It was always a 2-seater, being built originally as the first F-15B.
As such (being an early-build), it had the "short" airbrake and this would need to be backdated if starting from an F-15E kit.
PS: The aircraft as depicted in the top pic also has thrust vectoring nozzles, only not the squared-off type. I believe these ones only translated in the vertical plane.
The "short" airbrake and nozzles can be seen here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/F-15-vector.jpg