F-15C "Fighting Eagle" (Limited Edition) - 1:48 Eduard

[Mike]

F-15C "Fighting Eagle" (Limited Edition)
1:48 Eduard

The F-15 began life in the 60s as a set of requirements for an air-to-air or "Air Superiority" fighter, after lessons learned in Vietnam that resulted in gun pods being hastily added to the then-current Phantoms for close-in fighting. The prototype first flew in the early 70s, with single and dual seat editions finally getting the designations F-15A and F-15B respectively. It took until 1978 to reach production, and in starting in 1978 the single seat C model was introduced with improved capabilities.

The F-15's capabilities have been demonstrated to full effect over the years, initially in the hands of the Israelis and later in the Gulf Wars where it dispatched Mig-29s and other Russian-made Iraqi aircraft with impunity. Later models introduced true multi-role capabilities and conformal fuel tanks, with the more recent "Silent Eagle" programme introducing stealth capabilities such as RAM, canted tails and internal weapons stowage.

The Kit
The styrene within this boxing is that of Academy, and continues Eduard's successful relationship with them which includes their Mig-29 and Lockheed P-38 kits to name a few. Many words have been spoken about this kit already on the internet, and it is known to have a few flaws (what kit doesn't?), such as the exaggerated engine humps on the top fuselage, enlarged engine pods on the lower, and a few fit issues with the early releases that possibly persist. Elements of the kit have been retooled, and it would appear that sink-mark issues have been addressed too, as this kit seems not to have any in the oft mentioned points.

The box is a large top-opener with a blue background that has (surprise surprise!) a painting of an Eagle on the front. Inside are nine sprues of medium grey styrene bagged in pairs, a clear sprue three bags of resin parts, a bag with three sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) metal, one of which is pre-painted, a bag of pre-cut kabuki masking material, two large decal sheets and the usual Eduard glossy instruction booklet, which is printed in colour and has the painting and decaling instructions on the back pages. The inside cover has a layout of the sprues printed on it, and you can see straight away that a lot of the parts aren't used, particularly those on the weapons sprues, but also more dotted around the rest of the sprues, some of which are replaced by resin or PE assemblies for extra detail.

Straight away the construction starts to mix in the additional detail of the PE sheets, replacing the instrument panel with a laminated, pre-painted alternative that has additional levers added from tiny PE parts. The rear bulkhead is stripped of moulded in detail and a new skin is added, to which a bunch of equipment boxes are installed, while the space left for the rear-seat is filled with more boxes all down the port side, all of which are built up from PE parts with small grab-handles added to top and front areas. The sidewalls on the kit are blank, which is remedied by PE skins added inside the nose section, to which more equipment boxes and details are added before the nose is joined (not forgetting an unspecified nose-weight) and the cockpit and nose gear bay slid inside, before adding the nose gear and the resin replacement nose wheel. The kit coaming is improved by the addition of a PE HUD with two sections of acetate film representing the glass parts.

The cockpit is further enhanced by a new ejector seat that is made up from three resin parts, and a multitude of PE parts that give it a suitably busy look. The launch rail is made from resin with PE small parts, and the seatbelts are pre-painted to finish off the look, but there are a couple of options on the belts if you're looking for extra accuracy for your chosen scheme, but how you'd find out which one is appropriate is a good question. The canopy is moulded in two parts, and nice and clear with the exception of the centre section of the large blown opening section, which is a little cloudy to my eyes. You have to remove the central moulding seam from the outside anyway, so perhaps the cloudiness will disappear once that is done, and the canopy has been dipped in Klear/Future to enhance its clarity. The canopy glues onto its frame, has a set of PE rear-view mirrors added, and is attached at the rear, with a pair of jacks supporting it, the tip of one of which will need to be removed to accommodate the new parts. The windscreen simply glues to the front of the cockpit opening over the upgraded coaming.

The Academy kit was on of the first F-15 kits to include alternate intake ramps to depict the engine at rest or sucking in extra air at certain points in its flight envelope, which are chosen during construction of the main intakes that mate with the fuselage and the twin intake tubes that lead to the front faces of the engines. Take care with the construction of these sections, as they are known to be areas where pitfalls are waiting for you. The twin intake trunks are sandwiched between the fuselage halves, which are split horizontally, and the starboard rearmost part of the sponson and pen-nib between the engines are removed to accommodate new parts for this version. The kit burner cans are replaced entirely by a pair of resin exhaust trunks that are absolutely exquisite in the level of detail they depict. The rear of the engine is included, with a four-part PE afterburner ring, followed by the exhaust trunking, and the exhaust petals, which have 15 PE actuators attached all around the ring. The Exhaust pair is then slotted into the rear of the fuselage, and improve the detail hugely, although they would probably be better left off until after painting to avoid a potentially difficult masking job.

The relatively small wings of the Eagle are added to the sides of the engine pods by double tabs that mate with corresponding slots in the fuselage, while the stabilators fit into holes in the rear, about which they are able to rotate, and can be set to a more candid angle is you wish. The ailerons are moulded into the wings, so would need to be cut free in order to mobilise them, which would involve a little extra work. The twin tails fit into slots on the rear of the engine deck and have asymmetrical top sections with sensors within. The large dorsal airbrake housing is set into the fuselage spine, and here you have the option of setting it flush with the surrounding panels, or deployed, exposing the interior of the bay. If choosing the deployed option there are some small PE brackets to adorn the inside of the brake, and a small PE skin for the rear of the cockpit spine, as well as a little blade antenna just forward of there on the spine insert. When the nose is joined to the fuselage, another skin part in PE is added to the rear of the cockpit aperture, and attention then moves to the landing gear and their bays.

The nose gear bay is by now complete, and simply needs its two doors, which are skinned with detailed PE parts, and a number of brackets and hinge parts. A few PE blade antennae are added fore and aft of the bay, and a short piece of wire will be needed to complete the door opening jack. The main gear bays have two simple doors that are supplied with the kit, but the legs are improved by replacing the plastic oleo-scissor with a more detailed PE part, and in order to accommodate the new resin wheels, the brake detail needs removing from around the axle, to be replaced by the detail moulded into the separate rear hub of the new resin wheel.

The F-15 is quite a weapons truck, and has four hard-points on its lifting-body fuselage, with a pylon under the middle of each wing. The fuselage mounting points are skinned with detailed PE inserts, with additional small PE parts improving the detail further. The underwing pylons are fitted with additional launchers on each side for Sidewinders, AIM-120 AMRAAMs or AIM-7 Sparrows. The main shackles are cut off the pylon and replaced by a more detailed PE part, and a pair of large extra fuel tanks are added to them to finish off.

Although the main build by this stage is complete, one option, an ANG F-15 has a large number of tiny PE parts added to it that are specific to this aircraft only, which includes slime-lights, as well as a lot of scabbed on strengthening plates. The parts remain unused for the other decal options.

Markings
There are four marking options included in the box, all of which have either painted tails or nose art, which takes up the majority of the larger decal sheet. From the box you can build one of the following:

• -C series Bu.No. 78-0547 Flown by Col. Jeff Silver, CO of 137th Fighter Wing, Oregon ANG, Kingsley Field, 2012. FS36251 with FS36176 panel centres on the upper side. Black swooping eagle motif on the tails.
• -C-25-MC series Bu.No. 76-0053 flown by Lt.Col. Jack Fry, Co of 53rd TFS, Bitburg AFB Germany, early 80s. FS36375 with FS36320 panel centres on the upper side. Yellow/black tiger-striped motif on the tails.
• -A series Bu.No. 76-0111 flown by Lt.Col. John Kugler, CO of 318 FIS, Castle AFB, October 1988. FS36375 with FS36320 panel centres on the upper side. Tactical Air Command compass motif on the tails.
• -C-24-MC series Bu.No. 79-0032 flown by Col. Lee Alton, CO of 32nd TFS Soesterberg AB, Netherlands, late 80s. FS36375 with FS36320 panel centres on the upper side. Wolfhounds noseart on the port side.
  

The main sheet is printed by Cartograf, and up to their usual standards of register, colour density and sharpness, as you would expect. The stencils are numerous on an F-15, and are covered by a separate sheet of decals that is printed in-house by Eduard on white backing paper. Despite looking a little "old skool" due to the white paper, the stencils are very well printed, with good register and every stencil legible under magnification. The positioning of the stencils on the airframe, pylons and weapons is covered on two separate pages at the back of the instruction booklet, and should take up a good quantity of time, simply due to their large numbers. You will need to make sure that they are applied on a nice glossy surface in order to avoid silvering, as an area of carrier film is visible between the parts of these small decals by necessity.

Conclusion
While the base kit does have a few shape issues that are visible to the more experienced Eagle fan (as do all Eagles in this scale), the majority of modellers will simply see a well-tooled modern kit that can't be mistaken for anything other than an F-15. The addition of a sizeable quantity of resin, plus three large sheets of Photo-Etched parts really adds value to the package, and should add hours of extra modelling improving the kit with the extra details. A crew figure is included in the box if you feel the urge to use it, although it would be a shame to cover up that lovely replacement seat.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Stephen]

Nice review Mike.

Stephen

[Shaun]

Nice review Mike, very detailed.

Does anyone know if the wheel and exhaust set will be released as separate items?, they look the biz!

Shaun.

[Stephen]

They probably will be released separately.

Stephen

[EricP]

Great review, Mike!

I'd just like to make a minor point correction / addition ... in the review you wrote "The Academy kit was first F-15 kit to include alternate intake ramps to depict the engine at rest or sucking in extra air at certain points in its flight envelope". Back in 1975 or so, I had my little grubby hands on the Tamiya 1/48 F-15A that also had alternate parts for this feature. That kit is long OOP, and I don't know if they carried that feature forward to the F-15C kit that succeeded it.

Edit: Me being curious like the proverbial feline and the info being a few clicks away, I checked and confirmed that the current Tamiya F-15C kit does in fact supply the alternate parts. Have a look here, and click on the instructions pages: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10002308

Edited June 17, 2013 by EricP

[Mike]

Thanks for the clarification - updated

[Filler]

Nice review Mike. I've been deliberating over this kit for a little while because I really wanted to do the Soesterberg Wolfhounds aircraft and this seems to be the only source for the decals (although I think Astra decals are planning a set). The big problem was the overgrown engine humps and particularly how they'd look sat next to a Hasegawa version. But your review may have just sold me as those extras look worth the trade off and at a good all in price versus a Hasegawa kit and all the separate aftermarket parts and decals it would need.