F-15 Eagle Group Build 6/01/06 - 1/17/07

rudy_102 wrote:

Wait a sec, I just noticed something: my name's not on the opening message! To recap, I'm doing an F-15C and E, both 1/48 Revell.

Sorry 'bout that......it's fixed! 

Sorry for being gone so long folks! 

There is some really outstanding work going on in here. The White Dragon is really nice for being brush painted! I'm still puttering along. I keep running into problems that take loads of time to solve.

I'll be posting progress pics soon

Maxpower: I know what your talking about on the wings.I havn't actually glued the wings to the fuselage yet,but I'm close.I apologize for not getting back to you in a timely manner. But from looking at your last posting it looks like you solved the problem.I think I read somewhere about adding some scrap plasting in between the wing halves to spread them apart a little to soak up the 'step' that your talking about.But I have not tried myself yet.I have spent the last 4 or 5 build sessions just trying to figure out how to eliminate the seam in the exhaust cans.....

Here are a few pics if my progress so far:

I'll post more pics very soon.... Later on guys,Take care!

Welcome to the build Ish! I added your name to the GB tally......

Maxpower: In reference to your question about the exhaust nozzle collar ring (for lack of a better term).... How did you paint it? I am planning on shooting mine Alclad pale burnt metal with clear blue highlights around the edges of the rings.Maybe this pic will give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Here are some other pics...... albeit of an F-15C that I took a couple of years ago at an airshow:

http://www.ipmsslc.com/gallery2/v/Airshows/TinkerAFB2004

Here are some more progress pics of my Mudhen:

 This is a shot of the fuselage with the exhaust cans installed along with the Cutting Edge seemless intakes:

A shot of the Vulcan cannon bay:

And the business end of the cannon:

Thats all for now folks... Take care!

Albert scale is 1/32. The panel lines allways look good after some primer. They'll hide some when I spray the MM Gunship Grey I'm using.

ZoneV for the blue part of the exhaust I followed the mixing instructions from the book. I'm not that happy with it, I don't think it looks that realistic but frankly it's not like I'm entering a contest and my skill level is still low with the airbrush so I'm ok with it. It's the second model I've done in years so I'll learn better techniques as I go. 

I'm overall happy with it. I'm going to paint soon so there will be more pics. 

Here is another quick update....

I was about to glue the wings to the fuselage when I read about the problems that Maxpower was having with his Mudhen.So I did some experimenting and came up with a solution.

    The blue marking indicates where the trouble area is before mounting the wings.

    See pic:  (Please disregard the shadows caused by the blinds in the window)

   This next picture shows how much of a step is caused by the assembly of the wing to the A/C

 and how much of problem it becomes trying to eliminate the 'step' in the plastic without losing the surrounding detail.

See pic:

The solution to the problem I found was adding a strip of plastic as a spacer to spread the center of the wing apart to eliminate the step.

This next pic shows how it is pretty much eliminated:

 Till next weekend,you guys take care.....

Ok here's my latest. I made a lot of progress this weekend, but the end still seems impossibly far...

Sorry this one is a little blurry, macro mode with no flash I held the camera as still as I could. Also it's interesting how the black seems to reflect brow in that one spot.

Here we can see a slight variation in colour going in the direction I sprayed my paint. This is because I'm still new with the airbrush and learning the feel. (going to do a few cheap models after this) but I think it actualy looks cool and will look good when it's weathered *crosses fingers* If anybody can tell me what I did wrong? I suspect too light on the paint and a little far from the model. Perhaps I went back over it too early on the second pass? I thinned the MM enamel with mineral spirits. Could that be a problem? Ahhh so much to learn. On the bright side the seams on the wings (and everywhere else) are totaly gone. Enough yacking.... here's the pic...

Any feedback at all? I need validation!! lol

Looks real enough to fly.  Now since i'm a glutten for punishment i'll throw my hat in to the ring with a 1/48 Revel F-15C Eagle. Now if i get really enthused i'l try to get toconvert it into a F-15K, maybe so don't cross your fingers.

Looks good Max....not exactly sure what would cause your paint to do that other than maybe holding the airbrush too far away/too close.But it all looks good to me.Nothing much to add.But I think that this thread has somewhat been abandoned.It's probably my fault though,since I am the host and I havn't really kept up with it.Anyway,nice work Max...I hope I do as well as you have.

Mr. Chex,I'll add you to the group build tally..

Take care...

Hey max, That looks real good.

Zone, it's not abandoned.  I check for this thread everyday I'm on here.  I'm still working on mine.  I didn't detail the cockpits at all.  I just painted them gray, some black, then drybrushed black on the rest of it.  I'm not too concerned with the cp on these planes, as much as I am on the outside.  I'm going to add a little yellow for the eject handles and future on the screens.  These Revell C's are a real pain and sparse on any cp detail anyway.  I'm still plugging away, while also finishing up the 67 chevelle for my friend.  I'll post pics soon.

I'm still around as well, just been way too busy to post anything or even work on any of my builds.  I am hoping that this long weekend I'll be able to finish setting up the workshop and begin to build again.

All that I have seen so far lookg outstanding, thanks for the pics!

Matt

Hey guys! 

Well, here are two of my Eagles.  The first is the 1:48th Revell F-15E in Eagle Strike 48th FW markings.  This kit is unbelieveable!

and my Hasegawa F-15D with Eagle Strike 48th FW decals and some custom ones I cobbled together for the squadron flashes.

Cobra,

Looking good, cant wait to see the finished product on both!!!!

Matt

Hi Guys,

Last night, my daughter select F-15E(1/32 Tamiya) to be my next article from the stocks. I was searching some pics through internet just right now, and google linked me here. It's a fantastic place! A lot of fans are making F-15 with me world wide! May I join with u? Is it too late? I still have 40% workload for a 1/72 Revell Rescure Ship. Anyway, I will keep an eye in the team!

Good Luck to every body here!

 Jackson from Shanghai, raining 2 weeks already after a long long dry fall.

Welcome to the board.. I am not far from you here in Fukuoka Japan.. When you get the rain, it follows its way here to us!.. And must say, I have had enough of it also...Thats when we are not having to put up with the yellow sand that you guys send over to us also!..

Anyways, glad to have someone else on in this part of the world..

ps: Cobra.. I tried building that same F-15E kit, but tried to build it with the vents down.. Well lets just say it has been tossed.. Great job on yours! 

Chris 

Chris_in_Japan wrote:

Welcome to the board.. I am not far from you here in Fukuoka Japan.. When you get the rain, it follows its way here to us!.. And must say, I have had enough of it also...Thats when we are not having to put up with the yellow sand that you guys send over to us also!.. Anyways, glad to have someone else on in this part of the world.. ps: Cobra.. I tried building that same F-15E kit, but tried to build it with the vents down.. Well lets just say it has been tossed.. Great job on yours!  Chris

Hey guy,

 Glod to see the first reply so quickly. Back to the sand problem, if the sand does really come from my places originally, u guys should pay for that as it could make islands bigger! :-)

Ok, Fukuoka is quite close with Shanghai, just about 1 hour flight, right?

Jackson

willuride wrote:

Zone, it's not abandoned.  I check for this thread everyday I'm on here.

blkhwkmatt wrote:

I'm still around as well, just been way too busy to post anything or even work on any of my builds.

That's good to know.I was starting to think everyone had shelved their projects.

Mr.Chex and BigJac have both been added to the group build tally.....you both are more than welcome here and please feel free to post your progress.Were all interested in seeing it.

I myself am still plugging away.I have the wings on now and lately have been concentrating on paint prep and such.Trying to eliminate seams and deepen the panel lines and rivets for paint.Here is where I am at so far:

Now on this project,since the molding detail was so good on this kit,Tamiya molded the drain tubes and vent tubes on the bottom of the aircraft.This is a pic of how they look OOB:

 I wanted to make my F-15E as accurate as possible without going nuts on it so I cut off the blobs of plastic that represented the vents and drains...and substituted them with small diameter steel tubing.:

 After getting it done,I am wondering if it was worth the trouble of it all.What do you think?

Respectful replies are welcomed.....

Bump

Sorry I didn't say anything sooner, I had some internet connection issues... but I'm all better now.

They look awesome but it's more work than I would have gone through. I didn't touch mine but at best I might have drilled out the originals. 

When are we going to shoot some paint on that bad boy?

I'm on nights at work and I'm working weekends for Christmas cash so mine is at a little bit of a standstill.

17th of January is looming. 

Thanks for the response Maxpower...I think your right,it was probably more trouble than it was worth.As far as paint is concerned? That is a good question.I am going to guesstimate and say probably another couple of weeks? I still have some rescribing to do around the tail chines.The engraved detail in the area in between the wings and horizontal stabs has been lost because of sanding.So I need to rescribe that.I've been working on the nose gear alot lately..so the paint prep has been put on hold.I still plan on adding a strip of plastic to replicate the rubber gasket in between the conformal tanks and the intake.And I think I am going to fill in the engraved detail on the CFT's and rescribe it with more narrower lines.The pics that I have seen...the panel lines on the CFT's are not that obvious.I have other things that I want to do before I start shooting paint.Besides when I do paint it will have to be outside.because I don't have a spray booth.Anyway....I will have to keep a steady pace to make the deadline but it's going to be a close shave.Take care...

After going through and re-reading the thread,I noticed I never posted any real close pics of the cockpit.So I figured I'd take the time to post those now.Comments welcome.....Enjoy!

Take care......

Cockpit looks awesome!

Mine was ok I think for my experience level and building OOB.

I had my first go with a metalizer tonight. I painted the aluminum on my bird using MM metalizer non-buffing aluminum. It looks awesome I think. It when on great. It sure stunk the place up though, I'm glad I invested in a mask.

I'm wiped out but I'll try to get some pics up a little later. Gah I start nights again tommorow so I guess I'm finished for the week. 

MaxPower wrote:

Cockpit looks awesome!I had my first go with a metalizer tonight. I painted the aluminum on my bird using MM metalizer non-buffing aluminum. It looks awesome I think.

Thanks Max!  I can't wait to see pics of yours...That part of the paintjob has me really nervous.I definatley dont want to muck it up! I bought Alclad to use on those parts.It will be the first time I have ever used the stuff.I wanted more variences of color between the sections.And Alclad seems to be very popular.Please post some pics as soon as you can!.I agree with working nights.I have done it before several times and it screws me all up.I have since found out that between 1 or 2 in the morning till sun-up is the worst time of driving for me......so I try to stick with day jobs.Anyhoo... thanks for the kind words on the cockpit!

Sorry these pics are poor quality. It sucks at night trying to take a close up without a flash. There's one from a little further back that I used the flash for. My landing gear is done but for weathering.

But you can see the metal finish looks good. Well good enough... I think...

Odds and ends bud... odds and ends.

It's getting hard to work on it because there's a million things to be done but none of them big enough to give me a solid direction. All the little details now. Oh and of course weapons.

And deciding what weapons to put on! Ugh I wish I could use them all!

I have some painting woopsies to clean up, the canopy is masked and ready for paint, most of the weapons are built but not painted and some not sanded, lots of small detail painting. I hope to get a lot done over the hollidays. I think I'm getting the Academy Hornet for Christmas with a black box detail set and custom decals so I need to get moving! I have a 737 I want to get started too.

Thanks for the good words. Looking foreward to seeing some pics from you too.

Maxpower,

Looking good!! 

I have made some progress on my F-15E, it has the base paint on it along with a bit of panel shading along with the metalizer areas for the engines.  I will try to snap some pics and post them soon.  I should have it sompleted for the 17 jan deadline!!

Matt

Although I am not part of the GB, I am building a 1/32 F-15E.  You guys are an inspiration and wealth of knowledge and ideas.

Thanks

Well you are more than welcome to join. It's no biggie, just for fun. All you have to do is talk about your build and post the odd picture. Did you see mine? They don't even have to be good!!

Are you doing the Tamiya? 

Sigh...

I put my vertical stabalizers on tonight after a bunch of sanding to try to get the fit good. I'm not that happy with them and one isn't aligned right. In hindsight I would have put them on before painting. There is a crack under one that is going to need putty.

I'm going to start painting weapons to take a break from the plane.  

Maxpower,

Sorry to hear about the vert. stabs.  I tackled the painting the same way as you on my 1/48th mud hen, and was really worried about the same thing happening after you mentioned it.  I attached them today with a bit of gap filling superglue and am glad to say that I can live with the results.  I have begun attaching most of the smaller peices in preparation for sealing it all with future and a wash.  I am waiting on the "da heath" decals from TwoBobs to arrive and then i should be done.

Just keep plugging away, it'll come together!

Matt