Bandit inbound, watch your six! - F-15C USAF Aggressor

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

I have a little time between now and the next trip, let's see if I can get this one done in the time between.

 

This is the venerable Hasegawa 1/72 F-15J (kit 04024 for those playing along at home)  and it dates all the way back to 1988, a time of big hair and skinny ties!

I see that many are building the latest and greatest GWH and ACADEMY MSIP kits, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the newer kits.

This has been in the stash for aaaaaaages so it is about time it saw the light of day.

 

Firstly, the pack shot

 

 

And what's inside

 

 

 

I will be adding some aftermarket of course, but more of that anon.....

 

Well not much to show for today's efforts, I spent most if the day 'condensing' the kit down to a  manageable state and cleaning up some parts

 

 

I did however manage to get some of the smaller assemblies started, even managing to get some paint on!

 

 

One area that did need attention was the join of the underwing panels. Hasegawa decided to mould the wing upper halves with the leading and trailing edges included, providing an underside insert panel presumably  to keep the leading and trailing edges commendably thin. Whilst this is a nice touch, it results in an awkward seam that needs to be eliminated in the centre of the wing. The panels fit very well but lack support in the wing centre which will mean that the seam will constantly be opening during sanding as it flexes if this joint is not reinforced beforehand. I experimented with strips of plastic strip until I was happy the panel would be ably supported

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Pappy

[Wings unlevel]

4 hours ago, Pappy said:

see that many are building the latest and greatest GWH and ACADEMY MSIP kits, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the newer kits.

In your hands, pretty bloody well I’d say! Looking forward to some Pappy magic on this one, glad you joined the fight!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome aboard Pappy

[Pappy]

On 9/11/2022 at 11:13 PM, Wings unlevel said:

In your hands, pretty bloody well I’d say! Looking forward to some Pappy magic on this one, glad you joined the fight!

 

Thanks mate

 

On 9/12/2022 at 4:50 AM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Welcome aboard Pappy

 

Thanks very much Dennis

 

Fights on!

 

Well, I have made some progress today.

 

F-15s at rest seem to exhibit a peculiarity of the ailerons (flaperons?) both drooping when the jet is at rest with hydraulic power removed. I wanted to depict this feature on my model so I set about removing these controls with a razor saw

 

 

I worked carefully and managed to separate the controls without damaging them.

 

 

I also modified the flaperons slightly by filing a small notch into the inboard corners.

 

 

This corresponds with a small section of the upper wing. I felt is was easier to just remove the flaperons with three simple cuts and replace the missing section of the wing

 

A quick dry fit shows that everything should fit without too many gaps

 

 

Attention then turned to the sucking end. The engineering of the Hasegawa kit is reasonably busy and comprises verfically split intakes halves split with the upper intake section moulded as part of the upper fuselage half to which the variable inlet ramps are added. The first step was to eliminate the very visible trio of ejector pin marks inside each inlet

 

 

These inlet halves just butt join and this makes for a very weak structure until they are added to the upper fuselage. This presents a problem as there are prominent interior and exterior seams that will need be dealt with. The lower section has a cavity between the inner and outer faces and I  reinforced the bond by adding a plastic strip to the gap between the two halves.

 

 

 

Now for the blowy end

 

While looking at reference pics I noticed that the emergency tailhook fairing between the 'zorsts has been delected. I don't know if this was a production line change or something that was retrospectively introduced when the VENs went featherless but it is a thing. The trusty razor saw was once again used in anger going from this:

 

 

To this,

 

 

That is all for today,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Edited October 1, 2022 by Pappy

[Col.]

Nice subject choice. This thread will be worth following  

 

From what I understand the tailhook fairing has been removed but the hook is still there.

[Pappy]

6 minutes ago, Col. said:

Nice subject choice. This thread will be worth following  

 

From what I understand the tailhook fairing has been removed but the hook is still there.

 

Correct.

F-15Es never had the fairing.

F-15As had the fairing originally, I guess it pays to check references

 

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

I made a start on the cockpit today

 

 

I like the raised cockpit detail provided by the kit. I don't think PE would really enhance anything in this scale and the raised features really make for an easy paint job.

 

 

The right side of Bay 5 is pretty much stock, I did add some additional cables to make it a little busier but it really only needs careful painting to bring out the details

 

 

The variable inlet ramps and air inlets have been painted and given a wash to pop out the details. The squares on the ramps should really be perforated areas but this was beyond the moulding tech of twenty years ago

 

 

The provided intake ducts are comically too short. The compressor faces should be located much further aft, behind the Main Wheel Wells (MWWs)

 

 

I have three options now,

 

1. Do nothing

2. Fix it

3. Install inlet covers

 

As I do not want to get bogged down and lose momentum, I will opt for option 1 and keep option 3 as a last resort if it all turns to custard.

As I said, the inlet ducts are far too short but despite this, following a dry fit with all the components in place it does not look too bad.

 

I think I can live with it

 

 

 

I have also been cleaning up the 'zorsts. These are comprised of seven parts. Although fiddly, the VEN is commendably thin and features delicately moulded details on both sides.

 

 

The VEN builds up from five identical segments and due to the small contact area, this proved to be quite a delicate task. I glued two sections at a time to form pairs and let them harden before attaching the pairs together and letting them set. The final segment was then dropped into place and held lightly for about a minute until the cement started to 'bite'

 

 

The VEN actuator rods provided are predictably over scale and would be a nightmare to clean up. I was initially contemplating replacing the kit 'zorsts with some resin items but now I am not sure. I might wait and see how they look under a coat of paint first.

 

Lastly, I made a start on the stores.

 

 

Hasegawa don't usually provide much in the way of stores, typically some external tanks and perhaps some AA missiles.

In this case you don't even get missiles, (although they  quite helpfully suggest that you should buy their weapons kit!), so it that respect it us a blank canvas. I will be going for a typical aggressor load which will include an acquisition round and ACMI pod. Jugs are typically carried for ferry flights and the jets normally leave the jugs off during missions although it would not be uncommon to carry a single jug on the centreline for the longer sorties.

 

I am leaning towards the single configuration jug but have assembled two  and will pick the best one. I may paint one plain grey and the other in the camo pattern  to see which I prefer. A nice touch are the separate pylon sway braces which are very well done for the scale and considering the age of the kit

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Pappy

[Col.]

Tidy work as always

[Jabba]

Nice work. Strange that the newer GWH kit that I am building has also the same problem with the engine compressor blade.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Everything is looking good I do like your office, and the subtle weathering in the electronics bay. 

[Pappy]

22 hours ago, Col. said:

Tidy work as always

 

Cheers Col

 

21 hours ago, Jabba said:

Nice work. Strange that the newer GWH kit that I am building has also the same problem with the engine compressor blade.

 

It looks like the GWH ducts are slightly longer but yeah, surprising, especially so when the new tool Academy kits have full length ducts.

 

8 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Everything is looking good I do like your office, and the subtle weathering in the electronics bay. 

 

 

Cheers Dennis.

 

G'dyay people,

 

I hate rework!

I was looking at reference pics of my subject when I noticed that my missiles rails are wrong. The kit includes the LAU-114 as fitted to the F-15A and I presume the F-15C  however, at some point (MSIP?) these launches were replaced by the LAU-128.

 

I had already attached the ADU-552/LAU-114 combination

 

 

I was able to carefully separate the launchers from the pylon by first applying some liquid cement to soften the bond. Fortunately, the LAU-114s all cam off without any damage to the launcher of pylon. The next issue was sourcing some LAU-128s - luckily I have a well stocked spares box.

 

 

And here is a comparison between the earlier LAU-114 and the later LAU-128 launchers, the difference is quite noticeable. Te latter are also better detailed

 

 

I am waiting for the postie o drop off some goodies so I thought i would have a play with the kit seat and see how far I can push eh details. As supplied it is not a bad representation of the F-15 version of the ACES II (the biggest difference are twin initiation handles instead of the single one in front if the seat pan) but it can stand improvement.

 

If I was adding a pilot I would use it as is but with an empty cockpit the lack of seat harnesses is a glaring omission, Interestingly, the shoulder straps are moulded on the backrest but Hasegawa left the seat pad completely devoid of any detail. I have some left over PE from an F-16 build which I added

 

 

It still needs the canvas parapack cover and twin pitot probes added to the headbox but it is looking promising so far. One advantage of this approach is that I know the seat will fit!

 

Finally, a little more work was done on the cockpit/avionics bay assembly.

 

 

 

I still need to make TEWS avionics rack that lives on the port side as Hasegawa do not depict this feature.,

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Bertie McBoatface]

This is like a blizbuild!

 

Cracking pace Pappy.

[Pappy]

1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

This is like a blizbuild!

 

Cracking pace Pappy.

 

I'm not here to (bleep) spiders mate!

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[stevehnz]

Nice to know the arachnids can dwell in their webs in peace .  I'm enjoying this, got one tucked away somewhere & you're doing a good job of Hasegawa F-15 for dummies.

Steve.

[Pappy]

G'day Steve,

 

Glad you are enjoying the show.

 

G'day people,

 

I have now corrected my other gaffe. I don't know why but for some reason I thought that the interior of the air intakes were painted grey, perhaps I was thinking of the later splinter scheme.

The lighter of the two blues is what they should be painted. I had not sorted that colour yet but construction has forced my hand and I have mixed up my approximation of the colour

 

 

Back at the front end have started cutting out various panels

 

 

To add some lovely resin goodness

 

 

More to come...

 

Pappy

 

 

 

 

 

[Johnson]

Great build Pappy and very useful to me as I'm also building (somewhat slower) the 1/72 Hasagawa F-15C.

I agree about the intake ducts, bit like their F-4 Phantoms, hell of a lot of work to fix them.

Good tip about the flaprons, easy mod and makes the wings look more interesting.

Lovely resin avionics box in the nose.

Cheers,

[Col.]

2 hours ago, Pappy said:

Back at the front end have started cutting out various panels...

 

..To add some lovely resin goodness

Oh hello, this one has suddenly got even more interesting, is it the BlackBox resin set you're fitting Pappy?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Always good to see a build with the panels oped up. Looking forward to the final product. 

[Pappy]

12 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Always good to see a build with the panels oped up. Looking forward to the final product. 

 

G'day Dennis,  thanks. I wanted  to add  a little interest to the old kit. It is tempting to open up a few more panels but too many and it does not look realistic for a line bird  and it tends to ruin the silhouette of the jet

 

20 hours ago, Col. said:

Oh hello, this one has suddenly got even more interesting, is it the BlackBox resin set you're fitting Pappy?

 

You know me Col, I like to keep things interesting

 

G'day people,

 

Another panel opened

 

 

The cockpit also got some PE love in preparation for paint

 

 

I was going to stop there but then the little voice started to nag at me, what about opening up these panels as well

 

 

We shall see...

 

I also got the colouring pencils out and started to block out some colours. I was curious to replicate the MDD interior greeny blue colour used in the interior airframe areas like the avionics bays. I messed around until I found a match and set aside a batch after spraying the avionics bays

 

 

Whilst I had the colouring crayon out I decided to reward myself with some seat painting. Having finished 'gussying up' the kit seat I was quite happy with the result

 

 

 

I actually prefer it to the resin seat I bought which looks a little undersized by comparison  (modified kit seat on left side)

 

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Lovely work augmenting the seat Pappy. Opening up those engine access panels will help spread the interest and balance your project visually. Or some such pretentious guff designed to encourage you add more bits...

[Wings unlevel]

I suspect you’d make a very fine surgeon Pappy with your deft handling of the razor saw and delicate placement of that PE! Lovely stuff.

[Pappy]

4 hours ago, Col. said:

Lovely work augmenting the seat Pappy. Opening up those engine access panels will help spread the interest and balance your project visually. Or some such pretentious guff designed to encourage you add more bits...

 

You are a bad man!

 

3 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

I suspect you’d make a very fine surgeon Pappy with your deft handling of the razor saw and delicate placement of that PE! Lovely stuff.

 

I suspect I would like to paid like one!  Thanks mate.

 

I used to chain drill inside the panel to be removed and then file back to the line. I still use this method on occasion  which I fcind hella tedious and destroys the panel  being removed which means you end up needing to make a replacement unless you have a replacement supplied if using a drop in set for example. The razor saw is a relevation and just requires patience and a light touch although you still end up with snapped blades on occasion.  I keep these shards as well as they are useful to get into the tight corners for that lat 5% to separate the panel

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Pappy]

G'day people,

 

Look what Col made me do

 

 

Not really, it was always gunna happen. I am committed now. Removing these three panels was a little more involved but I eventually got there.

 

This is the state of play at stumps today

 

 

I cut exactly along the panel lines and found that the resin engine bay matched pretty closely but still needed some tweaking.

 

Does anyone have any reference pics of the F-15s engine bays without the engines installed, I am not sure what colour these should be?

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

Edited September 17, 2022 by Pappy

[Wings unlevel]

On 14/09/2022 at 17:43, Pappy said:

It still needs the canvas parapack cover

Meant to ask how you did these? My GWH F-15E’s seats had ugly seams in the headbox which I’ve filled and sanded back to minimise the worst of it, but it looks you have done some deft scratch building?

 

21 hours ago, Pappy said:

I suspect I would like to paid like one!

Even after the liability insurance you’d think a surgeon’s wage should leave a bit leftover for plenty of styrene and resin!

[Johnson]

3 hours ago, Pappy said:

Does anyone have any reference pics of the F-15s engine bays without the engines installed, I am not sure what colour these should be?

Not the best pic, but might help.

 

 

And some inspiration, just in case you feel the desire to cut some more holes...