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F-15 Strike Eagle colour question...


CheekyRascal

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Good day, fellow modelers,

 

I have a (hopefully) simple question regarding the colour of the F-15E Strike Eagle. 

 

Yes, I know, FS 36118. However....

 

There are numerous photographic examples showing Strike Eagles wearing a distinctly green shade of colour. I have attached a few below. It seems to me that this cannot be a fading / weathering effect from FS 36118. The hue is too different. I also doubt that this apparent deviation from FS36118 is a result of photographic error / filters, etc. Again, FS 36118 is a distinctly blue shade of dark gray. These photos are distinctly green to me.  I have spoken to Eagle drivers at airshows, and they have said that all Strike Eagles, without exception, are FS 36118. Can someone shed some light on this mystery green colour that some Strike Eagles appear to be wearing? Thank you, and Cheers!

583-D6748-EA5-F-4-BD5-8774-E1615322-DF65

6826064-B-2-CF4-466-F-849-F-AC5-E4-A2-C9

4-FE8-E584-5-F6-C-4-AC1-8-AA1-E2-F4-C426

Edited by CheekyRascal
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I swear I was just reading another topic about the color variations of the Strike Eagle. Oh right! Here ya go: 

 

 

It's only one color. No shades, tints, hues, etc. If it looks like another color it's because of the camera lens, the lighting, the weather, the shadows, etc. But it's still just one color.

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Notice in all three photos the tonal variation on the F-15 relates to the colour in the background - its all about lighting and contrasting colours. The camera DOES lie!

 

I saved the first pic and took it into photoshop and applies a light cooling filter - this will tend to reduce the yellows which predominate in that first photo and this is what I got

 

imageproxy.jpg

 

 

Edited by Kallisti
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The 1st photo has a bad case of HDR: please notice that in addition to the colors being shifted in the green (look at the ground) but also plane itself has quite visible halo.

From my own experience seeing F-15Es on the airshows as well as occasionally flying over my town the color is gunship gray. No green, blue, red or some other tone to it.

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Related question if I may.

 

Building a 1/72 F-15D by Academy. They use a Light and Dark Ghost Grey scheme (the name escapes me, but exactly like the modern A-10 scheme?). I was always under the impression F-15 = Gunship Grey. Is that a scheme used? 

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22 minutes ago, Evil_Toast_RSA said:

Related question if I may.

 

Building a 1/72 F-15D by Academy. They use a Light and Dark Ghost Grey scheme (the name escapes me, but exactly like the modern A-10 scheme?). I was always under the impression F-15 = Gunship Grey. Is that a scheme used? 

F-15s have worn 4 schemes, all over aggressor blue worn by early As, Ghost two tone worn by A-D and Js and mod eagle two tone worn by later Cs and Ds and the gunship grey for the E

Edited by PhantomBigStu
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On 4/2/2019 at 12:56 PM, CheekyRascal said:

Thanks to all who helped clarify the issue. I must say that I am a bit surprised that the camera does indeed lie. FS 36118 it is!

Cameras are huge liars: it's dynamic range is around 10 times less than our eye: so even if it get's right one a color and tone in one specific point it wouldn't be able to give you everything you see (there are techniques around that but it can introduce issues of it's own). This is why clouds usually are a just white blobs or a photo of a big dark grey airplane in a clear day might look like a black plane on a rainy day. Plus we are all having different camera settings, plus there might be a different filter on the lens which can do strange things, plus people tweak the photos on the computer and if monitor is not calibrated then the whole color could be easily shifted, plus some people tweak a photos to their liking and that may end up shifting color scheme, plus we are all having our monitors set to a different settings which shifts colors as well (some people have warm colors, some cold, one person at my job shifting colors the way that what suppose to be a white is visible as light pink -- fortunately whatever they do has nothing to do with photos or art).

Basically pictures (printed or electronic) is a general guide of approximate color, real color is either a color code (like FS) or what you saw in real life.

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I may add to the list of problems with camera that pictures taken in flight should often be treated with caution. The wavelength content of the light changes with altitude and this affects the way colours are reproduced. This difference is amplified in many modern paints as they are specifically designed to absorb and reflect the various wavelengths to blend into the background.

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Thanks again to you all for helping to clarify the situation. For many many years, I have believed that the Strike Eagle was a greenish shade. The hardest part of all of this is adjusting to the fact that a long held belief simply isn’t true. 

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On 4/3/2019 at 1:56 AM, CheekyRascal said:

Thanks to all who helped clarify the issue. I must say that I am a bit surprised that the camera does indeed lie. FS 36118 it is!

Just out of curiosity, what kit are you building from? You probably already know this, but the hasegawa F-15E in 1/48, is not a real E kit, only the demonstration aircraft used to sell the E package in the '80s. I have that kit and now I am having a very hard time finding decals to make a correct aircraft. If I had known more about the kit before I impulse bought it, I would never bought it.

 

If ever I can find the correct details, it will make a nice bird though.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

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2 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said:

Just out of curiosity, what kit are you building from? You probably already know this, but the hasegawa F-15E in 1/48, is not a real E kit, only the demonstration aircraft used to sell the E package in the '80s. I have that kit and now I am having a very hard time finding decals to make a correct aircraft. If I had known more about the kit before I impulse bought it, I would never bought it.

 

If ever I can find the correct details, it will make a nice bird though.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

The kit I have in the stash right now is the Academy 1/72 kit. Although I did see the Great Wall Hobby kit built in one of Plasmo's YouTube videos. the GWH kit appears to have superior details. I will likely end up getting that kit for my build.

Edited by CheekyRascal
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Got ya! After my balloon was burst when I found out that my 1/48 hasegawa was not really an E kit, I did some searching for a proper E kit in that scale. Surprisingly to me, the one with the best average review was the Revell kit. Seeing as how this brand was not remembered highly by me in my youth, as a terribly fitting brand on the cheap scale, the idea that they made the best kit sort of looped me. If it is indeed one of the best, or the best kit in 48, times have changed indeed!

 

I have no experience with GWC (kind of worried there will be a little commie inside spying on me), or hobbyboss or kitty hawk, or any number of new chinese makers for that matter, it seems that china is fast becoming a modelling mecca. I do have one hobbyboss kit and several KH kits, but have yet to build any of them, so my experience with chinese kits at this point is zero.

 

Anyway, wish you luck with yours, hope the color suites you in the end,

 

Anthony

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On 26/03/2019 at 21:19, whiskey said:

I swear I was just reading another topic about the color variations of the Strike Eagle. Oh right! Here ya go: 

 

 

It's only one color. No shades, tints, hues, etc. If it looks like another color it's because of the camera lens, the lighting, the weather, the shadows, etc. But it's still just one color.

Haha...my build 😁 Sorry, late to the party but yeah fs36118 and Mr colour is what I used with varying shades of grey on base coat which will give you that mottled look a worn bird will get. Don't forget that yes lenses and white balance and other various conditions can give a false sense of shade but Mudhens are in high demand and on constant rotation and deployment. 36118 will lighten considerably.

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On 4/8/2019 at 11:06 PM, CheekyRascal said:

The kit I have in the stash right now is the Academy 1/72 kit. Although I did see the Great Wall Hobby kit built in one of Plasmo's YouTube videos. the GWH kit appears to have superior details. I will likely end up getting that kit for my build.

 

In 1/72 the GWH kit is the best F-15E. Hasegawa with the new tooled F-15E sprues (the E39 kit released after 2012) is pretty close. I addresses most of the missing details when updating the aircraft the strike eagle. There are still a few items that are missing, vents panel lines and the shape of the front coaming spring to mind. It is prett close and still a decent kit though.

 

The old tool Academy lags behind both by a good margin, but their new tool (2017) has a some good things going for it. It lacks some of the finesse and detail of the other kits to meet the design requirements for the friction fit. I particularly don't like the exhausts.

 

I'll probably wind up purchasing a few GWH kits, and the couple of Hasegawa F-15Es I already have will be built as F-15B/Ds instead.

 

Cheers,

Hoops

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7 hours ago, Hoops said:

Hasegawa F-15Es I already have will be built as F-15B/Ds instead. 

Nit sure which kit you have, as my knowledge of what kit builds what is limited too the specific hasegawa demonstrator in 48, which turns out to be only a dressed up D variant. From all the reading and bubble busting I have done, my understanding is this. The initial E kit has the correct D speed brake, which allows builders to go with an accurate D kit once new decals are added.

 

So my confusion is how you would make a hasegawa E into a B? Do you have to scratch build the parts that did not make the upgrades? Or am I just not understanding your post?

 

Trying to wrap my head around the possibilities of kit conversions, whether it is as simple as a few antenna/pitot tubes, or full on scratch build/resin replacements that I have seen in the aftermarket arena.

 

I guess for now, unless I build the encyclopedic knowledge that you guru's have regarding airframes, I should stick to the kit builds and limit my "conversions" to decal sets! What we want to be and what we are, seldem are they the same.

 

One day, maybe, I will have half the abilities that you guys posses, and I would be content with that, I think.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony stalker6recon

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