching you fight the good fight to ' accurise' the kit. It is really coming along, cheers, Pappy

Happy to be along for the ride. One thing I noticed was that the forward wing centre section profile did not match the fuselage cross section. The other thing was that I deviated from the instruction assembly sequence for the speedbrake . Rather than assemble the speed brake as an assembly and offer this to the assembled fuselage, I thought it wiser to add the relevant parts to each fuselage half. Otherwise I think that the kit is failry straight forward. Pappy

G'day Craig, I also have a soft spot for the SLUF. I have two of these in the stash, an oroginal Has and a Revell re-box. The plastic in the Revell is a little flashier but also on both the panel detail tends to thin and even dissappear near the fuselage centreline. I am looking forward to your build, cheers, Pappy

G'day Harry, The explanation in the linked MATS article provided by Hook is an excellent explanation as to why the common situation for TF-30 engined (F-14A) jets have the open closed config on shut-down, it is a big explanation but very worthwhile reading. Later engined F-14s still had the same shut down process but when shut down and hyd pressure was removed, these defaulted to both VENs open. As with most things there were exceptions and you can go and try to find evidence to the contrary but this was the typical practice. cheers, Pappy

Thanks Charlie, it seems the fit of the nose section on this kit is somewhat problematic. hopefully the assembly of the nose and fusealage will be better. I don't know if this kits needs the nose weight but added as precaustion. i was concerned the resin engine set may have dragged to CogG aft a lttle even with the resin avionics bays in the nose, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I spent today on the undercarriage. The F-15 undercarriage is mostly hidden as the main doors are typically shut on the ground. Obliviously they can be opened manually for maintenance but the usual state is for the larger doors to be closed. The Hasegawa kit supplies the complete NWW and MWW, so if anyone is so inclined they can depict these areas opened and go nuts with the detailing., I have only added a small amount and I was not being especially faithful to the references. Rather it was what the late great Shep Payne referred to as 'creative gizmology' I slid the cockpit innards into place after first stuffing some nose weight into the radome. I don' know if this jet needs it but added some for Justin. With that done, it was time to add the upper dorsal part to the nose assembly The two parts did not meet well on the RHS and I ended up with a small step, I think this one was down to me. The LHS was much better This will just need a rub down once the glue has set. Now it was time for today's main task. - the undercarriage I kept the additional details fairly light as the main wheels obscure most of the leg and bay Cleaning up the landing and taxi light was fun and more like an exercise in lapidary than modelling but I got there in the end. Most pics of in service F-15s show the undercarriage to be clean and well maintained so I just added a light wash and will leave it at that cheers, Pappy

G'day Charlie, It is more likely that the deadead 'Australia Tax ' is to blame i.e. the cost of importing coupled with a smaller market. I could probably get the kit a little cheaper by importing directly through the various on line sources and then it comes down to about $55 -$60 landed but then you would have to wait. 2-3 weeks. Of course were I to persue that option I would likely order some AM as the additional freight would be negligible and the LHSs just don't carry AM these days . I understand why, it is a lot of $$$$$$ tied up and very specialised market which most customers don't use. Add to that that no matter the size of the inventory they would not have the particular set you need! cheers, Pappy

G'day Ron, Thanks very much, those pics are very useful, thanks very much, cheers, Pappy

G'day Charlie, 100% agree. While the kit is now quite old I think the details still hold up. It is interesting to note that the newer Acad and GWH kits also have a similar assembly sequence and they also require filler in pretty much the same spots. One thing I do like about the GWH kit is that the upper wings are moulded integrally to the upper fuselage as the parts breakdown of the Has kit will be a lot more work. Otherwise for such an old kit the detail level is quite good. I bought the kit quite cheapl so I can afford to spend extra on things like the resin avionics and engine bay sets. I have still spent less than the asking for the GWH kit which is about $70 in Oz, I can get a 1/48 Revell F-15E for that (probably less) so on balance I think the Has kit is better value but only if you can find them cheap e.g 2nd hand at model shows for example. If all three kits (Has. Acad and GWH) were the same price, I would opt for the GWH kit cheers, Pappy

Thanks WU, G'day people, First round of FSR today The seams are being tamed gradually but I think I have a couple more rounds yet before I get to an acceptable result. It seems (no pun intended!) that there is a common moulding flaw with this kit that results in two decent sink marks on the outer fuselage in the area adjacent the MWWs. Not a hard fix but annoying. The fit of the intakes OTOH was quite rewarding I only had a small step at the back edge that just needed a smear of filler to help blend them in. I only needed to spend a few minutes re-scribing some lost panel lines but was otherwise very happy with how these turned out With the putty drying I rewarded myself with painting up the stores for my 'Aggressor Config' The config will be: STN 1 EFT (optional) STN 1A AIM-9X CATM STN 1B AIM-9M CATM STN 2 (FWD) ELTA EL-8222 ECM pod STN 7 EFT (optional) STN 7B AN/APX-95 ACMI pod The light blue EFT and the racks still need to have their dark blue colour added but alas I am awaiting the postie. I may leave both jugs off or just fit one to the C/L but for now I like the idea of one jug in standard grey and the other in the light/dark blue camo. With the exception of the resin EL-8222 pod, these all came from gash spares. The ACMI pod was donated by a fellow club member and all round top bloke Andrew, cheers mate! I decided to add the protective covers to the jammer pod and CATMs so I cut off their respective noses and scratched up some covers from scrap resin which was cut and sanded to shape cheers, Pappy

Wow Rich, this WIP has everything, even BDR! Seriously though, great recovery, a lesser modeller mad have given the kit a test flight after that slip-up cheers, Pappy

Thanks very much Sam Cheers Col Hi Dennis, hopefully mine will stick out a little on a crowded model table G'day people, Happy TEWSday! Yup I managed to get the TEWS avionics painted up and installed today. Not as good as the resin item but good enough for guvmint work as they say. I also painted and installed the engine bay It still needs some finessing to blend into the fuselage but it is mostly there. That done I could finally close up the rear fuselage halves. This was a mixed bag with the left side having a relative clean join but a slight step on the right side. I would show you some pics but it seems Photobucket is feeling a bit tired and emotional at the moment and and may need a little ie down cheers, Pappy

No wokkas Charlie, G'day people, I spent today doing some detail painting of the Forward Avionics Bay (FAB) and engine bay. The FAB will be a natural focal point and I have tried to keep as close to my references whilst using a small amount of license to add some splashes of colour without turning the thing into a Christmas pageant I also blocked in the main colours for the engine bay and applied a mix of oil shades I will pick out a few of the lines and accessories once the oils dry but I could not resist a cheeky dry fit cheers, Pappy

G'day Markus, That second lot of links were exactly what I needed, thanks very much! cheers, Pappy

Thanks Charlie, as you say not definitive, more tantalising I would say. I asked the same question in the Modern Aircraft forum and Markus hooked me up withbsome useful links. I am going with unpainted Titanium for the bay and doors. As for the last pic, that would be a stunning kit but not for me, i thing that many open panels ruins the sleek look of the jet, cheers, Pappy

G'day, The parapack is just a scrap of resin offcut that was cut and dsanded to shape, paint did the rest. As for surgeon,s income, with falling Medicare subsidies suspect many can barely rub two learjets together to keep warm

G'day people, I am currently building an F-15 for the BM F-15 Group Build I need to know what colour the engine bays are, does anyone have any reference pics of the engine bays without the engines installed? I have already had a look through the BM walkaround galleries but had no joy thanks, Pappy