Wings unlevel

Oh wow

Great project! Hope you do a diorama for WD280 for when it spent its time in a suburban Melbourne backyard! https://www.airforce.gov.au/sites/default/files/minisite/static/7522/RAAFmuseum/exhibitions/b_scenes/avro.htm I’ve fond memories as a kid peering over the fence to look at it.

Helps keep the motivation levels up when endlessly filling and sanding!

That’s a tough looking jet!

The bombs do put the ‘strike’ in ‘Strike Eagle’! Looking great!

Yeah I’ve not seen anything to the contrary, and can’t think of a reason why there’d be any external tells. Academic because my F-15E’s nose will be shut but the fact the kit had a radar made me curious.

Cheers Charlie! I’ve not had the pleasure of the Has kit, yet… But this turned up on my doorstep on Friday: I am a sucker for JASDF aggressor and special schemes, and an even bigger sucker for an online bargain! Not sure when I’ll get to tackle it though… Meanwhile, to the kit at hand: With the help of some humble rubber bands to minimise the join seam (it needed some lateral compression to avoid a big gap) the forward fuselage/nose is now attached tp the body. That join isn’t a panel line on the real thing so will need a little tidying up still, But on the whole the build has been really clean.

Some impressively skilled and speedy modelling here! Great subject choice, I’ve often thought with its range the P-38 would have made a great fighter for the RAAF too. Not sure I’ve ever read that we seriously contemplated that though, despite the success of the photo recon aircraft.

Super Starfighter! I was only browsing my favourite online hobby shop today looking at primers, wondering in what circumstances you’d use the pink Mr Surfacer. Now I know!

Cripes a mighty those are some beautiful builds.

Beautifully done!

You’re on a flyer! The modulated grey painting looks really effective.

Looking great, Dave. Interesting that, with the exception that the CFTs are integral to the lower fuselage, the 1/72 GWH kit is engineered pretty much exactly the same, but the fit on my 1/72 does seem a touch better. Some good tips for my build here too that I might borrow, like tinting the HUD.

I mentioned this in my build post but does anyone know if there is a way of telling if an F-15E has been upgraded with the APG-82 AESA radar?

Some good progress this weekend, feel like I'm making some decent progress finally. After some washes and a final clear coat the cockpit was ready to be installed. (Wash looks a bit overdone in the pics, but is ok to the eye.) For the funs, as my kids would say, I fitted the radar, even though a) I'm closing the nose, and b) 'Valkyrie' may well have had its mechanically scanned APG-71 radar (as in the kit) replaced with the AESA APG-82 by the time of its 2018 deployment? (Is there any way of telling if an F-15E has had its radar upgraded?) Thankfully after I realised I needed to drill holes for the underwing pylons (not called out in the instructions, and while it seems an obvious thing to do, I only realised after scanning through @Jabba's thread!) I joined the top fuselage and wings and bottom wings together, using some sophisticated clamps to minimise gaps on the tailbooms. After more drilling, to the fuselage undersides for the pylons for the AAQ-13 and Sniper pods (again not called out in the instructions, but I was on to it this time!), I joined the fuselage and wings together, again with some more high tech clamping to ensure the tops of the conformal tanks conform nicely with no gaps. Have also been chipping away at myriad other bits and pieces, there's a lot to this! Next challenge will be joining the forward fuselage to the main fuselage, again it will need some clamping pressure so the gap at the join is minimised. But all in all the fit has been pretty good, with a little bit of care. It's been fun so far! Gerard

Hi Patrice, please sign me up, I’d build a Mirage for sure, but which one?! Gerard

Just caught up on your build thread James, this is a real labour of love, beautifully done!

I feel your pain! I feel your pain! But no doubt some pain equals lots of gain here, looking good,

Looks terrific John, I do like the colours and markings, it’s one purposeful looking Eagle!

Hope so, fingers crossed! A bit odd given there’s no lack of reference images online, not like it was a an Fw 190 on the Eastern front… Thanks James, I thought it was a pretty good recovery! Just go easy with the decal solution! Cheers Pat. I was especially happy with the white undersides, just a shame it will be largely unseen!

There’s some beautiful detail and engineering with this kit. Just look at this underside detail, including the MLG wheel wells which get closed up. A quick dry fit and all the major bits snapped into place beautifully. it’s only at the very rear where the tailplanes are mounted that there may be a small seam to clean up between the top and bottom fuselage halves. Reason for the dry fit was to determine where and how the transition between the white paint in the inlet ducts and the gunship grey of the inlets themselves works and if/how I needed to paint bits before assembly. This reinforced that the biggest failing/frustration with the kit so far is the short inlet trunks (with modded in fan faces), which the instructions say to paint white (and so I did). But as this Wikimedia USAF shot shows, the white doesn’t start til deep into the inlet trunks, certainly deeper than the kit’s truncated trunks run. I’ll have to have a rethink. That aside I can see it’s going to come together nicely. Gerard

Sharp dart!

Wow, gorgeous work.

Thanks Craig, James, Robert, I do appreciate the encouragement. I was contemplating sanding it back and repainting, but that’s probably unnecessary, plus I feel the F-15 GB clock ticking! With that decals are down… Couple of issues with the decals. First, the national markings aren’t on a white background, which they should be. Second, and this one is all me, they don’t like too much Mr Mark Setter decal solution. I know the Mr Mark Setter/Softer pairing (at least the full strength versions available here in Aus) are likely designed for thicker Japanese Hasegawa/Tamiya decals, so I’m extra judicious using them on thinner decals such as these. But I needed to use a little Setter to help the decals adhere, and managed to overdo it on one of the national roundels… My solution - usused decals from an Academy F/A-18A USMC VMFA-232 Red Devils boxing which has high vis national markings pretty much exactly the same size… They’re not accurate as they have the post 1947 red bar (and the blue should be deeper). But at least they have the white background. Next time round using Extradecals I’ll use (buy first!) Micro Sol and Set as the instructions say! (To be far I used Extradecals on my Matchbox Lightning earlier this year without issue with Mr Mark, but I can’t complain when I didn’t follow the instructions! Plus I’m really glad this decal set exists, I still love the scheme and colours.) Hopefully it’ll be in the gallery come Sunday so I can go Maximum Effort on my F-15! (Sorry F-15 GB in joke!) Gerard

Hard not to when it all comes together so beautifully!