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Academy F-15E


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So I'm picking up the hobby after about 10 years out. Getting started on this kit I've had since last time I did modelling:

 

IMG_20190312_170227

 

 

It's got a small number of photo etched parts which I've not done before, and I've also picked up a super cheap airbrush to try my hand at that, so, probably foolishly, I'm chucking a load of new skills at this kit! 

 

All I've done so far is seats. Just brushed some Humbrol gloss cote on them ready to give weathering/panel highlighting a crack. I've got a load of artist pencils, so going to be using those as a start. 

 

IMG_20190312_165706

 

 

As you can see, one of the belts slipped, but I feel like I will do more damage by trying to move it now it's dry, so I'm just gonna live with it. 

 

Excited to be getting back into this, and will hopefully be sharing more photos soon! 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally made some progress on the cockpit, got everything in and glued. Realised I'd some how used the wrong consoles, these ones are the numbers shown in the instructions 

IMG_20190324_113456

 

So not 100% sure where I found or how I used the others! 

 

That said, I think it looks OK, even if the colours are a little plain

 

IMG_20190324_113807

 

IMG_20190324_112837

 

IMG_20190324_112846

 

Cheers

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The Academy Eagle makes up into a good model (I've built the Eduard boxing) - just make sure that you check the fit of major components before final fixing them in place.

 

Your boxing has a good choice of weapons and nice nose art decals!

 

Mike

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I'm having trouble the the air intakes on this. As you can see from the image below, this is as close as I can get the air intakes to be flush, because of a little nub that sticks out. And I can't cut the nub away, because it's there for an indent on the outside of the model. If I put the intakes above the nub, they're too high and leave a huge gap just past the leading edge. I could cut a piece out of the intake, but I'm worried it'll look naff. Anyone have any ideas/built this model before? 

 

IMG_20190402_200445

Intakes behind the nub

 

IMG_20190402_200459

 

 

IMG_20190402_201023

Intakes on top of the nub

 

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Re the "nub"

 

I can't remember exactly what I did when building my F-15E but it is quite hard to get a seamless intake - so I gave up and used the FOD guards (B5 & B8) that were in the kit!

The indent on the outside of the fuselage that corresponds to the "nub" will be covered by the conformal fuel tanks (F1 & F2) - so removing the nub on the inside doesn't matter.

 

Before glueing the upper and lower fuselage halves together,  check how well they fit with  D24 and the completed forward fuselage/cockpit section - you may need to brace (with plasticard strips) inside the two main fuselage halves to avoid a nasty step where D24 joins.

 

Hope this helps

 

Mike

 

 

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6 hours ago, FortyEighter said:

Re the "nub"

 

I can't remember exactly what I did when building my F-15E but it is quite hard to get a seamless intake - so I gave up and used the FOD guards (B5 & B8) that were in the kit!

The indent on the outside of the fuselage that corresponds to the "nub" will be covered by the conformal fuel tanks (F1 & F2) - so removing the nub on the inside doesn't matter.

 

Before glueing the upper and lower fuselage halves together,  check how well they fit with  D24 and the completed forward fuselage/cockpit section - you may need to brace (with plasticard strips) inside the two main fuselage halves to avoid a nasty step where D24 joins.

 

Hope this helps

 

Mike

 

 

Awesome, thanks for the advice Mike. If it's covered, I might have a go at attacking the nub with a knife, see if I can make some room. I've just painted the inside of the intakes, so hoping I don't have to resort to covering them up!  Also, not tried using plasticard before either, so it's another new skill I can have a crack at! 

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A tiny bit more progress: got the fuselage and engine nozzles together

IMG_20190407_165211

The fiddliest things in the known universe

IMG_20190409_165117

 

 

@FortyEighter thanks for the tips on putting it together, will be needing the tiniest of wedges and a bit of sanding to line up properly. 

 

I also found out that Tamiya X-21 Flat Base is not actually a flat base, dunno what gave me that idea 🙄 very nearly ruined the nozzles, but a quick wash in water and I'm hoping they'll be good to go with a decent primer on. 

 

On the plus side, I broke my ankle last week playing basket ball, so I'll have more time to work on this. Every cloud etc 😁

 

 

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51 minutes ago, Maxwellphillips said:

 

I also found out that Tamiya X-21 Flat Base is not actually a flat base, dunno what gave me that idea 🙄 very nearly ruined the nozzles, but a quick wash in water and I'm hoping they'll be good to go with a decent primer on. 

 

On the plus side, I broke my ankle last week playing basket ball, so I'll have more time to work on this. Every cloud etc 😁

 

 

The Tamiya flat base works if you mix it with their clear coat to knock the sheen down. I think you need to apply it in a 10:1 (gloss to flat) ratio to get it to work. Hope this helps.

 

You'll fit in just fine here, a broken ankle is a plus to get more bench time!😋

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2 hours ago, RadMax8 said:

The Tamiya flat base works if you mix it with their clear coat to knock the sheen down. I think you need to apply it in a 10:1 (gloss to flat) ratio to get it to work. Hope this helps.

 

You'll fit in just fine here, a broken ankle is a plus to get more bench time!😋

Thanks for the tip. I bought it thinking it was a primer of some kind 🤦‍♂️

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On 24/03/2019 at 14:40, Maxwellphillips said:

Finally made some progress on the cockpit, got everything in and glued.

The cockpit looks great, Max! :like: And welcome back to the hobby.

 

5 hours ago, Maxwellphillips said:

On the plus side, I broke my ankle last week playing basket ball, so I'll have more time to work on this.

Sorry to hear it. But I hope you’ll finish your F-15E during the recovery time!

 

Cheers! 🤝

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More, very slow, updates.

 

Got the nozzles painted using Vallejo Model Metallic Air Gunmetal, with a light coat of black, and a dusting of bright brass, just need to add some weathering and Tamiya clear blue to show some heat stress on the outside. Thinking of using graphite to give a dirty, matt look. Had trouble spraying very light coats of the Vallejo paints, and I got a lot of stuttering and couldn't get a very light, fine coat. After looking online, it might be due to tip try, so will get some flow aid/retarder in the near future and see if that helps. Also need to paint the insides white and give some sort of black wash. From photos they look like they're ceramic coated and covered in soot. 

 

IMG_20190417_171755IMG_20190417_171729

 

 And my reference photos 

Screenshot_20190326_211052_com.android.chrome

 

Screenshot_20190326_211017_com.android.chrome

 

 

Still waiting to get some plasticard to sort out the gap between the nose and the fuselage sections. That's my bottle neck at the minute, so just bumming around doing little bits I can get on with. 

 

Cheers

 

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On 4/9/2019 at 3:06 PM, Maxwellphillips said:

Thanks for the tip. I bought it thinking it was a primer of some kind 🤦‍♂️

No problem! Us Maxwells got to stick together!

 

I think it’s gotten everyone in the hobby at one point or another, so don’t feel too bad.

 

Also, your nozzles look awesome!

 

 

Edited by RadMax8
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  • 1 month later...

Kind of lost all motivation for this recently. Been picking at it here and there, but through a mixture misaligned panels and attempts to cover up some mistakes I made, I just seem to have made everything worse than it already was :(

 

I have very little experience with filling and sanding plastic models, so it's all just a bit of trial and error. I'm hoping primer will cover most of the terrible sanding, but then I'll be able to see the awful attempts at line scribing 🤦‍♂️

 

Think I'm just gonna power through and chalk it up to experience, and hope to improve on my next project! 

 

 

IMG_20190608_155223

 

IMG_20190608_155234

 

IMG_20190608_155216

 

 

IMG_20190608_155208

 

 

Cheers

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42 minutes ago, Getting Old said:

Some kits are sent to challenge us and teach us new skills. I'm sure that you'll bring this up to your standards. Keep at it :like: 

 

How's the ankle doing? :clif:

Thanks mate, I think that's my issue, my standards are too high for my skill level 😁

 

Ankle is much better cheers, been able to start running on it for the past week or so, feels good to be up and doing exercise again! 

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11 minutes ago, Maxwellphillips said:

Thanks mate, I think that's my issue, my standards are too high for my skill level 😁

 

Ankle is much better cheers, been able to start running on it for the past week or so, feels good to be up and doing exercise again! 

High standards are good otherwise there wouldn't be any challenges in life or model making :thumbsup:

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Interested in how this Academy kit fits after getting my fingers a bit burnt on the F-16.  Lovely surface detail & it looked promising but much wasnt to the standard I hoped.  Nice work so far

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On 08/06/2019 at 20:49, bar side said:

Interested in how this Academy kit fits after getting my fingers a bit burnt on the F-16.  Lovely surface detail & it looked promising but much wasnt to the standard I hoped.  Nice work so far

I think the poor fitment is more me being impatient than a poor kit, although the nose is a little difficult to place, as there are no guides or anything, and I couldn't get the wings to be any closer than a mm or so to the body. The wings themselves, and the tail fins, engines etc have all gone together well 

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