Pappy

G'day people, Look what Col made me do Not really, it was always gunna happen. I am committed now. Removing these three panels was a little more involved but I eventually got there. This is the state of play at stumps today I cut exactly along the panel lines and found that the resin engine bay matched pretty closely but still needed some tweaking. Does anyone have any reference pics of the F-15s engine bays without the engines installed, I am not sure what colour these should be? cheers, Pappy

You are a bad man! I suspect I would like to paid like one! Thanks mate. I used to chain drill inside the panel to be removed and then file back to the line. I still use this method on occasion which I fcind hella tedious and destroys the panel being removed which means you end up needing to make a replacement unless you have a replacement supplied if using a drop in set for example. The razor saw is a relevation and just requires patience and a light touch although you still end up with snapped blades on occasion. I keep these shards as well as they are useful to get into the tight corners for that lat 5% to separate the panel cheers, Pappy

G'day WU, I have to agree. I think in this case the kit seats are superiior, they even seem to have a nice representation of the stfraps. or at least the upper ones as I cannot see what is on the seat bases clearly. The resin seats also lack guide rails unless you want to depict a seat that has been removed! lovely decal options too, how do choose. thbey are all great, cheers, Pappy

You are welcome, Pappy

G'day Dennis, thanks. I wanted to add a little interest to the old kit. It is tempting to open up a few more panels but too many and it does not look realistic for a line bird and it tends to ruin the silhouette of the jet You know me Col, I like to keep things interesting G'day people, Another panel opened The cockpit also got some PE love in preparation for paint I was going to stop there but then the little voice started to nag at me, what about opening up these panels as well We shall see... I also got the colouring pencils out and started to block out some colours. I was curious to replicate the MDD interior greeny blue colour used in the interior airframe areas like the avionics bays. I messed around until I found a match and set aside a batch after spraying the avionics bays Whilst I had the colouring crayon out I decided to reward myself with some seat painting. Having finished 'gussying up' the kit seat I was quite happy with the result I actually prefer it to the resin seat I bought which looks a little undersized by comparison (modified kit seat on left side) cheers, Pappy

G'day Scargsy,, The 'gas strut' you mention may actually be a canopy brace to prevent the canopy closing when undergoing maintenance. You did not mention the part number but on my kit this part is E2 (the canopy actuator is E1) and if you are gluing the canopy closed this part along with E1 can be omitted. Part E7 forms part of the cockpit deck and incorporates the canopy locking mechanism (the twin hooks) which should face upwards - not downwards as the instructions would have you believe, cheers, Pappy

You make me want to buy shares in putty Seriously good work going on though Pappy

CT is correct, these were added as part of the HUG programme. hopefully the kit includes or indicates all the other external modifications which RAAF Hornets had acquired by then, cheers, Pappy

G'day Steve, Glad you are enjoying the show. G'day people, I have now corrected my other gaffe. I don't know why but for some reason I thought that the interior of the air intakes were painted grey, perhaps I was thinking of the later splinter scheme. The lighter of the two blues is what they should be painted. I had not sorted that colour yet but construction has forced my hand and I have mixed up my approximation of the colour Back at the front end have started cutting out various panels To add some lovely resin goodness More to come... Pappy

I'm not here to (bleep) spiders mate! cheers, Pappy

Loren you are a machine! This is going to be huge. I remember seeing the kit in a model shop as a kid and there was a picture on the side of the box of someone holding the completed kit sideways and the wingtip s just about touched the ground. Is that still on the side of the box? cheers, Pappy

Cheers Col It looks like the GWH ducts are slightly longer but yeah, surprising, especially so when the new tool Academy kits have full length ducts. Cheers Dennis. G'dyay people, I hate rework! I was looking at reference pics of my subject when I noticed that my missiles rails are wrong. The kit includes the LAU-114 as fitted to the F-15A and I presume the F-15C however, at some point (MSIP?) these launches were replaced by the LAU-128. I had already attached the ADU-552/LAU-114 combination I was able to carefully separate the launchers from the pylon by first applying some liquid cement to soften the bond. Fortunately, the LAU-114s all cam off without any damage to the launcher of pylon. The next issue was sourcing some LAU-128s - luckily I have a well stocked spares box. And here is a comparison between the earlier LAU-114 and the later LAU-128 launchers, the difference is quite noticeable. Te latter are also better detailed I am waiting for the postie o drop off some goodies so I thought i would have a play with the kit seat and see how far I can push eh details. As supplied it is not a bad representation of the F-15 version of the ACES II (the biggest difference are twin initiation handles instead of the single one in front if the seat pan) but it can stand improvement. If I was adding a pilot I would use it as is but with an empty cockpit the lack of seat harnesses is a glaring omission, Interestingly, the shoulder straps are moulded on the backrest but Hasegawa left the seat pad completely devoid of any detail. I have some left over PE from an F-16 build which I added It still needs the canvas parapack cover and twin pitot probes added to the headbox but it is looking promising so far. One advantage of this approach is that I know the seat will fit! Finally, a little more work was done on the cockpit/avionics bay assembly. I still need to make TEWS avionics rack that lives on the port side as Hasegawa do not depict this feature., cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I made a start on the cockpit today I like the raised cockpit detail provided by the kit. I don't think PE would really enhance anything in this scale and the raised features really make for an easy paint job. The right side of Bay 5 is pretty much stock, I did add some additional cables to make it a little busier but it really only needs careful painting to bring out the details The variable inlet ramps and air inlets have been painted and given a wash to pop out the details. The squares on the ramps should really be perforated areas but this was beyond the moulding tech of twenty years ago The provided intake ducts are comically too short. The compressor faces should be located much further aft, behind the Main Wheel Wells (MWWs) I have three options now, 1. Do nothing 2. Fix it 3. Install inlet covers As I do not want to get bogged down and lose momentum, I will opt for option 1 and keep option 3 as a last resort if it all turns to custard. As I said, the inlet ducts are far too short but despite this, following a dry fit with all the components in place it does not look too bad. I think I can live with it I have also been cleaning up the 'zorsts. These are comprised of seven parts. Although fiddly, the VEN is commendably thin and features delicately moulded details on both sides. The VEN builds up from five identical segments and due to the small contact area, this proved to be quite a delicate task. I glued two sections at a time to form pairs and let them harden before attaching the pairs together and letting them set. The final segment was then dropped into place and held lightly for about a minute until the cement started to 'bite' The VEN actuator rods provided are predictably over scale and would be a nightmare to clean up. I was initially contemplating replacing the kit 'zorsts with some resin items but now I am not sure. I might wait and see how they look under a coat of paint first. Lastly, I made a start on the stores. Hasegawa don't usually provide much in the way of stores, typically some external tanks and perhaps some AA missiles. In this case you don't even get missiles, (although they quite helpfully suggest that you should buy their weapons kit!), so it that respect it us a blank canvas. I will be going for a typical aggressor load which will include an acquisition round and ACMI pod. Jugs are typically carried for ferry flights and the jets normally leave the jugs off during missions although it would not be uncommon to carry a single jug on the centreline for the longer sorties. I am leaning towards the single configuration jug but have assembled two and will pick the best one. I may paint one plain grey and the other in the camo pattern to see which I prefer. A nice touch are the separate pylon sway braces which are very well done for the scale and considering the age of the kit cheers, Pappy

Correct. F-15Es never had the fairing. F-15As had the fairing originally, I guess it pays to check references Pappy

Good call Charlie, cheers, Pappy

Thanks mate Thanks very much Dennis Fights on! Well, I have made some progress today. F-15s at rest seem to exhibit a peculiarity of the ailerons (flaperons?) both drooping when the jet is at rest with hydraulic power removed. I wanted to depict this feature on my model so I set about removing these controls with a razor saw I worked carefully and managed to separate the controls without damaging them. I also modified the flaperons slightly by filing a small notch into the inboard corners. This corresponds with a small section of the upper wing. I felt is was easier to just remove the flaperons with three simple cuts and replace the missing section of the wing A quick dry fit shows that everything should fit without too many gaps Attention then turned to the sucking end. The engineering of the Hasegawa kit is reasonably busy and comprises verfically split intakes halves split with the upper intake section moulded as part of the upper fuselage half to which the variable inlet ramps are added. The first step was to eliminate the very visible trio of ejector pin marks inside each inlet These inlet halves just butt join and this makes for a very weak structure until they are added to the upper fuselage. This presents a problem as there are prominent interior and exterior seams that will need be dealt with. The lower section has a cavity between the inner and outer faces and I reinforced the bond by adding a plastic strip to the gap between the two halves. Now for the blowy end While looking at reference pics I noticed that the emergency tailhook fairing between the 'zorsts has been delected. I don't know if this was a production line change or something that was retrospectively introduced when the VENs went featherless but it is a thing. The trusty razor saw was once again used in anger going from this: To this, That is all for today, cheers, Pappy

G'day Charlie, I cannot help with the panel but the resin Bay 5 boxes would be the choice to go with. I think that when Has tooled ther kit they were not given acces to a jet with these avionics boxes (part of the TEWS system I think?) installed. In pics you can see the orange grommet (the molded discs on top of each box)that interfaces the ECS cooling air to each avionics box which are missing from the original kit. Note also that Bay 5 can be several colours. Originally this was a metallic aqua colour thay the nose avionics bays are painted. Later aircraft had the bay painted white I think any serial starting with 80 onwards would be white. Some ( not many) had the bay repainted in white, grey or even ZC when they went through MSIP. but most just retained their original colour. cheers, Pappy

G'day people, I have a little time between now and the next trip, let's see if I can get this one done in the time between. This is the venerable Hasegawa 1/72 F-15J (kit 04024 for those playing along at home) and it dates all the way back to 1988, a time of big hair and skinny ties! I see that many are building the latest and greatest GWH and ACADEMY MSIP kits, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the newer kits. This has been in the stash for aaaaaaages so it is about time it saw the light of day. Firstly, the pack shot And what's inside I will be adding some aftermarket of course, but more of that anon..... Well not much to show for today's efforts, I spent most if the day 'condensing' the kit down to a manageable state and cleaning up some parts I did however manage to get some of the smaller assemblies started, even managing to get some paint on! One area that did need attention was the join of the underwing panels. Hasegawa decided to mould the wing upper halves with the leading and trailing edges included, providing an underside insert panel presumably to keep the leading and trailing edges commendably thin. Whilst this is a nice touch, it results in an awkward seam that needs to be eliminated in the centre of the wing. The panels fit very well but lack support in the wing centre which will mean that the seam will constantly be opening during sanding as it flexes if this joint is not reinforced beforehand. I experimented with strips of plastic strip until I was happy the panel would be ably supported cheers, Pappy

G'day, I don't see anything worng with experimenting with sprue supports, it would literally cost you nothing to experiment and you could even use lengths of sprue off cuts as a gage to make sturdier bracing from plastic sheet. It may just save you some cash which you can use for other things, Back yourself and have a go, you may surprise yourself. If it all turns to custard there is always the aftermarket option If you were on a budget, perhaps you could use expired credit cards (which are about 10 thou) as a cheap suource of plastic card to make a box structure to beef up the rear fuseelage Pappy

G'day Ray, I agree. I only saw the initial shape and did not realise that you had refined it in the subsequent piccies. I was looking at one of these yesterday as it happens. If I had known that you were buildinging one I could have taken some walkaround pics of the RSAF example that was at the Pitch Black open day cheers, Pappy

Nicely done CC, it looks the part Pappy

This is looking great Loren, your additions, especially your printed stuff is really lifting this to next levellness! cheers, Pappy

Fair enough cheers, Pappy

This was from an article in Air and Space magazine, I don't have it any more, but people on the ground actually reported hearing a double boom (consistent with a supersonic flight) and thought it was an aircraft crash. The reason this information was not made public at the time was that they wanted to protect the capability of the next frontline fighter. There was also a political dimension in that the Bell X-1 was the programme that was designed the break the sound barrier. The secrecy around Yeager's flight was to protect the integrity of the design, namely the all moving tail plane (stabilator). Previous attempts had failed for a number of reasons, one of which was shockwave formation on the tail plane at the elevator, resulting in severe transonic buffet (as reported by Yeager - 'Just the usual instability') but this also rendered the elevator ineffective due to the phenomenon of aeroelastic divergence in which the horizontal tail plane actually twisted on the opposite sense to the elevator, which with 'up ' elevator would actually result in greater downward pitch moment. In the (fictional) movie The Sound Barrier, the hero has a breakthrough in which he pushed the stick forward, lots of people would ask Yeager if this was how he broke through, which always left him bemused. The hydraulically actuated all moving tail was the solution and it was this feature of the X-1 design that the secrecy was attempting to protect. I do not doubt that ASIs of the time were not very well calibrated to cope with the effects of compressibility on airspeed measurement. The other reason that Welch was not credited was that the F-86 needed something like a fifteen degree dive to go supersonic, and hence could not claim the record. In any case, Yeager has the record cheers, Pappy

G'day Quack, Sorry to see the less than stellar canopy result. Have you tried using some methylated spirits (metho) or Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to remove the Gauzy stuff? Both of these will not marr plastic and are a little more aggressive than ammonia. I have used metho previously to strip hardened Future to great effect. I soak a lint fee cloth and gently wipe to remove, change the cleaning cloth with a new piece frequently. When done, wash in soapy water and let dry. Ready to go again. The canopy polishing compounds will strip the clear but being abrasive you will need to polish the plastic back and probably need to dip the parts in something again. Metho and IPA are relatively cheaper and readily available as well. A small experiment somewhere innocuous (like the inside of the canopy sill/ftame) with a cotton bud should let you know if the results would be favourable? cheers Pappy