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Lakenheath F-15E - not sure which bird just yet!


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Here's my entry with the Revell 1/48th E bird - I will build it OOB with some LN decals being the only addons not in the original box. I'm still deciding which squadron from the 48th TFW to build this bird as, but that's one to decide on later.

 

Here are the obligatory sprue shots and one of the pit with some tamiya primer on there. I only started 45 minutes ago, so will get some progress done over the weekend I hope, especially if the snow hits hard and makes SWMBO and the kids stay indoors - working in the garage at -5 or -6 is never great, but we must persevere eh? :-)

 

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Tiny bit more progress... intakes put together and installed -  I haven't worried about the seams this time around as I will be making some intake covers. And the dark grey seems to look a bit washed out in the tub pic - probably the camera flash.

 

No idea on ordnance yet - perhaps a light load as I have a load of decent reference pics of these birds sitting at the Lakenheath Last chance pad as I seem to go up there once a month to watch them.

Decalwise I think I have some Astra Decals ASD-4801B in the stash somewhere...

 

From what I have seen so far, this kit goes together REALLY well - a dry fit of the fuselage halves was 99% perfect first time. I'm liking that!

 

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Bit more... when painting the gatling gun piece guess what pinged out of the tweezers and was eaten by the garage floor monster? (no carpet monster for me out there!) Can anyone see it for me? :-)

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Then moving on I drilled out a vent, tactically applied some nice brass mesh (the drilled hole needs some small sanding to smooth it out) and then joined up the main fuselage - terrific fit too!

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Edited by Greg B
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I used to think the HobbyBoss Demon was the king of fits, but this Revell Eagle is simply amazing - its almost snapfix! There is nothing yet that even hints at needing any filler! "nd pic shows the nose section dry fitted together and mated to the fuselage.

 

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Here's my entry with the Revell 1/48th E bird - I will build it OOB with some LN decals being the only addons not in the original box. I'm still deciding which squadron from the 48th TFW to build this bird as, but that's one to decide on later.

Here are the obligatory sprue shots and one of the pit with some tamiya primer on there. I only started 45 minutes ago, so will get some progress done over the weekend I hope, especially if the snow hits hard and makes SWMBO and the kids stay indoors - working in the garage at -5 or -6 is never great, but we must persevere eh? :-)

Glad to know I am not the only one who has a SWMBO. Rare species but extremely necessary. Your work so far is excellent.

Regards,

Montgomery

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Blimey this crap weather is letting me get on with this kit! Love that. Shame about the freezing garage, but one must soldier on eh chaps?

 

The main fuselage is coming together - I spoke too soon about needing filler, but I think only having to apply some in one area is more than acceptable - still needs a little more filling and sanding though.I thought I'd have a stab at making some FOD covers for the engine intakes with Milliput too - took a bit of fannying about to get the right size, but I will treat these as the first attempt...

 

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I managed to find an old Aries F-15E resit pit so thought I'd see how it fitted - Blimey talk about almost a perfect fit from the word go.... the nose section is only taped together for dry fit purposes though.

 

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With the kit tub I thought i'd try something to replicate wear and tear - basically paint the tub in dark grey with black panels - let it all dry, then apply some Fairy Power Spray to start stripping it... then you are left with the results below - some further painting with a fine brush can be used to touch it up as necessary. As I said, more of an experiment than anything else at this point in time. I will most likely get a new Aries tub as they are so dang fine for this bird!

 

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The Aries cockpit looks really good Chris.

 

On a car modelling forum a guy posted that he has lost an entire finished model. Now that is extreme carpet monster theft. :shutup:

How can you lose an entire model?

Unless of course his SWMBO took it out on him for spending time playing with models and not her and threw it out?

Monty

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Bit more this evening - not a lot though as it's -6 out in the garage/mancave - my fingers are a little stiff!

I noticed this branding on the Revell kit....so took it off as you do.

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Got the FAST packs on...

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As I've decided to put the Aries pit in, I needed to build the forward undercarriage bay shape properly for mating to the nose sections below the Aries pit - I basically dry fitted it onto the kit tub, glued the walls together and then lifted if off with the correct shape. Some initial dry fits shows that this box can be attached to the fuselage halves with about 1mm to spare with the Aries tub perched above - perfect! this also save me having to thin the Aries floor down to the point of semi transparency. I also started to mask up the Aries tub - I wont use their sidewalls as the kit ones are 99% identical already so there's no point in sanding them down only to add the Aries ones. Again, dry fitting the resin tub looks triffic with the kit sidewalls anyway IMHO.

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and whilst test fitting the FAST packs, I always have the obligatory cup of tea in the bg for inspiration! Hope to get some more done over the weekend.

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Fast progress on your Mudhen Chris. That Aires pit will look superb. Keep up the good work.

Cheers.

p.s. As an aside, if you ever build another Eagle, that hole that you opened up is the JFS exhaust and later airframes just had the hollow mouth of the exhaust pipe showing with no mesh. ;)

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Started on the Aries pit this afternoon - some more red and yellow buttons to be added. One conundrum I now have is whether to keep the kit ip coaming and graft the kit front seat ip onto the aries tub, or go for broke, remove the kit ip coaming and use the aries one supplied in that kit... Hmmm not sure yet.... the difference between the 2 ip coamings is really negligible IMHO.

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