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I’ll be making a maximum effort to get this build done by the GB deadline - a 1/72 GWH F-15E dressed as the 494th FS’s 01-2000 ‘Valkyrie’ during the unit’s 2018 deployment to Operation Inherent Resolve, thanks to the excellent (and popular here!) Two Bobs ‘Maximum Effort’ decal sheet. Basis for the build is Great Wall’s, by all accounts, err, great F-15E kit. The D-Day 75th anniversary scheme looks amazing but I wanted an operational bird. Plus I read GWH’s decals aren’t the best? The Two Bobs sheet is printed by Cartograph. Here’s the mandatory sprues shot. Lots and lots of sprues (polar opposite to the Italeri F-5 I’m working on over in the F-5 STGB!) and lots of lovely detail. I’ll be raiding my Hasegawa JDAMs/pods weapons set for GBU-31s and -38s and a Sniper XR pod and pilfering my spares box (from the Academy F-15C I built last year) for an AIM-9X and an AIM-120 (the kit only has 1 x AIM-9L/M, one x AIM-9X and 1 x AIM-120, and the AIM-9X‘s fins don’t look quite right). The Two Bobs set comes with a large stencil placement sheet with weapons load out diagram for OIR which will be very helpful. Looking forward to making a start very soon. My F-104J in the Century Series GB is pretty much done, I just need to progress the F-5 before diving in too deep on this one. But usually a build like this will take me two months, and I just looked at the calendar… So I resolve to apply maximum effort to be on time and on target so this Valkyrie can ride into battle…I mean into the gallery… Thanks for looking, comments and pointers always welcome. Gerard

Completed for the F-15 Eagle 50th group build. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle USAF 91-0603 494th 48th FW D-Day Heritage Jet - Lakenheath 2019. This was a very good excuse to add a locally based F-15E to go with a few other East Anglian based fast jets from over the past 60 odd years. I chose this as I never managed to snap a photo of this airframe with the yellow tails, but managed to get the other two. I hope one day someone produces decals for the 493rd F-15C with the blue tails. I don't know if it's true but story goes that each of the three sqaudron jets got the wrong colour tails. If that's not true then I'd like to know why. The 494 is red, 493rd yellow & the 492nd are all well known as to be blue respectively. Academy 1/72 F-15E kit (most recent) version. Really nice & fine surface detail for a 1/72 kit with plenty of pop together style contact joints. The whole kit can't be classed as a push together toy like kit as there's plenty of parts that do need glueing, but the engineering tolerances are such that is doesn't need any filler which is heaven for me. No filling sanding & cleaning up. All the decals went on really well apart from the nose checker band which I sliced up to make sure it extended all the way round the nose. that meant I had to touch up with some red & white paint. Early on in the build I really wanted to pose the canopy up with some human element going on but discovered that anything integral to tha canopy like the central brace & the rear canopy deck are actually moulded into the top of the cockpit which meant I would have had to do some unnecessary carving & chopping to extract the canopy brace from the top of the central coaming between the two seats. I did use two Aires ejection seats & the Aires jet nozzle set for this particular Academy kit which meant a lot of plastic had to be removed to accept the resin nozzle tubes into the rear. Paints used were Ammo Mig & Vallejo Metal Color. Intake blanks were scratch made out of thick sheet plasticard & downscaled the 494th Panthers logo. Just paper stuck onto the red painted blanks with white canopy glue. Extinguisher & the maintenance steps are from the Hasegawa ground crew set. I might still attach the bombs.. just hadn't initially got round to it as the 494th don't normally send their jets up fully loaded. Many thanks for looking! Martin

Just completed in the STGB... Some ref pics

Hello again, Time for another 1/48 fighter jet, this time an F-15e Strike Eagle from Great Wall Hobby. Decals were from DXM (Double Excellent Models), and the cockpit seats were from Quickboost. This took around two months to finish. This was intended to be a clean build, as I was trying to closely follow the real thing, referencing some brilliant photos by Jonathan Derden on his website (well worth a look BTW). It was going ok until the decals... don't get me wrong, they aren't bad decals as such, but the wings are something that really need to be placed in one take. The first one went on fine, but trying to line up the second one correctly.. it soon turned in to a ripped mess. If this wasn't enough, the 'sealing' varnish spray afterwards showed up how much the decals hadn't settled to the body as first thought. To make matters worse, I also managed to rip away the eagle face on the left hand side of the craft with no hope of saving the original decal I will admit to being slightly impressed with my own repair efforts by using spare decal, and painting in the eye freehand (I also found that GW/Citadels 'Administratum Grey' is a near identical match to the light grey decal colour) The last picture shows this. The other (many) mistakes were mostly masked with weathering, mainly AMMO Oilbrushers and Tamiya Weathering Powders. In general this kit was painted up using a variety of Acrylic paints, with various enamel washes used. The GWH kit itself is OK.. I'd read some mixed reviews after I'd brought it, so was expecting a bit of a challenge. Some bits just did not line up at all, whilst others fitted better than expected. Do have some plastic putty to hand though, you will need it. The Quickboost aftermarket seats were somewhat unnecessary as the ones included are of decent quality. There were plenty of times I hated how this was going with the multiple decaling issues. However now it's finished I think it isn't so bad after all. Sure the decal 'wings' aren't properly aligned, and there is still too much visible silvering for my liking, but could have been a lot worse. It's certainly given me a lot more respect for car modellers who regularly deal with large decals over difficult surfaces! As always, let me know your thoughts!

WIP thread: This kit was made over the course of 1.5 years approx, on and off project. This kit was very fun and I can definitely recommend it! Just get aftermarket exhausts!

first 1/72 kit by Great Wall Hobby: F-15E Strike Eagle item number: L7201 source: http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95825&start=1665#p1921674

1/48 Revell F-15E Eduard interior UMP primer MRP paints UMP washes MIG oil brushes Aires exhaust nozzles Mastercasters wheels QMT antenna covers Eduard sidewinders, mk82 bombs and RBF tags Plusmodel ladder Caracal Lakenheath Decals Thanks for looking

Hello all! Up next is my all time fave aircraft - the F-15E. For this build, I`ll be doing a Lakenheath `mudhen` with nose art worn during operations against isis targets circa 2018. I will also build groundcrew, equipment & an R-11 fuel tanker to place around it.

Hi! A few days ago I finished the F-15E from the Academy. Easy construction, very good detail. I just changed the nozzles to Aires. Main color painted FS36118 from AK RC. I also used Tamiya, Gunze, Vallejo and AK Xtreme metal paints.

Hi everyone This is my 1/72 F-15E made from the newly released Academy kit 12568. The kit was incredibly good quality with amazing fit and covered in recessed rivets. The only thing that disappointed me was the exhausts which where simplified and lacking a lot of detail compared to the rest of the kit. I improved them by removing the thick bits of plastic and replacing them with thin bits of wire. The model required a small bit of sanding around the area where the cockpit section connects to the rest of the fuselage but that was it. The Invasion were not included as decals and there was no information on how big they should be, so I photocopied the paint scheme and resized it to scale. This worked well and I think they came out well. The decals were very thin and went on well. They conformed to the recesses with only the need of micro set. I weathered it using oil paints for the panel lines to try make the surface more varied. I decided to try something new and bought some glow in the dark powder. I mixed this in with varnish and applied it to the formation lights. This worked out very well and I think it makes the model look very cool during the night and seems quite realistic. Thanks for looking

Hello. Here is my F-15E Strike Eagle in 1/48.

F-15E Strike Eagles of the 4th Fighter Wing team at the Gunsmoke "USAF Worldwide Fighter Gunnery Meet", Nellis AFB, November 1991. 88-1690, 336th Fighter Squadron 88-1700, 334th Fighter Squadron 89-0471, 335th Fighter Squadron 89-0489, 335th Fighter Squadron 89-0500, 334th Fighter Squadron Thanks for looking, Sven

Hello again, Here is the second model I have completed this year after another Eagle. Started this one thinking it would be a fast build to get into painting quick, and just finished it after 6 months of not a lot of free time. Very decent kit, the main issues being the simplistic exhausts and the overly thick closed canopy. Still an enjoyable build with not a lot to fix, and trying to spruce up that gunship gray was also a fun painting experience. 1/72 Academy #12550, Twobobs Da'Heath decals, KA Models exhausts, Reskit wheels, weapons from the kit, Skunkworks, GWH and Tamiya. Thanks for watching.

Popped into the 'Heath on our way over to East Anglia, some regulars flying and an interesting visitor from Mildenhall. There was a Hercules doing circuits at Sculthorpe on the Friday morning too, must have passed over the Hawk & Owl Trust nature reserve there about ten times.

Good day, fellow modelers, I have a (hopefully) simple question regarding the colour of the F-15E Strike Eagle. Yes, I know, FS 36118. However.... There are numerous photographic examples showing Strike Eagles wearing a distinctly green shade of colour. I have attached a few below. It seems to me that this cannot be a fading / weathering effect from FS 36118. The hue is too different. I also doubt that this apparent deviation from FS36118 is a result of photographic error / filters, etc. Again, FS 36118 is a distinctly blue shade of dark gray. These photos are distinctly green to me. I have spoken to Eagle drivers at airshows, and they have said that all Strike Eagles, without exception, are FS 36118. Can someone shed some light on this mystery green colour that some Strike Eagles appear to be wearing? Thank you, and Cheers!

Hi all! Recently completed 1/72 Academy F-15E. Rather than the usual all grey scheme, I went with a specially painted jet to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the 4th Fighter Wing. Lots of big decals! They are by DXM and printed by Cartograf. They are superb! I used MRP paint and added Aires exhausts because the kit exhausts are really bad.. Also added masking tape seat belts. Other than that, it was a fantastic kit to build! Thanks for looking!

This is another Strike Eagle built for the F-15 Program Office director upon his retirement. The aircraft itself is built out of the box, the cockpit bits left out and the canopy painted over to match similar desk models. There is a block of wood epoxied inside the keel to accept the brass pins of the acrylic stand and the fuselage filled with expanding foam to add some rigidity. Most of the stores come from Hasegawa weapon sets. I think all the markings are from the Revell kit, with the exception of the crew names below the windscreen. As was my practice, the pilot name was always the person receiving the model. The remaining names were usually co-workers. The acrylic stand is covered with cling film to avoid fingerprints until the model was presented. Panel lines were accented with a Paine's Grey oil wash applied over the ModelMaster enamels finish. We (the F-15 office) had just recently certified the Sniper targeting pod for carriage and. operation on the F-15E, so I had to put one on this model. The pod is my own resin casting, and it is slightly over-scale (didn't have time to try to make another master and mold). We had also just cleared a modification to add a satcom radio to the Strike, so I had to add that as well. I didn't add the radio components, but you'll notice there is a slightly raised square frame around the antenna location ahead of the windscreen. This is where we put the satcom antenna, replacing the ADF antenna. Only problem was the antenna aperture covering would start to delaminate at high speed. The quick fix, to get the mod out to the deployed OIF/OEF units, was to add a metal frame covering the edges and protecting them from the air flow. Simple but effective, and still out there today. The feedback from the crews was that it gave the Strike a little more character. I liked this kit enough that I bought one for myself, even though I normally only build 1/72 for my collection. I did keep a small stock on hand just in case I was asked for a model on short notice. Luckily, one of the local craft stores usually stocked this kit and often used to issue coupons for either 40 or 50 percent off one item, so the price was never too dear. Now that I've retired, I'll have to dispose of a couple of kits eventually - the calls asking me to provide a going away model have finally stopped. Thanks for looking, Sven

Hi all, this is the first project I've decided to post for some feedback, so go easy! This is the Revell F-15E Strike Eagle, but rather than doing a boring grey US one I decided to try some digital camo in a Israeli colour scheme. The camo was all painted using masks I cut out with my Silhouette Portrait die cutting machine. The weapons loadout is supposedly the same one they used on a long range precision bombing mission, I forget the name. I used as many generic decals from the kit as possible, but also custom printed the special Israeli ones. I didn't pre-shade, but base-coated in black, panel lines were done by lightly scratching the paint out with a scriber to uncover the base colour. I know some people like this kit, but I'm not a fan. There were some large gaps in the wing joins, and just behind the cockpit was a real PITA to try and smooth out. The fuselage near the back needed a lot of work and I seem to remember the conformal tanks or bomb pylons not being too friendly. I'm sorry to say I only took 3 pictures before it got smashed to bits by a camera falling on it. :-( After debating whether to bin it or not, I did some repairs to fit all the broken bits back on, the front gear had snapped so I had to drill out the leg and wire it up. The worst part was the nosecone had split down the seam that I was so proud of having made invisible, and I couldn't be bother to fix that. I also lost some of the bits from the cockpit, they just vanished in the crash. Oh well, I don't keep my models anyway, so I took it to work and it's lived up on a filling cabinet gathering dust ever since.

Hi everyone, This is a project I did for a very good friend of mines' 50th. Well suffice to see it could also have been for his 51st as it took over a year on and off to complete! It's based on an early configuration F-15E from the 48FW at RAF Lakenheath which we have both visited many times. Happy birthday chap! PS: Build thread can be found here:

Hi, My name is Richie and I love the smell of burnt kerosene. Having spent many hours watching the real deal with a very good friend of mine and to celebrate his 50th, I thought I'd try to emulate the superb results on this site and build a model from a unit at his local airbase, Lakenheath. As way of background I suffer from: a - an over-ambitious build programme that would require the invention of time travel to complete my collection. b - a lack of resistance to nice new shiny decals (that adds to the first issue). c - an inability to recognise that OOB is just fine in most cases. d - the view that 50 Shades of Grey is the epitome of panel weathering. e - a lack of sufficient minutes in the day to fit everything in (work, family, plastic fettling etc) I am also an Optimistic 80%er. By that I mean I will endeavour to add detail/changes when it makes a noticeable difference but lack of skills / patience may ultimately limit my AMS ambition to a level of ‘Good Enough’. And so to the challenge, a 1/48 Revell F-15E. This is going to be mostly out of the box with a few embellishments along the way. In addition, I though I'd put her in flight (not literally of course) and light her up. Unfortunately this wont be a quick and dirty build (well probably dirty). Very happy for comments, suggestions, advice etc but don’t be offended if I do something different or not quite true to life, as they say art is in the eye of the beholder. Steve, happy 50th birthday and this ones for you! Game on.

Hey everyone, I'm currently rebuilding on an old Academy F-15E which I built about 10 years ago. I'm experimenting with new tricks and learning new techniques on it but I still wan't to make it as accurate as possible. My problem is that some parts are missing. I can recreate most of them using plastic sheets but that's hopeless in the case of the drop tanks and I don't want to invest money in a rebuilt kit. F-15Es always had drop tanks on them during Desert Storm according to this website so I thought maybe I'll build a diorama with the aircraft returning after mission. Here are my questions: Did SCUD hunting F-15Es drop their tanks if they engaged the enemy during their mission? In what order are the bombs dropped from the hardpoints? I'm planning to build either loadout 1 or 4 if this makes any difference.

Had some spare time over the Christmas period and managed to finish. Overall I’m quite happy with the results. A couple of little bits that I would do differently in the future, but you live and learn! I really enjoyed this build and despite some things I have read on the internet about this kit, everything went together pretty well with only minimal filling and sanding needed. I would recommend this kit. Now the pics! Apologies if Flikr is still on the blink and not embedding. Thabks for looking and happy modeling!

Its been a helluva 12 months, hospitalised for half of it, split up with my partner, moved house and then, Donald Trump. I finally feel like mangling styrene after a years layoff and thought I’d start small. Any smaller and I’d need a microscope. This will be OOB and that teeny canopy is going to test my shaky hand but it’ll be cool to get a model built again. Not sure about about which scheme, I’m favouring the tiger stripey one. Incidentally, the new issue has the instrument panels left off back in 2011 Paint wise I’ll be continuing my experiment to make my Mr El Cheapo pre-mixes from last year that worked pretty well on this beastie. Boxes: Sprues Amazingly good detail Decals and minute canopy I'll see y'all next week! A

Hi, This is my latest build, an F-15E from the 366th Fighter Wing based at Bagram AB in 2007 during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). This is the Revell kit. All is from the box except Afterburner decals, Wolfpack OEF set, armament and an Eduard photo-etched part. Ladder is scratch-built. Comments are welcome. Enjoy ! Nico

Good Morning, just want show you my recently finished model. Revells F-15E Strike Eagle is the best F-15E Kit in 1/48 available at the best price. I added Quickboost Seats and scratched the seat rails.The rest is OOB. Painted with Revell Aqua. All the best Pete