1/48 Hasegawa F-15C Eagle WIP

Wow looking forward to seeing this build come together. Be sure to keep the build pics coming.

Good luck!

f14 tomcat freak

Wow looking forward to seeing this build come together. Be sure to keep the build pics coming.

mississippivol

Good luck!

One of the first things I did was to assemble and paint the intakes.  

I didn't get a pic of the inside of the parts but there were these protrusions where the alignment pins met the inside of the intakes.  Why they designed it like this I have no idea.  I have read that this was one of the first kits to include full length intakes so that may be why.

It initially looked so bad that I was going to get some Steel Beach intake covers and avoid to whole thing.  But I stuck it out.

There were also 3 ejector pin marks on each intake part.  I used a flat and a curved jeweler's file to remove the marks and the protrusions.  I used a generous amount of liquid cement to weld the parts together.  When I sanded the weld down there was almost no seam left.

I used the dump & pour method (twice) to paint the intakes white:

They are about as flawless as I could make them.  I am really happy with how they turned out.

More to come...

Hi, Fly-n-Hi.  I'll be ordering some Eduard decals and accessories, never have yet. Is there a US distributor? I'd appreciate a name and site # if so. Thanks in advance.

Patrick  

patrick206

Hi, Fly-n-Hi.  I'll be ordering some Eduard decals and accessories, never have yet. Is there a US distributor? I'd appreciate a name and site # if so. Thanks in advance.

Patrick  

Go to http://www.eduard.com . You can buy directly from them.

Very nice Flyin. I do appreciate an epic Eagle build. I'm curious to see the fit of the aires cockpit. As far as the kit goes, it's pretty old, so Hasegawa was still learning.

Nice work cleaning up the intakes. Looks awesome.

Thanks, Flyin' and Dawg, I'll look them up. Patrick.

Nathan T

Very nice Flyin. I do appreciate an epic Eagle build. I'm curious to see the fit of the aires cockpit. As far as the kit goes, it's pretty old, so Hasegawa was still learning.

 

f14 tomcat freak

Nice work cleaning up the intakes. Looks awesome.

 

Here's an update....

I decided to glue the upper half of the wings to the upper half of the fuselage.  The instructions say to glue the wing halves together and then attach those to the assembled fuselage.  I figured I would have more control dealing with the difficult seam where the wings join the fuselage.

I was able to clean up the seams really well but there was one small area where I used CA glue to fill in an area where I created a little valley from sanding the seam on the right wing.  I will also have to re scribe some lost panel lines:

This worked out really well I thought.  After I attached these I attached to lower wing parts.  I'll have to fill the seam where the lower wing parts meet the lower fuselage but that seam doesn't need to be "seamless" like the upper parts do.

I also carved out the nav and position lights, inserted a clear sprue block and sanded them flush with the wings (like I did with my F-15E build last year).  They're a little tough to see:

Here I'm trying to hold the wings up against a lit background to enhance the effect:

Great job on the wing join. That's some pretty nice surface detail out of the box.

Nathan T

Great job on the wing join. That's some pretty nice surface detail out of the box.

 

Here are the AIM-7s that came with the kit (which I'm not using).  I just built them up to see how they looked:

They aren't bad but they aren't as nice as the AM stuff that you can get today.

Here's the forward fuselage assembled.  I have to cut out the instrument shroud/glare shield so that the resin part will fit.  I drilled out several holes around the edge to make it easier to remove:

I removed all of the resin parts from their casting blocks and test fitted them.  It was almost a perfect fit.  I only needed to to some sanding around the glare shield and that was it.  

This was probably the closest to being "drop in" as I've seen with resin cockpits.

Here are the decals I will be using:

And here are the Eduard Brassin AIM-9L/Ms.  The kit Sidewinders are kinda bland:

I'm really going to make an effort to make these intakes as seamless as I can.    I attached the intakes with a generous amount of welding cement.  They needed some help with C clamps to join as flush as possible.  The fit wasn't terribly great.  It wasn't horrible but I could see it was gonna take some work. 

There ended up being a bit of a step just aft of where the intakes attached to the main part.  I cut out some styrene sheets, glued them in and covered of the joints with Tamiya White Putty:

Even after the putty I needed a little Mr Surfacer 1000:.  I also applied it along the bottom where the 90 degree angles are

After I got those finished up it occurred to me that the parts that go inside the intake (the parts that direct airflow) may not fit with the added styrene.  They didn't.  So I needed to sand their sides down just a bit to make sure they would fit.  I'm glad I though of this before I glued them to the upper fuselage part!

Here's the completed lower part after adding Light Ghost Grey.  It turns out great because in real life the white part of the intake starts about 6 feet deep:

This ended up being a good amount of work but it was worth every minute.

Here are the compressor fans painted Alclad II Steel and dry brushed with silver:

Stay tuned...there's a lot more coming.

This is fantastic. =]  I used to rush to get the painting parts, but nowadays I'm more enthralled with the actual construction...especially parts that add depth or are normally hard to see.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

How's the Raptor coming?  

bvallot

This is fantastic. =]  I used to rush to get the painting parts, but nowadays I'm more enthralled with the actual construction...especially parts that add depth or are normally hard to see.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

How's the Raptor coming?  

After I finish the resin exhausts I'll post some pics.  Otherwise, I the next step is the weathering and I can't do that until I put a satin coat on it, and I can't do that until I get the new decals.

My next F-15C update will be the cockpit.  So far its turning out pretty good!  I think you all will like it.  I've also cut out the ailerons like I did on the F-15E.

 I am enjoying following this thread.  I still like the look of the F-15.  Jet models look so much better with the intakes open imo.  I hope you will post a picture looking down the intakes when the model is finished.  Show off that hard work.  looking forward to the pit pictures.                               knox

knox

 I am enjoying following this thread.  I still like the look of the F-15.  Jet models look so much better with the intakes open imo.  I hope you will post a picture looking down the intakes when the model is finished.  Show off that hard work.  looking forward to the pit pictures.                               knox

 

Small update...

I sanded out the seams on the canopy and windshield and then used the Novus polishing compounds to make them nice and clear:

So happy to see this F-15 WIP.

Looking good so far and all your neat tips and tricks are appreciated.

Greg

So happy to see this F-15 WIP.

Looking good so far and all your neat tips and tricks are appreciated.

 

Update...

When the plane is shut down the ailerons droop because of the lack of hydraulic power.  So I cut out the ailerons using my JLC saw.  I cut out the sides of the ailerons and then scored over the hinges to get a really nice clean cut without losing too much plastic.  This JLC razor saw is one of the best tools I have in my arsenal!  I highly recommend getting one!

After I cleaned up the parts a bit a made some little "worms" out of Aves Apoxie Sculpt, stuck them to the hinge side of the ailerons, and sanded them flat after they dried:

Nicely added detail. I use half round sprue stock at the aileron end and then dish out the wing side with a dremel to try and mimick the aileron or flap hinge area. Your method looks like it works nice too. Will you have to use superglue to glue the ailerons back on?

Nathan T

Nicely added detail. I use half round sprue stock at the aileron end and then dish out the wing side with a dremel to try and mimick the aileron or flap hinge area. Your method looks like it works nice too. Will you have to use superglue to glue the ailerons back on?

I've done the round sprue thing before but I didn't have any handy this time and I didn't feel like driving to the hobby store.  Its kinda far and I'm lazy.

I finished the Aires resin featherless exhausts.  

Here they are with the interiors painted:

Here they are completed:

       Gorgeous!!

Nice cans! What metallic shade on the outside? Off White on the inside I take it?

knox

       Gorgeous!!

Nathan T

Nice cans! What metallic shade on the outside? Off White on the inside I take it?

Yeah, inside is a creamy white mixture using Tamiya paint and the outside is metallic black.  I also masked off every other petal inside the cans and painted them a slightly darker shade by adding a drop of black to  the cream color.  It was really easy to paint and weather, actually.

Here's the cockpit.  Like I said earlier, this was almost a drop in part.  I really only needed to sand out some space for the IP glare shield and sand down the bottom of the entire tub so that it didn't interfere with the nose gear well.

The computers, in real life, have handles.  Aires didn't provide any resin or PE parts for this.  So I made my own out of wire.  I used my Small Shop PE tool to bend the wires to the correct size:

Here's the final painted cockpit.  This will be a circa 1983 plane.  My understanding is that, at this time, the BT planes had a mix of blue/green and white cockpits as the USAF began switching the color. Whether or not this particular plane had the blue/green cockpit in 1983 I do not know.  I decided to paint it blue/green simply because I think it looks cooler.  I will get some better pics without the flash later (the flash really emphasizes the dry brushing and the wash):

Here's a shot of the ejection seat.  I still have a few small details to add, like the ejection handle: