1/48 Revell F-15E Progress Thread

LOL!  You stay with American and do what you do best!  The military is just like any other job when it comes to ups and downs.  There were days I loved it!  Then there were days I was wondering what the heck I was doing there....of course, most of those days were when I was in the desert!  

Can't wait to see some more Eagles!

Eagle90

Eagle90

You guys are making me miss my sweetheart even more!

Eagle90

But I'll retire something like #4 on the seniority list at American now so maybe it wasn't such a bad decision but part of me will always wonder.

B_one fixer

Hi Eagle,

I am building the pair of eagles for the Monogram Mafia GB starting on the 4th of July. I can't wait, The E model kit is begging to get started.

You guys are making me miss my sweetheart even more!

Eagle90

lawdog114

Impressive.  Those engine look real...thanks for sharing

Joe

Impressive.  Those engine look real...thanks for sharing

Joe

Hi Eagle,

I am building the pair of eagles for the Monogram Mafia GB starting on the 4th of July. I can't wait, The E model kit is begging to get started.

B_one fixer

That is a outstanding Eagle!, I am waiting to build the same kit along with a monogram C model for an upcoming group build. I hope mine comes out looking this good also. I think what will consume most of my time is rescribing the C model monogram kit.

What GB are you building yours for?

That is a outstanding Eagle!, I am waiting to build the same kit along with a monogram C model for an upcoming group build. I hope mine comes out looking this good also. I think what will consume most of my time is rescribing the C model monogram kit.

r13b20

Absolutely fantastic! I love the way the bare metal areas came out. Masterful! The only thing I'm iffy about is the "dirt" and that's just an opinion thing, or preference. Perhaps one day I might be this good, but probably not. :) Great work. Bob

I'm sure your builds are very good, too.  And I'm sure you'll be getting better as you go.

Absolutely fantastic! I love the way the bare metal areas came out. Masterful! The only thing I'm iffy about is the "dirt" and that's just an opinion thing, or preference. Perhaps one day I might be this good, but probably not. :) Great work. Bob

Tarasdad

I just started on this same kit tonight thanks to this thread! I've had the kit for quite a while, just never had the courage to get started on it. One thing I will say is my eyes and hands just aren't up to the level of detail painting I used to be able to do. Guess there's quite a difference between 22 and 52!

Tarasdad, I just now saw this reply (June 28th). Thanks! I'm glad that you got something out of this WIP and I'm looking forward to seeing your Mudhen!

Ghostrider17

where did you get the bombs from? Was it one of the hasegawa weapons sets?

where did you get the bombs from? Was it one of the hasegawa weapons sets?

I just started on this same kit tonight thanks to this thread! I've had the kit for quite a while, just never had the courage to get started on it. One thing I will say is my eyes and hands just aren't up to the level of detail painting I used to be able to do. Guess there's quite a difference between 22 and 52!

Dean, Eagle & T3ch, thank you!  

Eagle, I've got a Revell 1/144 C-17 that is about 60% done.  I've been posting progress pics in the Mighty Mini's GB.  Unfortunately that GB is pretty much dead so maybe I'll start an independent thread.  I put that one on hold to finish the F-15E.

Wow!  Definitely something to be proud of!  

Absolutely AWESOME!  I'm getting flash backs from looking at her!  Great job and I look forward to your next WIP thread!  Thanks for sharing the experience with us!  

Eagle90

Masterpiece!

Ok guys, I'm calling this one DONE!  

First, let me give a sincere thank you to all the folks who posted compliments and words of encouragement.  I definitely got a boost from all the nice things that were said.  And I'm certainly going to make more of an effort to be encouraging of other's progress threads.

I'll just post a few pics here and I'll post a new completed build thread so that the final pics are right there at the beginning instead of on page 10.  And you'll have to forgive the quality and composition of my pictures.  I'm very novice with a camera.

And finally, here she is:

Look for more in my completed F-15E thread!

T3chDad®

Getting there.  I can't wait to see the final/completed project!

Dre

Fly- you're going to have to wrap this up as I'm running out of superlatives to use here....

bvallot

Fantastic!! =D

Fantastic!! =D

Fly- you're going to have to wrap this up as I'm running out of superlatives to use here....

Getting there.  I can't wait to see the final/completed project!

Alrighty, I'm getting close to the finish line now!  I've added one or two more filters since the last update and that's gonna be it.

I've attached the pylons, weapons and burner cans.  I've also attached the clear and red lights on the vertical stabs.

I'm really happy with the way the weathering turned out.

In the pic above you can see that I've attached the (fuel dump?) vents and the aft end of the CFTs.  They are painted bare metal as well so they are a little difficult to spot in the pic.

DWood538

Thank you so much Fly-n-hi, that's some great information I'll probably try on my next model. It came out great on yours so hopefully I can have some luck with it (hopefully)

Thank you so much Fly-n-hi, that's some great information I'll probably try on my next model. It came out great on yours so hopefully I can have some luck with it (hopefully)

T3chDad®

Wow!....keeps getting better.

Dre

I would really like to see this model in person.   The further weathering is just sublime.

Dean30

Honestly that is one of the best looking 1/48 modern fighter aircraft I have see built by anyone.

Thanks alot, guys!  There's still a bit left to do so wish me luck!

DWood538

I've been following this thread since it started and it's really turning out great. I love build threads because I can learn new techniques, and yours especially has been pretty inspiring because I'm working on an eagle too. If it's not too much trouble could you just briefly explain the most recent weathering layers you've done (with the amber color and such), because it looks amazing and I'd love to learn how to do that.

The additional layers are just filter layers that are a mixture of about 90% thinner and 10% color.  These layers are built up very slowly.    For example, the yellowish color is thinned out then sprayed on in a way so that you are just misting the surface.  It can also be brushed on but this is for general coverage.  This dries quickly since it is mostly thinner in the first place but you can use the air coming out of your AB or you can use a hair dryer to speed things up.

In the pics above I built up the yellow color in about 3 layers so that tells you that it really was very thin!  The trick is to build up slowly so that the paint is more translucent.  That helps give it that natural look.  Plus, with some of the layers I would add a drop of black to give it a slightly different dirtiness.

Just keep building up until it has the look you want.

Let your colors dry completely before applying a different color.  I usually waited until the next day to apply the following color just to make sure the colors did't bleed into each other.

Honestly that is one of the best looking 1/48 modern fighter aircraft I have see built by anyone.

I've been following this thread since it started and it's really turning out great. I love build threads because I can learn new techniques, and yours especially has been pretty inspiring because I'm working on an eagle too. If it's not too much trouble could you just briefly explain the most recent weathering layers you've done (with the amber color and such), because it looks amazing and I'd love to learn how to do that.

I would really like to see this model in person.   The further weathering is just sublime.

Wow!....keeps getting better.

Alrighty, here's where the rubber is meeting the road.  I mentioned several pages back that my intention was to take little bits of weathering from several different pics of Mud Hens and use them together on this build.  The result would be a plane that will have a fictional (and perhaps unrealistic) weathered look to it.

Generally speaking, these planes do tend to be relatively clean.  Only occasionally are they filthy...but every now and then they are.  I've taken a bit of artistic liberty in my weathering because, frankly, I enjoy doing it and I really like other people's builds that have convincing weathering.  Also, I find clean to be fairly boring.  As a result I'm at a point where the weathering on this build is a little more Navy like than Air Force.

So, here's where I'm at now.  There are about 4 layers of additional weathering in these pics.  I tried to keep it realistic in the sense that the dirty areas are places that normally get dirty...I just amplified them a bit.  Tell me what you think:

In the pic above you can see that I've used a silver Prismacolor pencil to draw the scratch marks on the in flight refueling door. I did this in the gun muzzle, too, but you can't see it in any of these pics.

The pic above shows how shiny the Alclad II high shine paint is.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

One area that does seem to be commonly dirty is the area around and aft of the landing gear.  I really made an effort to make this convincing.  And you can see that I've attached the SNIPER XR pod.

I'm sure you've noticed that I have attached the gear and the Royal Resin wheels.  I needed to sand them down a bit because apparently I didn't do a very great job cutting them out of their casting blocks.  Also, the left wing sat about 2mm higher than the right wing.  I was scratching my head over this one considering the wings are molded with the upper fuselage part.  So I sanded the left wheel down a bit more.

I've attached the 600 gallon tanks and the GBU-31 to the pylons.  Sorry for the blurry pic above.

You can't really see it in the pics but I re masked the windshield and touched up the ragged frame.

Dean & T3ch, thank you very much!

bvallot

Maybe you've mentioned this previously somewhere that I've overlooked, but what kind of thinner have you used with your oil paints?

dflu78

Absolutely beautiful work. This kit is a real hidden gem considering you can get it for cheap at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I built it last year and I'll be building it again now that I've gotten over my fear of Alclad. You're work on the rear is superb. As far as those things that go bang bang....wow...some of the best I've seen.

Absolutely beautiful work. This kit is a real hidden gem considering you can get it for cheap at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I built it last year and I'll be building it again now that I've gotten over my fear of Alclad. You're work on the rear is superb. As far as those things that go bang bang....wow...some of the best I've seen.

Maybe you've mentioned this previously somewhere that I've overlooked, but what kind of thinner have you used with your oil paints?

That's getting better and better! It's inspiring me to build my Tornado a bit faster lol.

The bombs look outstanding!....like the rest of your project!  

Wirraway, thank you!

Ok, I've applied a flat coat.  I airbrushed a 50/50 mixture of Liquitex Matte and Semi Matte.  It ended up being very matte, though.  Not really what I wanted but I think it will be ok since I'm going to apply some oil filters and a flat surface is better for that.

You can see that the Alclad II high shine paint on the metal areas has held up very well even after being masked.

And here's a "hold your breath" moment...removing the mask from the clear parts:

There was a little bit of a ragged edge on the windshield but nothing I can't fix.  I've also added the coaming part that separates the front cockpit from the rear.

This has been a great thread to follow/.  Your skills are very obvious.  Thanks again

Dre & Eagle, as always I appreciate the kind comments!

bvallot

Fly-n-hi this is a great WIP.  I've been following it for a while now.  I've definitely concluded that I'll just have to throw a jet in the build list every so often.  Lots of useful tips here as well and plenty to think about.  I usually don't jump into a thread unless I have something useful to add or something to ask. This time it's something to ask. =]

What kind of filter did you use on the ordinance.  I'm thinking about trying one out on a dark green and dark earth camo scheme for the AVG P-40.  In the past, I've done all the subtle variations with an airbrush.  This time I wanted to try something different.  What color filter would you figure would work best on this scheme?  Maybe even just the green?

As far as the P-40 goes, I'm not sure what colors would be best.  It sort of depends on how much weathering you've applied with the airbrush I believe.  Obviously, you'll want to use some greens that are lighter and/or darker than the OD and some browns that are lighter and/or darker than the tan color for panel shading and variation.  You can also use a dirty color to spot filter the entire plane...or at least the areas of the plane that get the dirtiest such as the areas that get stepped on alot.

In any event I would probably use the AB to apply some pre/post shading and use some oil paint for filters.  Stay tuned to this thread because I'm planning on adding a few oil filters.  I've also been playing around with the Tamiya Weathering Master sets and they seem very promising.

Fly-n-hi this is a great WIP.  I've been following it for a while now.  I've definitely concluded that I'll just have to throw a jet in the build list every so often.  Lots of useful tips here as well and plenty to think about.  I usually don't jump into a thread unless I have something useful to add or something to ask. This time it's something to ask. =]

What kind of filter did you use on the ordinance.  I'm thinking about trying one out on a dark green and dark earth camo scheme for the AVG P-40.  In the past, I've done all the subtle variations with an airbrush.  This time I wanted to try something different.  What color filter would you figure would work best on this scheme?  Maybe even just the green?

I agree with Dre, it just keeps getting better!  Outstanding work!  Thanks again for taking the time to post these great pics!

Eagle90

This just gets better and better!   Nice tip on weathering the ordnance, BTW.   That's definitely something I overlook, but not any more.

Ok, here's a very pic heavy update.  

I have advanced a few steps but I forgot (again) to take pics off all the steps...sorry.  What I have done is applied an oil wash to the panel lines, applied the decals, faded the decals with a very thin mix of faded Gunship Grey, added the antennas and GPS blister and added the anti sway braces.  

The weird shiny stuff on the metal part is liquid mask to keep the next flat coat off.

I should mention that the camera flash really brings out the graininess of the paint over the decals especially on the tail.  It looks way better to the naked eye.  

The light grey round spot on the fuselage behind the gun vent is the GPS antenna.

Most of the oil wash ended up being wiped off of the model.  I might have too many layers of paint that may have filled the lines a bit too much.  At first this bugged me but now I think I like the random look of the dirty spots.

The decals went on very well.  There were only a few silvered areas and they were easy to deal with.

The gloss coat did drown out the paint fading a little but thats ok.  I'll be adding some more after this step anyway.

So after the gloss coat, oil wash and decal fading I think I'm up to 12 layers.  I don't know for sure now...I've lost count!

Dean30

Looks brilliant! I never heard of a sealer from Alclad either so I will be definitely getting some.

Nathan T

Very nice work. Bombs look right on, very realistic. Excellent metallizer work too.

RobGroot4

Ordnance is always tough when it comes to weathering because generally the weapons sit in a fairly sterile magazine until needed, away from the weather.  Then they tend to sometimes get messy handprints all over them during loading so the weathering is very light, or very dark in small patches.  I think you nailed the subtle effect perfectly.  I also love the seeker lenses on the GBUs, you'll have to tell us how you did it!

Groot

As for the seeker heads;  I just cut off the tips, placed a drop of clear drying glue to the end, let it dry (hanging nose down) and brushed some Tamiya Clear Yellow onto the lens.  It was a very simple process.

Ordnance is always tough when it comes to weathering because generally the weapons sit in a fairly sterile magazine until needed, away from the weather.  Then they tend to sometimes get messy handprints all over them during loading so the weathering is very light, or very dark in small patches.  I think you nailed the subtle effect perfectly.  I also love the seeker lenses on the GBUs, you'll have to tell us how you did it!

Groot

Very nice work. Bombs look right on, very realistic. Excellent metallizer work too.

Looks brilliant! I never heard of a sealer from Alclad either so I will be definitely getting some.

Here's a good update.  I've masked off and painted the bare metal areas at the rear of the fuselage.  I painted the areas Alclad II Gloss Black then applied Stainless Steel.  It turned out great!  

I sealed that with Alclad II Aqua Gloss and then highlighted the panel lines with a very thinned out layer of Alclad II Jet Exhaust.  The Aqua Gloss did not diminish the high shine of the Stainless Steel at all!  I'm afraid I may have gone a little heavy on the panel line shading, though.  The camera's flash really hides it so its hard to see in these pics but with the naked eye its quite a bit darker:

I also laid down some thin strips of tape and tried to recreate the burnt skin around the (APU?) vent:

T3ch & Dre, thanks!

I've added a filter to the bombs to make them look more weathered and used.  I think they turned out pretty good but I'm curious if you guys think it looks good.  Tell me what you think:

I agree, those are great looking weapons.  What did you make the seeker heads out of?  

Great looking weapons!

Thanks guys!

I've decaled and flat coated the weapons.  I've also added my own clear seeker heads for the GBUs and painted them clear yellow:

Is a frog waterproof???? HECK YAH, let's see it.

Patrick

She's shaping up nicely. I also brush on the Future instead of air brushing it, works great.

Dean, Tojo and Bish,  thanks!

Ok, she's all glossed up and ready for decals!  I decided to use Future as a glosscoat for this build.  On my last build I used Liquitex Acryilc Gloss Varnish and it turned out great but I had a little bit lift with some masking tape.  Since I still have to mask the metal part of the exhaust I decided to use Future just to be safe.  I brushed it on with a large flat brush:

In the pic below you can see that I changed the chaff/flare configuration.  Having three red panels drew too much attention I thought.  Plus, many of the pics I saw had black panels mixed in with the grey and red panels:

Here's a good view of some of the painted detail on the vertical stabs:

I used "The Detailer" to wash the vents:

Really nice work on this, looking great.

Really fantastic work,lots of attention to details pays off

You're really taking your time with this and it shows, you're gonna have a great looking Eagle when done.

Hey guys,  I've got another update...

After the salt weathering I did another light post shade to bring back a little of the fading that was lost.  At this point I have 9 layers of paint on this thing!  In the pic below (which is out of focus...sorry) you can see a little of the detail on the nose.  I also went over the windshield seam to fill it in and repainted it so that it is more seamless now:

This pic (also out of focus) shows some of the detail painting.  I saw a pic of an F-15E with a lighter panel at the beginning of the engine humps so I added it to mine.  You can also see that the rudder on the left vertical stabilizer is painted a lighter color as if it is a replacement part:

T3ch & Dre, thanks!  Yeah, the salt weathering added just enough unevenness in the paint to give it a good deteriorated look.

Here's a small update.  This is the resin SNIPER pod painted and almost ready to go:

I painted the clear part with some Alclad II Transparent Smoke just to give it some scale depth:

The clear part leaves a very slight gap at the rear of the joint so I'll have to deal with that.  Actually, I'm thinking about getting the Shull24 resin SNIPER pod and using that instead.

Fly- I would never have thought to add a salt-chip to that already great paint job, but doing so has taken it to a whole 'nother level of awesome.   I really like what you're doing on this kit.

Looking good!  Keep up the good work!

I've painted on the little details around the plane.  I've hand brushed them all using Citadel paints.  These paints hand brush incredibly well.  

Here are the chaff & flare dispensers. I've looked at several photos of real F-15Es and it seems like thee is no particular standard configuration so I'm just going to paint mine randomly.  I've painted most of the ports grey and others will be red. The ports that will be red are getting a white under coat:

In the pic below you can see that I've painted the wheel wells:

Here are the paints:

Here are the muzzle port and the vent behind the cockpit.  You can also see that I painted the areas next to the anti collision lights. These are the only spots on the plane that have been painted Gunship Grey straight out of the bottle:

Plastic, that's exactly why its new to me.  I typically build modern jet fighters so there isn't much chipping going on.  If I build any WWII stuff then I will definitely use this technique more often.  

And yes, I've got a few WWII subjects in the stash...

That's very interesting using it in that fashion  to get subtle paint shade variation. I really like the effect you get with the salt method specially if you are trying to show chipped paint over nm as here with this 1/48 George I did for the Japanese GB

Eagle & Plastic, thanks!

I added a darker post shade but I didn't really take a pic of it.  I just went back over some of the panel lines and shadowed areas.  That makes 5 layers so far.

Next, I've tried something new (to me) on this build.  This is the first time I've used the salt weathering technique.  I wanted to give the paint a bit of a random fading and weathered look.  I sprayed some water on the upper surfaces only and sprinkled some large granular kosher salt on top.    I only salted the top because the idea is that the Sun is beating down on it from above.  The lower areas aren't nearly as exposed.

I mixed Gunship Grey (the base color) with just a few drops of white so that the overall mix was just a tad bit darker than the paint already on the model.  And I only sprayed it towards the middle on the plane in the dirtier areas.  I did it very lightly so its a bit difficult to pic up with the camera.  If you look at the left wing in the lighted area you can make it out:

In this pic you can see it a bit more clearly.  I've also added a filter of toned down Gunship Grey to blend it together a little more.  Now we're up to 7 layers:

Don't worry...the weathering is still there.  The camera's flash really drowns it out.

I'm glad you kept the pre shading light as some modelers tend to let it be dark and not really looking realistic but yours looks just right.

Fly!  Everytime I look at this thread, I can smell hydraulic fluid, and coolanol!  Great work!  Thanks for posting the pics!

Eagle90

Dre

Fly- I love that 4-layer paint job!   I think that it's pretty much the only way to add depth and character to such a basic color.  

I can't wait to see how you finish this Eagle.

4-layer cake is even better!      Sorry, I just couldn't resist......

T3ch & Dre, thanks!  Always appreciate the comments!

beeryboats

I'm a newby trying to learn something  here. You painted it with a white primer, then flat black on the panel lines, then a grey mist coat to blend out the black, and touch up inside the panels with lighter grey? It looks awesome! Not so over done it looks fake. Just right.

Jay

Jay, thank you, too!  Yeah, this pretty much sums it up.  There are a few more layers that I will be applying in addition to this.  The trick is to build it up slowly and thinly.  Its always easier to add more to a layer that needs more...but its very difficult to correct a layer that has too much.  And the paints are thinned quite a bit.  Much more than I usually thin them.  This helps me build them up slowly.

I'm a newby trying to learn something  here. You painted it with a white primer, then flat black on the panel lines, then a grey mist coat to blend out the black, and touch up inside the panels with lighter grey? It looks awesome! Not so over done it looks fake. Just right.

Jay

Fly- I love that 4-layer paint job!   I think that it's pretty much the only way to add depth and character to such a basic color.  

I can't wait to see how you finish this Eagle.

Looking really good!

jelliot, thanks!  Must be cool to see those bad boys fly over!

Robgroot, thanks also!  You'll have to start your own progress thread when you get going on it.

Alrighty...Here are some pics with the first couple of layers of paint.  She's really starting to look like an F-15E now!  I didn't take pics of each individual layer, though.  I just applied a very thin layer of Gunship Grey so that the pre shade would show through.  Then I post shaded most of the panels with a lightened mixture of Gunship Grey.

In this pic I lightened up the access panels a bit more:

So right now you're looking a 4 layers of paint...the primer, pre shade, base color and post shade 1.  There's gonna be a few more layers.

This looks like an incredible build!  With an F-15E in my stash (eduard) I'm watching closely!

Groot

Awesome work Fly-n-hi!  I've seen the Gunfighter aircraft up close several times as I only live about an hour away from Mountain Home.  I regularly see the Gunfighters and Bold Tigers flying over the area making approaches into Boise.  F-15E one of my all-time favorite aircraft.  Cant wait to see the finished product!

Thanks plastic!  But like I said before...maybe you should wait till its done before you take notes on this.  There's still time for me to mess it up.

Great progress going on here. I'm sitting back taking notes of your great build.

Thanks, Jester!

After I filled all the seams, polished them out and re scribed destroyed panel lines I gave the whole thing a primer coat of Mr. Base White.  I didn't take a pic of the plane with just the white paint, though.  Sorry (Just imagine a white F-15E).  I then went on to pre shade most of the panel lines with flat black.  Sometimes I'll use a dark grey for the pre shade but since the base paint is already a dark grey I needed something darker:

This took about an hour and 15 mins to pre shade.

Loving these progress shots, keem em coming!!!

I cut out some block from the foam that lines the fuel tank area of an RC plane and mashed it into the opening of the cockpit and painted the area black:

You can see in the pic above that I added a bit more Mr. Surfacer to eliminate the seam that joins the nose section to the fuselage section.

After this I dry brushed some grey onto the raised details.  Also, here you can see that I filled in some faint ghost seams with Mr. Surfacer on the nose.  They were just ever so visible if the light it them just right.

DWood, Thanks!  I'm sure your F-15E will turn out great!  And painting the outside of the burner can was the easy part for sure.

Dean, Thanks also!  I love polishing canopies with Novus now.  They come out crystal clear without the overly glossy Future shine.  The canopies in real life, although very clear, aren't super glossy.

That canopy looks fantastic, the clarity is superb!

My mistake I just found your response to Nathan T's request. Sorry about my lack of attention, but everything looks amazing. Keep up the excellent work and I'll be following the build, there's a lot I can learn here.

Hey Fly-n-hi the model looks really great, and I'm building the same eagle right now...not that good though  Anyways I just found this thread so I apologize for the late request, but if it isn't too much trouble I'd really love to know how you painted the afterburner cans. I'm still pretty new to the hobby and your paint job looks spot on. I know you have already explained your method for painting the inside of the cans, but could you just briefly explain how you painted the metallic outside of the nozzle? 

Thanks Nathan!  Gonna put a few more details on the legs, gloss 'em up and then give them a wash.

Here's a look at the windscreen, canopy and the canopy frame.  I used Novus to polish out the clear parts.  I did not dip it in Future nor will I:

Initially, the plan was to paint the inside of the canopy as well as the outside so I masked both sides.  I wasn't going to try it with the windscreen, though.  Here's the windscreen masked with tape and liquid mask and the canopy with just the tape:

But after playing around with the canopy and the frame that it attaches to I began to think that I would not be able to apply the glue to the join around the base of the canopy and not have it "squish" out so that it wouldn't be visible inside.  So I ended up masking a very thin frame around the clear part so that there is a little room for error with the glue.  I did paint the inside frame black, though, as you can see in the pic below:

Again I used Tamiya tape and liquid mask.

Nice legs and tires! Aftermarket control surfaces that fit that nice?? Well done.

Dean30

Maybe I'm wrong, if I am , I apologise but I am pretty sure the horizontal stabs don't droop when the F-15 is at rest, I have only ever seen them sit straight.

In any event I'm still glad I got the Quickboost stabs.  When assembled there is an obvious gap between the molded in kit stabs and the fuselage half that they weren't molded to.

Maybe I'm wrong, if I am , I apologise but I am pretty sure the horizontal stabs don't droop when the F-15 is at rest, I have only ever seen them sit straight.

Here's the AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN pod and the adapter for the AN/AAQ-33 SNIPER XR pod attached using CA glue.  I've also painted Mr. Surfacer around the mating area to fill any gaps:

I'm going to paint the SNIPER XR pod separately and attach it at the end.

I cut off the kit's horizontal stabilators by scoring them with the back side of an Xacto blade.  I've replaced them with new stabs by Quickboost:

The detail is almost identical but now the stabs can be placed in a drooped position.  It wouldn't make much sense to have the ailerons drooped and not the stabs.

In the pic above you can see the resin part that fills the space in between the engines.

Here are the Royal resin weighted wheels.  I'm sorry but I didn't take a pic of the wheels before they were painted.

Here they are with Mr. Color Tire Black.  I also sprayed some lighter grey on the treads to make them look a bit dirty:

And here they are with the wheels painted white and washed with Citadel Nuln Oil:

The landing gear are mostly done.  They are very simple on this plane.  Here I've glued the landing gear together (there are 3 parts to each main gear) and loosely attached them to the fuselage.  This way the parts will dry in the correct position:

The nose gear brace has some holes "molded" into it for detail.  I decided to drill these out with my pin vise and a small bit:

Looks better:

I cut out some circles from Tamiya masking tape to match the landing light lenses:

I mentioned in an earlier thread that I planned to add some hydraulic lines to the gear.  I've also added a few styrene details.  Here they are:

Note the resin shimmy dampener on the nose gear:

Here they are with the initial paint:

Here's a shot of the decal sheet I'll be using.  They are the Mountain Home Gunfighters by Afterburner:

Thanks Dean!

I haven't seen alot of F-15Es that were dirty per se, but I have seen many photos with streaks running back on the wings, flaps and ailerons.  I've also seen many that had discolored or faded panels or chipped paint on certain leading edges.  And I've seen many that had plain old faded paint.

I'll be trying to create a balance between good weathering and a realistic effect.  My goal is that I want to look at it and think "Wow, that thing has seen some action over Afghanistan!"

Plus, there are some weathering techniques that I will be using for the first time on this build.

This is so well done so far I can't wait to see it finished, the only place on an F-15 I have ever seen accumulate any amount of dirt was on the belly behind the main landing gear.

Thanks again Eagle...I'll try not to let you down!

I've added the Steel Beach reinforcement plates on the vertical stabs.  Now, not all F-15Es had these installed at the same time and some still don't have them I believe:  

You can see also that I have attached the ECM antennas:

In this pic above you can see where I had to use Mr. Surfacer to sort of build up the wing where the two wing parts met up.  There was an ever so slight step at the joint.  After it was done I re scribed the panel lines that were filled in.

You know, every time you post pics, I get all sentimental about my Eagle!  She is a great plane and you are doing a great job!  I'm really enjoying this thread...THANKS!

Eagle90

Eagle & Dean, Thanks!

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to build up my F-15E as an OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) or OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) airframe.  In order to do this I needed to get some updated parts.

I got the OIF resin update set from Wolfpack.  It includes AN/AAQ-33 SNIPER XR pod, GPS antenna, ECM antennas and the blade antennas that are different from the earlier models. Not all OIF/OEF planes carried the SNIPER pod, FYI.  It also includes an AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN pod that replaces the kits pod although the replacement part isn't really better or worse than the kit part.  The kit part does hang noticeably lower, though.

The pylons needed a little bit of work.  Since you don't use the kit's adapters you need to fill in one of the alignment holes.  Plus, there's an ejection pin mark that needs to be filled.  I used Apoxie Sculpt to fill the holes and attached the adapter with CA glue:

Now that's a good looking model so far! I have had the opportunity to buy this kit many times but never did, sort of regret it now! Looking forward to see how this turns out.

Fly-n-hi, you are doing the Eagle proud!  Great work!  Thanks again for posting your progress!  Great thread!

Eagle90

riptide

i just finished mine, different weapons but same bad ass plane..:0)

Here I've attached the ailerons, intake ramps and conformal fuel tanks.  I used Mr. Surfacer to fill some of the gaps along the seam.  You can see that the ailerons are in the drooped position which happens when there is no hydraulic pressure to hold them up:

I've also attached the long weapons pylons that hang underneath the CFTs:

You can also see in both pics where I used Mr. Surfacer to fill in the seam where the nose section joins the fuselage.  In fact, I deliberately waited to install the intake ramps until after I dealt with this seam because once you attach the ramps it becomes much more difficult to reach this seam.

Thanks guys!

NathanT, I just painted the cans Alclad II jet exhaust and dry brushed some silver on top of that.

Here's a small update. I've attached the vertical stabilizers and filled the seams with Mr. Surfacer.  I think it will be better to attach them now instead of painting them and then attaching them at the end.  Otherwise I won't really be able to eliminate the seams.  I saw one of these Revell F-15E's at the last model contest I was in and the guy painted the vertical stabs separate and then attached them afterwards.  The seams were fairly obvious and I remember thinking that I wouldn't do that if I ever built one.

I've also attached the speed brake in the retracted position.  The fit was surprisingly good!

The canopy and windscreen are just loosely attached so that I could see how they'd look on the plane.

Sweet stuff. What metallic colors did you use on the exhaust? It looks so realistic.

looking really good there Fly n high, the seats look awesome.

i just finished mine, different weapons but same bad ass plane..:0)

Thanks Jester and Jsmyth!

Here's the nose section glued to the fuselage.  Starting to look like an F-15 now!  

For the most part the large parts went together fairly well.  The intakes fit with no problems.  The areas that needed the most work were the seams where the upper and lower fuselage halves met at the tail just ahead of the horizontal stabs.  Also, the seam where the nose section meets the fuselage needed to be filled and sanded...but it wasn't very difficult.  Just be careful and slow when you join these two parts.

I've also attached the outer wing parts as you can see.  These required just a little filling.  

And just so you all know...the white part of the intake in the real plane starts about 6 feet back in the intake.  On mine the white starts immediately.  Oops.  I'm not gonna try to fix it but now you can learn from my mistake.

Great Job!!! I love the shading on the turbines. Keep posting pics so we all can follow.

This has been a really enjoyable wip to watch so far Fly, excellent work on those burners!

Here's an update to the Mud Hen:

I mentioned earlier that I bought the Quickboost resin ejection seats.  The kit seats, like the cockpit, are actually very nice.  But the Quickboost seats are even nicer.  And I figure since the canopy will be posed open, and since the seats really tend to draw the eyes, it would be worth it to have a little extra detail.

Here they are with just a coat of black paint:

Here they are detailed using the Games Workshop Citadel brand of paint:

These seats sit much lower in the cockpit than the kit parts so I'm going to have to add something to make them sit at the correct hight.  I might just cut off the parts on the kit seats and use those.

Thanks Plastic!

Now we're getting somewhere.  Here I've installed the intakes to the lower fuselage and glued the two fuselage halves together.  I didn't really take that many pics of it because its not really anything out of the ordinary.  But I did get pics of the anti collision lights.

What I did here was to file out the molded in anti collision lights and insert a piece of clear sprue:

Here's a pic that shows both of them:

Here's a pic that shows how they look after the clear red is applied.  I'm sorry for the blurry pic.  I am trying to hold the model up to the light and work the camera at the same time.  You get the idea at least:

It will show up better in later pics.

I think you nailed that burnt look.

plasticjunkie

Excellent job on the cans. What colors did you use to get such realistic burnt metallic shades?

The inner base color is just Tamiya White with a few drops of brown mixed in to give in a sort of beige color.  The dark streaks at the flame holder end are Alclad II jet exhaust.  The weathering and dirty burnt looking areas inside the petals are a combination of Tamiya weathering compounds...soot, oil and metallic blue brushed in with the applicator that comes with the compounds.

I just looked at photos of the real exhaust to see where the dirty spots were and tried to copy what I saw.

Excellent job on the cans. What colors did you use to get such realistic burnt metallic shades?

I finished the burner cans.  Here they are painted and weathered:

Not bad for OOB.  AM resin would be better, of course, but these have great detail and I'm not sure that spending $15 or $20 would be worth it.

This kit is really a gem. You've got a killer build going. Looking forward to seeing more of it.

plasticjunkie

...I will be looking at yours for inspiration.

Thanks!  But maybe you should wait and see how it turns out before you say that

Flynhi

Mighty fine work going on there! I can pick up the current re-issue at HL but decided to get the Pro-Modeler one on Ebay which is the same kit when released back in 2000 with the exception of having a full load of armaments like the Aim 120's and GBU's that the re-issue does not have. I will be looking at yours for inspiration.

I should have mentioned this at the start but I've got a bunch of after market stuff for this kit.  Here's what I've got:

• Afterburner Mountain Home Gunfighters decals
• Royal Resin weighted wheels
• Wolfpack resin OIF update set (this set includes a bunch of stuff)
• Quickboost resin ejection seats
• Quickboost resin horizontal stabilators
• Steel Beach vinyl vertical stabilizer reinforcement plates
• 4 GBU-12s, 2 GBU-16s and 1 GBU-31 from the Hasegawa weapons set D
• AIM-120C from a Tamiya F-16 kit

I'm scratch building:

• Pilot O2 hoses
• Nav and anti-collision lights
• Hydraulic lines on the landing gear

So you can see I've got a bunch of extra stuff to use/create.  Wish me luck!

mississippivol

Who was that "masked" man?

Anywho, now for a serious update.  I've mostly finished the exhausts.  These are very well done OOB in my opinion.  The have great detail.  My only complaint is that they molded the flame holder with the exhaust tube.  But I showed you that it is easy to cut the flame holder out.

Here is the afterburner can assembled without the pushrods or any paint:

I didn't take pics of every step but here are the cans with the pushrods attached and with the first 2 or 3 layers of paint/weathering.  I painted the inside a mixture of Tamiya paints that made a very light brown/off white color.  Then I used the Tamiya weathering powders to get the burnt effect:

Here's looking down the cans more vertically.  The flash sort of drowns out the colors:

Here is the weathering looking into the cans from the flame holder side.  The part in the background is one of the nose gear doors:

Here are the flame holders and the compressor blades that will be attached to the end of the intakes.  These will also receive some weathering using the Tamiya weather compounds.  You can also see that I've painted the inside of the intakes.  The intake on the right shows how the seam line has been sanded out very well:

To be continued...

Who was that "masked" man?

Here's a very small update:  I masked and painted the Heads Up Display (HUD).  Yes, you read that right...I masked it!  Actually, it was just a bunch of straight lines so it really wasn't that hard:

You might have noticed in the pics above that the exhaust part was missing the back end.  I cut out the flame holder part of the piece so that I could paint it separately.  And obviously the wheels have been assembled although I'm not going to use them:

As the Terminator would say...I'll be back.

Thanks guys!

Bish, yeah the lights are really an easy touch that add a lot of detail.

Eagle,  like I mentioned above this kit has a very nice cockpit.  It had nicely raised detail and Revell got most of it right.

Plastic, I dry brushed some Tamiya paint over the Mr Color Black.  This works out very well because if you mess it up you can just use Windex to strip off the dry brusing an do it over.

Also, the hoses are going to have 2 parts each.  There is a smaller hose or wiring that runs along the O2 hose.  I'll use thin wire and some metal foil tape to hold them together.

On with the build:  I've assembled and sanded out the intakes.  I used a popsicle stick with some foam backed sanding pads attached to get in there and smooth out the seams:

Here's a good view of the seams.  They're acually very smooth.  The seams just catch the light differently:

The office is looking great. The IP actually looks like one done with an Eduard pe set. 

You can also use thin copper wire from a discarded cord wrapped on a thin drill bit, coiled up tight then trimmed and painted for the hoses.

Man, that office looks great!  Some really nice detail work.  She is coming along beautifully!

Eagle90

Great work on the pit, that's looking really nice.

I might give that light trick a try, though might be a bit fiddly in 72nd, but worth a go.

I've seen it done before but I'haven't done it myself.  Probably because I don't have any toothbrushes that have the right colors.  Its a good technique, though.

Scott, have you ever used toothbrush handles in green or red, or blue, to fill in those wing-tip lenses?  A piece could be fitted like the clear and then sanded down to shape, and finish polished.  I guess a "bulb" (silver paint?) could be put in place in a small hole drilled on the back of the colored piece or in the wingtip recess.   It seems like I've seen this technique used somewhere and your neat lenses made me think of it I guess.

Moving along with the cockpit tub.  This kit has a very descent cockpit.  Not as good as a resin tub but still pretty good.  I painted it and masked it off to paint the black panels.  Yeah, it took a while to cut and mask all those little spaces:

Here it is after a little lighter grey drybrushing:

Here's how it looks when assembled:

I'm going to add the O2 lines in the cockpit.  Here I cut out some spare guitar strings to use as the hoses:

And here's how they will be placed.  I've also given the tub a bit of a wash, especially on that back fabric area, to bring out some detail:

Be back soon...

Bish

Stunning work so far. I really like what you have done with the lights.

I'm also adding the anti-collision lights near the wing roots and on the vertical stabilizers.

Stunning work so far. I really like what you have done with the lights.

Eagle,Tex and Tech, Thanks!

Here's the canopy and windscreen polished out.  I have recently stopped dipping my canopies in Future.  Instead I polish them out with Micro Mesh grits 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000.  Then I polish them out with the Novus polishing system.  The parts are crystal clear and In my opinion have a more natural look to them:

The ejection seat in the background is for a different model.

So, the clear lenses were painted with the Alclad after they were installed in the wing tips?  Hmmm. They do look good.

Great work with attention to detail.  I look forward to the progress updates.

Fly-n-hi....WOW!  Great work!  Really glad you decided to post your WIP!  Everything looks spectacular so far!  The lights turned out really well!  Thanks for posting these!

Eagle90

Here's a pic of the fuel tanks after they were sanded, re-scribed and primed with Mr. Base White:

I used the Verlinden 1/48 scribing templates to scribe the 3 doors on each tank.  They worked out fantastic.  They are very flexible and were easy to wrap around the curve of the tanks.

Thanks Plastic and Tex.

Gary, the lenses are just clear sprue.  The color is Alclad II clear red and clear blue.

Here are the GBUs glossed up and ready for decals.  I have been using Liquitex Acrylic Gloss Varnish lately and I think it works great.  I just brushed it on:

I should mention that the colors on the GBUs can be random.  Its not unusual to see a mix of differently colored bombs like you see above.  In fact, many of the grey bombs don't even have the burgundy collar.  If you Google F-15E images you'll see good examples of this.  I will be weathering them, as well, after the decals are applied.

Scott, the lights look great but I have a question.  Are the colored lenses attached over the clear ones?  If so, what are the colored lenses made of?

Thanks, Gary

The weapons came out great and excellent work on the clear lights. Looks like it's going to be an interesting thread.

Here's the ordinance that going to hang underneath.  I've got 4 GBU-12s, 2 GBU-16s and a GBU-31 from the Hasegawa weapons set.  The AIM-120C is from a Tamiya F-16 kit and the AIM-9M is from the Revell kit itself.  Because I want to build this up as a plane from OEF or OIF I have to get certain things like upgraded LAU-115 rails for the AMRAAMs.

Unpainted:

First layers of paint (the AMRAAM is finished):

Final paint on the bombs (except for the seeker heads):

Fuel tanks primed and preshaded:

I sanded out all of the raised detail on the fuel tanks and re-scribed all of the access panels.

Well, if I'm reading this right it sounds like you all would be interested.  Thanks for the replies!

Eagle90

Do frogs bump their bottoms when they hop!?    (Do they?)

My 21 years in the Air Force was spent working on the avionics for those most beautiful of machines, so heck yeah!  I'd love to see your pics!  I have 3 kits in 1/48 of the Eagle (2 are C/D models and 1 E model).  I'm going to do one for each base I was stationed at.  SJ (Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C), BT (Bitburg, Germany), EG (Eglin AFB, Fl).  

Post away!  And thanks in advance for doing it!

Eagle90

Well, here goes:  I decided to carve out the NAV and Anti Collision lights and place clear sprue in the openings.  The tip on the left is cut out and the one on the right is the original.  

Here's the little block of clear sprue attached:

And here's what it looked like after careful sanding to preserve the surrounding panel lines:

And the colored lenses:

Also, I cut out the ailerons so that I could pose them in their drooped position.  I glued a half circular styrene piece to the front (as you can see in the first pic) to give it its proper shape.  Here they are sanded and cleaned up:

More to come...

Nathan T

Go for it. We desperately need mor WIP here!

agreed, we need a good balance between GB's and WiP, but I think we are getting there.

Let me think.........................UHH YEAH!!

Go for it. We desperately need mor WIP here!

Do frogs bump their bottoms when they hop!?    (Do they?)

My 21 years in the Air Force was spent working on the avionics for those most beautiful of machines, so heck yeah!  I'd love to see your pics!  I have 3 kits in 1/48 of the Eagle (2 are C/D models and 1 E model).  I'm going to do one for each base I was stationed at.  SJ (Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C), BT (Bitburg, Germany), EG (Eglin AFB, Fl).  

Post away!  And thanks in advance for doing it!

Eagle90

Go for it!

I'd like to see it. I have one in the closet collecting dust, and I hear it's a great kit.

Post it man.....

Always room for another WiP thread. Post away, I'm in.

let the posting begin!

SHOOT YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!  I love the Eagle, so get those pics up!!!  Thanks, Raymond...