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1/48 Revell F-15E Strike Eagle


Calum

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14 hours ago, AdriaN (MLT) said:

I'm surprised how well the nose fit onto the fuselage. Mine needed a lot of filler!
Which markings will you be doing?
I am also building this kit (different box). About to start decalling.

Nose to Fuse fit was fine. No issues at all

 

Post 19 on this thread has a photo of the decal sheet and aircraft I'm doing

Edited by Calum
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  • 3 weeks later...

Onto the painting. I spot primed a few areas and then gave it a base coat of Mr Color 305 (FS 36118). The then added some random shades of lighter and darker greys. I made some masks out of an old curtain to use as a mask  

 

F-15E-18.jpg

 

F-15E-19.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...

It's been a while since I updated this build.

 

About 9 days ago I decided, after watching a you tube video, to use a small spray gun, as opposed to an airbrush to apply the gloss coat. 3/4 of the model was fine but I hosed 1 wing resulting in a layer of clear so thick you could see it from space.

 

The only thing to do was to strip the whole model and start again.. As I use lacquer even caustic oven cleaner doesn't work so I had to use Mr Color thinner.

 

A week or so later I've got the paint back on and I went back to the tried and true Sparmax DH 103 for the gloss coat (Gaianotes).

 

F-15E-20.jpg

 

F-15E-21.jpg

 

F-15E-22.jpg

 

Onto the decals

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Im currently decalling my f15. There are hundreds of tiny black stencil decals. no matter how many you do, you still got loads left to do! the instructions are not very clear and dark so its hard to see which side they must point.

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15 hours ago, AdriaN (MLT) said:

Im currently decalling my f15. There are hundreds of tiny black stencil decals. no matter how many you do, you still got loads left to do! the instructions are not very clear and dark so its hard to see which side they must point.

Excellent I love stencils  ( I really do) :D 

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A couple of good sessions decalling and they're all on.

 

Typically I put no thought into where the decals would go when I decided to stick on the pitot and AOA blanks.. And equally typically the lovely nose art goes over areas where the blanks are.

 

After much stuffing around I managed to get the decals in approximately the correct positions. I did have cut the decals in places to fit them around the blanks.

 

The decals are from Speedhunter and printed by Cartogragh so performed magnificently. The only criticism is that the formation lights aren't the right size for the kit. I used the Kit ones on the wing tips but managed to put those on the wrong side DOH! I will end up touching these up with paint.

 

F-15E-23.jpg

 

F-15E-24.jpg

 

F-15E-25.jpg

 

The kit also doesn't have formation lighting detail on the rear fuselage. Using the kit decals as template I used my Silhouette cutter to cut some out of 0.005" plastic card.. Once the glue dries I'll paint them grey then paint the light itself.

 

F-15E-26.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Flat Coat on. I used Winsor and Newton Galeria Matt varnish.

 

I bought some of this a while ago and used in on a couple of builds. I stopped using it for an reasons that now escape me.

I saw it mentioned on Jamie Haggo's FB page and after reading his post and a few other positive comments , I figured I

d give it another go but and thin it with IPA (as many suggested) this time, rather than water as I had in the past. The first things I tried it were the weapons, it needed 2 coats but it did spray nice and flat.

 

F-15E-29.jpg

 

However, when I used it on kit itself, lots of very tiny white spots were evident  in the photos (not this set) but not so much with the naked eye , just right for the season not so great on an F-15E 

 

Obviously it could have been something I did, although I'm not sure what, it was well mixed with the IPA and the airbrush was clean (it only gets used for clear coats and I'd sprayed Gaianotes gloss through it last time . The only thing I can think of was that it was over 30 deg's C when I sprayed it . 

 

These photos are after I've addressed the spots by rubbing with Micromesh and applied some airbrush touch ups (lets call it weathering :D ) . I did try it again and got a better result but there were still a few little spec's of white. Again it was quite hot when I sprayed it so perhaps it doesn't like really hot weather. I do like how flat it sprays but need to work out why the white

 

I have since re coated it with Gaianotes flat.

 

F-15E-30.jpg

 

F-15E-31.jpg

 

F-15E-32.jpg

 

F-15E-33.jpg

 

F-15E-34.jpg

 

 

Edited by Calum
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  • 6 months later...

After a 6 months on hiatus I dragged this back out a week ago and have been making some progress, The design of the main undercarriage and doors on this kit is excellent making it easy to fit. The nose gear and door is supposed to be fitted very early on but you can leave it to later if you're happy to spend a bit of time finding the right angles to get the door and rear wall of the undercarriage bay in. The nose gear can also be forced into it's proper location.

 

The wheels are from Royale resin. Still, IMHO the best suppler of modern jet wheels. They fitted the kit legs perfectly 

 

F-15E-35.jpg

 

F-15E-36.jpg

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Some more weapons work

 

F-15E-37.jpg

 

Not far to go now. I really went to town with the RBF tags. They are mixture of Aerobonus, Eduard (both the steel and older type) and HGW (HGW on the aircraft for the how and 2 vents at the rear only) .

 

The Aerobonus and Eduard steel are my preferred as they ar easy to position and wire up.

 

The HGW are ok but annoying to use as they have to be stuck together and then you have to paint the eageds. Plus you have to be careful when wiring them up as it is easy to rip the end where the hole is.

 

With all the weapons on I was surprised how close the GBU 12 were to the tanks (I'll get a photo later to show this). The stores clearance trials on the F-15E must have been interesting.

The tanks are in the lighter grey as they are depicting "war stock" tanks that these strike eagles used duringOperation Iraqi Freedom

 

F-15E-38.jpg

 

F-15E-39.jpg

 

F-15E-40.jpg

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On 7/27/2019 at 7:48 PM, Maxwellphillips said:

I'm building the Academy version, had a right game with conformal tanks, one side has gone on perfect, but the other side is terrible 😭

 

Yours is looking great though, really like the paint work

I have one of them on my bench. As far as I remember I did not have such problem assembing the cft on both sides.

42.jpg

43.jpg

 

The camo is for my another ongoing F-15 project. This kit was used for self printed decal fit test...

 

Serkan

 

Edited by Serkan Sen
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13 hours ago, Serkan Sen said:

I have one of them on my bench. As far as I remember I did not have such problem assembing the cft on both sides.

42.jpg

43.jpg

 

The camo is for my another ongoing F-15 project. This kit was used for self printed decal fit test...

 

Serkan

 

I think it's my own impatience that is causing my issues 😁

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