Well fellas, better later than not at all. I recognize a few of you guys (especially Dragonfly & 2LT CobraHistoryMan :>) & your work from the ARC forums, & since this GB is still ongoing, I'd thought I'd chime in with my own F-15 build.
Primarily, I'm a gull grey, naval aircraft (F-8, F-4, early F-14) type of model builder, but this past summer, I got to photograph some F-15s at a couple of airshows, & now I'm kind of hooked.
I will say, that compared to the 1/48th Hasegawa & Revellogram F-14 kits, the F-15 is a welcome relief in simplicity in modeling. I picked this Monogram 1/48th F-15C up at Wally-World about 18 months ago, & its just been sitting in the stash while I slogged away at some F-14 kits. Well, no longer. I have not made any serious attempt to build any USAF models in the last few years, apart from a Monogram F-105D from the 4th FW (sound familiar?). This is the actual aircraft I'm going to be modeling.
Right now, my pans is to create a diorama based on the photos I took. I'm planning on scratch building the sawhorses, adding the taxiway lines to the base, adding O scale model RR figures, & having another modeling buddy print out the gray squadron & wing badges, along with the red intake covers with the white badges. The only resin I'm planning on adding is some True Details wheels I picked up at a local model show years ago, since the Monogram kit has A model wheels. Keeping it simple, folks.
Never having done a modern AF scheme, I practiced on a few tails I cut from sheet styrene. The closest tail is in the Compass gray scheme, since I have PLENTY of both light & dark ghost grey. The further one is in MOD eagle colors. I use MM Acryl paint, but I think the dark MOD Eagle (FS16176, I think) looks too dark & too purple. Adding white to it made it look a lighter shade of being too purple.
I painted the pitot tubes red to simulate ground covers. I'll add the RBF tags later.
This is a dry-fit, with nothing glued in place.
The kit is not without its fit issues. I cut a piece of thicker sprue to serve as a brace to widen the fuselage reduce the step between the nose section & the main fuselage.
I had to do the same thing with the area between the nozzles to widen the fuselage so that the diameter of the opening matched the diameter of the nozzles. I'm going to be using the kits nozzles because 1. I need to keep it simple to finish it, & 2. I can't find any Airies nozzles right now. Lastly, I fashioned a wedge shaped AN-138 (I think that's the right number) ECM antenna for the end tip of the right boom from sprue because this particular aircraft has it. The decals will come form the 2Bobs Show Me State Eagles sheet, which is very close, but not exact, to this aircraft. I can live with a few discrepancies.
Native New Yorker, like the F-14