Lightningboy2000 Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 Completed for the F-15 Eagle 50th group build. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle USAF 91-0603 494th 48th FW D-Day Heritage Jet - Lakenheath 2019. This was a very good excuse to add a locally based F-15E to go with a few other East Anglian based fast jets from over the past 60 odd years. I chose this as I never managed to snap a photo of this airframe with the yellow tails, but managed to get the other two. I hope one day someone produces decals for the 493rd F-15C with the blue tails. I don't know if it's true but story goes that each of the three sqaudron jets got the wrong colour tails. If that's not true then I'd like to know why. The 494 is red, 493rd yellow & the 492nd are all well known as to be blue respectively. Academy 1/72 F-15E kit (most recent) version. Really nice & fine surface detail for a 1/72 kit with plenty of pop together style contact joints. The whole kit can't be classed as a push together toy like kit as there's plenty of parts that do need glueing, but the engineering tolerances are such that is doesn't need any filler which is heaven for me. No filling sanding & cleaning up. All the decals went on really well apart from the nose checker band which I sliced up to make sure it extended all the way round the nose. that meant I had to touch up with some red & white paint. Early on in the build I really wanted to pose the canopy up with some human element going on but discovered that anything integral to tha canopy like the central brace & the rear canopy deck are actually moulded into the top of the cockpit which meant I would have had to do some unnecessary carving & chopping to extract the canopy brace from the top of the central coaming between the two seats. I did use two Aires ejection seats & the Aires jet nozzle set for this particular Academy kit which meant a lot of plastic had to be removed to accept the resin nozzle tubes into the rear. Paints used were Ammo Mig & Vallejo Metal Color. Intake blanks were scratch made out of thick sheet plasticard & downscaled the 494th Panthers logo. Just paper stuck onto the red painted blanks with white canopy glue. Extinguisher & the maintenance steps are from the Hasegawa ground crew set. I might still attach the bombs.. just hadn't initially got round to it as the 494th don't normally send their jets up fully loaded. Many thanks for looking! Martin 29 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 Nicely done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kapam Posted October 28, 2022 Share Posted October 28, 2022 Love that! For no particular reason, I never considered myself an F-15 fan - until now! That's an excellent build and all the colorful additions (the intake covers, boarding ladder, etc.) make it even better. Congratulations! 👏👏 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted October 29, 2022 Author Share Posted October 29, 2022 On 10/28/2022 at 4:50 AM, kapam said: Love that! For no particular reason, I never considered myself an F-15 fan - until now! That's an excellent build and all the colorful additions (the intake covers, boarding ladder, etc.) make it even better. Congratulations! 👏👏 Many thanks kapam! 👍 Martin On 10/28/2022 at 3:27 AM, billn53 said: Nicely done! Thank you! 👍😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 Looks nice that, another good job, Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted October 30, 2022 Author Share Posted October 30, 2022 6 hours ago, Courageous said: Looks nice that, another good job, Stuart Cheers mate! 👍😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in a shed Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 Like that a lot, nice to see a colourful F-15. I would have liked to have seen the real aircraft in the flesh as it were. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted November 1, 2022 Author Share Posted November 1, 2022 6 hours ago, Pete in a shed said: Like that a lot, nice to see a colourful F-15. I would have liked to have seen the real aircraft in the flesh as it were. Pete Thanks Pete! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Keg Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 In a word Martin…………AWESOME!!!!! Very nice. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted November 2, 2022 Author Share Posted November 2, 2022 8 hours ago, Sky Keg said: In a word Martin…………AWESOME!!!!! Very nice. Mike Cheers Mike! Much appreciated thanks! 😊 Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 Very good job! The intake blanks are a particularly nice touch, I think 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted November 2, 2022 Author Share Posted November 2, 2022 17 minutes ago, Vultures1 said: Very good job! The intake blanks are a particularly nice touch, I think Thanks! 👍😊 Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now