Alan P Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 (edited) I've been hassling people over in the Modern Aircraft forum, so I ought to show what I've been doing! Due to my recent knee operation and the startlingly good recovery I've been making, I've had plenty of opportunity to build, so I'm aiming to finish this and a 1/32 MiG-29 before I have to go back to work!Firstly I must say BIG thank yous to people on this forum: Canberra Fan for the astonishingly generous donation of the kit and all the aftermarket bits! (Yes he really did!) Stephen on this forum who has lent me the Lock-On and Squadron Walk Around books for the F-15C, which have proved invaluable. Thanks! The build is from the Tamiya 1/32 kit, with copious aftermarket items including Black Box cockpit, Cutting Edge seamless intakes, Eduard exterior, masks and placard set. As usual, I started in the cockpit: Usual stuff here, enamels mostly with acrylics and wash for the panels - obviously I used the Eduard main instrument panel for the sharp detail it provides. The early Eagles had the very fetching metallic green-blue primer in the avionics bay, for which Xtracolour conveniently do an exact match (X159), although it takes a good 48 hours to dry!! All the detail is acrylic hand painted and Eduard placards. Unfortunately, I can't get any decent shots down the intakes, which actually look excellent (the kit parts leave a massive seam down both sides of the duct. The afterburner ducts have exactly the same problem but can be mostly hidden by painting the scorch effects). Should have a whole day to devote to this very nice kit, hopefully it will have reached the point of major assembly by this time tomorrow! By the way, if anyone does have any F-15C-style wheels from the Revell kit they'd like to swap for the Tamiya E-type ones, please drop me a line Edited January 14, 2018 by Alan P 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Looks great. Will be watching this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shar2 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Lovely start Al, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Good start Al, a knee op eh ! An injury, no doubt gallantly sustained through you're requirement to grovel in the quest for info on the old beast !, a worthy war wound old fella. Glad to hear your recovering well, knees can be funny johnnies. The Black Box and Eduard sets certainly look the part. I was clearing out the loft recently due to the impending 'big push' and came across several part built models that I'd forgotten all about including an almost done 1/32nd Revell F15C, ( that was going to be a Bitburg bird too), I'm not sure but I may have the wheels banging about somewhere, I'll have a good look see and let you know...meanwhile carry on the good work..I'll expect it done by Friday... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave A Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Superb work there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpc7676 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 AWESOME work thus far Phatness, keep it up mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Good start there Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 (edited) Thanks, folks. I managed to get some pics down the pipes, as it were. This is the Cutting Edge seamless intake with kit compressor face and inlet guide vanes. They are a massive improvement on the kit parts, and I'm so glad they were included in the kit! Major parts assembled: Looks like both wings could do with a spacer to bulge the mid-chord to be flush with the fuselage edge. Note for the next time I suppose... One last detail - the gun. There is a removable panel over it, so it's worth doing nicely! Enough for today, best let the putty dry overnight! Al Edited January 15, 2018 by Alan P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerUK9 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 (edited) Evening Al, Great choice of subject, certainly makes a refreshing change from the -E That's a beautiful cockpit; are the decals part of the BB set? Same compliment can be paid to all the painting done so far! Interesting means of joining wings to fuselage - on the plus side, I guess they can't droop while gluing... Best of luck with the knee, but if I were you I'd keep the 'extraordinary recovery' under wraps while you cash in on the additional building time Tim Edited October 13, 2012 by HammerUK9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark73 Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Great job so far, that cockpit looks amazing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Great work so far Al, keep up the recovery. Stephen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Al you've been done !!..it says Flanker on the box..............shame they don't do seamless exhausts as well as intakes but you're dead right not to bother trying to rectify it..be a bugger to get to and as you say can hardly be seen once the nozzles are on. Strange issue with the fit, I would have thought that the thing would have pulled itself together flush once tightened up but obviously not !, Look forward to progress, Melchie.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger 9 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Sir, There are modellers and there are modellers. You sir, are a modeller. One looks forward to the continuing excellence of the bulid. Tally ho and all that, Monty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 (edited) Thanks very much folks! All that ship building I did last year has paid off with attention to fine details. The decals are actually placards from the Eduard placard set, seems to be a must for me there days if the kit has one. I attempted to fix the wings by doing a shaped shim to fit the seam and then fairing it in with putty. I'll see how that works later. Otherwise it could be a job for milliput. Thanks for the compliments especially Monty, still working that one out! Al Edited October 14, 2012 by PHaTNesS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Looks great Al...hope your knee gets better soon (but not TOO soon!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Aviator Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Great work so far! I will keep watching.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenshb Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Looks like a promising start:) The cockpit looks pretty good, but the wing/fuslage join looks very un-Tamiya-like. will you be using the Two Mikes nozzles or modifying the kit ones? Jens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 Thanks folks. Jens, I'm just using the kit ones. Two Mikes version didn't particularly great to be honest. Once I'd filled in all the ejector pin marks, they scrubbed up pretty well. As for un-Tamiya-like, well for its era it's probably to be expected, and as it was free I can't really complain. However, the wing problems have set me back two days and are a pretty big mistake in design. Considering the effort the kit engineering shows in trying to make the join very close to the actual shape of the wing, and the perfect alignment of the wings once fitted, it's a real mystery. And a serious headache to rectify, more scribing ahead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) You didn't put the wings on upside down by accident did you Al...... From what I've seen the kit nozzles look OK, shame you can't get hold of the Cutting Edge ones, they look pretty good too... Great memories of thunderous F-15A airshow routines at Mildenhall, Alconbury and Bentwaters in the late seventies flown by two great display pilots from the 525th TFS 'Bulldogs', Lt's Mike Bebo and Dan Overstreet.............ahh, those really were the days.. Edited October 15, 2012 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 Now you're talking! RIAT 1983 was a memorable one for me, the F-15C bloke from Bitburg won the best solo display trophy for an absolutely heart-racing show. The idea that an aeroplane could accelerate straight up into a clear blue sky and actually disappear from view in a matter of seconds was a completely new concept for me! You never know, this might actually be that very plane... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) True Al........up til then we had to put up with the Lightning !! The first time I saw one was at Greenham Common back in '76, along with an F-14A....mien Gott.... never seen anything like it...the Eagle driver ended his routine by spectacularly scraping (and scrapping) his tail feathers along the runway during an over zealous high alpha landing amid a shower of expensive sparks. Not surprisingly the back up aircraft and pilot flew the second day ! ! the red faced number one was nowhere to be seen... Edited October 15, 2012 by general melchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 (edited) Oh yeah, but I never saw a Lightning take off into a clear blue sky... Here's the fix for the wings, came out OK with a bit of convincing from Mr Dremel: Also painted the interior of the nozzles and assembled them - now they fit properly at least! More pics when dawn breaks again... Al Edited January 15, 2018 by Alan P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenshb Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 The main problem with the kit nozzles is that they are too long by about 6 mm, and the extend too far behind the hook fairing and the kink in the tail fin support booms. The Cutting Edge nozzles are cropped versions of the Tamiya parts (they even feature the same chamfered ends as the kit to make them look thinner). The Two Mikes nozzles look better, but personally I expect more of an improvement for £30... The Flightpath nozzles and exhausts...has anyone successfully managed to get these built up and made them look good? They seem awfully fiddly to say the least. I have the same kit in the stash for a rainy day or when Aires makes a set of exhausts. Jens 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 The Flightpath nozzles and exhausts...has anyone successfully managed to get these built up and made them look good? I would say yes they have! http://www.arcair.co...-Wilson/09.shtm geedubelyer's is still my favourite rendition of the Strike Eagle of the ones I've seen built up. I can guarantee mine won't look like that, but I'm still confident the kit nozzles can be made to look reasonable. Especially after carefully cutting, sanding and scraping all 64 tiny pieces off the sprues this afternoon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenshb Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 (edited) Give that man a cigar! For us mortals; go on Aires - you know you want to... Jens Edited October 16, 2012 by jenshb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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