RichieB

Absolutely flawless finish, top marks for pulling off a very difficult scheme.

Hi Brian, have you tried heating the FO cables, you can get some quite good bends and they still project light. I also mushroom the ends to disperse the light at the IP end and then fill any gaps with gloss varnish to create a smooth surface. Currently experimenting with EL tape but you need a separate power source as it runs off an inverter. Great build by the way!

Many thanks Maru, will try! I did indeed read your thread Steve and I think the Revell kit is a very good base which allows you to add as much detail as you want depending on your thirst for accuracy and the size of your wallet! Kind regards,

OK, progress (a bit!) I've mostly been tinkering with the pylons and fuel tanks but decided to switch to the cockpits just so I can paint something. The front pit is the Aires early model which is very nice. I have yet to add the dial instrumentation as that bit comes when I add the lighting, The sidewalls from the Aires kit are also quite nice. The holes have been added for cockpit lighting. The rear tub is the modified Revell one with a resin replacement for the IP. Again instrument dials need adding. At some point I'm going to have to work out how to sandwich these two halves together so they fit the front fuselage. The jet jockeys also get some green. They look a bit shinier in the photos than I remember, must be newbies! Clearly their heads will be added at some point but I find it easier to paint them separately and I'm toying with the idea of adding squadron markings to them rather than have them plain white. However, not seen many pictures of early F-15 helmets painted this way so it will be a bit of artistic license if I do. And something to sit on. I've got some additional PE to apply when the pilots are added. Well, another small step closer. Just plucking up the courage (and will power) to rivet and add missing detail to the external aircraft surfaces which are missing from the Revell kit for the most part.

Simply outstanding!

Has it really been over a month? Small steps and all that! As the Revell kit doesn't have any aircrew I've 'borrowed' some from an F-4 kit as the flying kit is about that period. I've repositioned the arms to fit the cockpit better (hopefully) and added some seat-belts from the Aires seat PE though there are still some elements to that which I will add nearer the end to avoid knocking them off. I've also added some Archer rivet detail and the visor slide to the helmets. I've removed the oxy hoses as I usually add guitar string instead. It's more realistic, longer and can flex how you want it. You may recall I queried if this was correct for the canopy support ... Turns out it wasn't, so after some internet photo searches and a good study of Jake Melampy's F-15 book (highly recommended if you are doing any F-15) I found another use for the Archer rivets (which I really like). I also reshaped the plastic and added some detail that you probably won't see when it's in a closed cockpit. I think the Revell kit is a good starting block but it's a bit bland without some help. More, eventually!

Many thanks for the heads up Bruce. The side walls have been moved in a bit and the IPs adjusted accordingly along with some thickening of the side walls. I've also used your resin rear cockpit IP which is much more suited to this version than the Revell offering. Throttles are also moved as per your recommend. In other news I have added the distinctive fairing on the airbrake that was only used on the very early versions (like this one). And primed the seats just to see if there were any glaring errors. Looks ok so far! You can see where I've added some blocks to the bottom of the seat to raise it to a more acceptable level in the cockpit when the canopy is down. All in all, I suspect the Aires Escapac seats are a bit undersized.

Many thanks guys. Kei - I agree, one of the reasons I used the Aires cockpit is the better coaming shape and detail. Mongoose - Half the battle is knowing when to stop and photographing them in hi-res doesn't help! F's - Your F-15E paint job is my inspiration for the finish I'm trying for on this bird, but in air superiority blue.

So despite my optimism, modelling time in 2019 has so far been somewhat short and sweet. However, progress (some) has been made and I finally managed to spray something, albeit with black primer! Most of the time has been taken up with tinkering with the cockpit details. I'm cut-and-shunting the aires cockpit front end to the revell rear end as they seem to be similar proportions. The aires front end is very nicely done, especially when you overlay the PE. The PE is not fixed yet as I need to drill out holes for the IP lighting. I have however drilled out a lot of the resin behind the IP to make this process a bit easier. The main cockpit is again very nice from Aires but I've had to get rid of a lot of resin to make the lighting easier to add. The Revell rear cockpit is based on an F-15E so not really relevant. I've therefore removed a few panels, moved and beefed up the throttles and added some rear wall detail. The rear IP is courtesy of partsrparts and a much better representation of an F-15B IP. I've had to modify the IP somewhat to allow it to fit the narrowed cockpit walls and the side panels I've also decided to add. I've also drilled out the instrument dials in preparation for some lighting effects. The need to trim down the IP edges comes from adding some side wall detail to fill in the gaps from moving the cockpit side consoles inwards due to the seats being too small for the space (or the space too big for the seats). Everyone still with me? Aires has kindly provided the front cockpit side wall detail, I just have to make it fit the Revell kit. You'll notice the hole for the avionics vent which I am also in the process of scratchbuilding. This one needs some more work apparently (dam this digital photography close up). Still not sure how I'm going to fit this all together seamlessly!

In a brief pause in the festive preparations I've been tinkering with the Aires Escapac ejection seats. Having wedged them slightly wider at the bottom I raised the seat height by a few mm to get the head position right (will need to check this before fixing the canopy in place). I'm not too worried about the finish on the seat as the pilots will be obscuring most of that detail. The pull handle in the head box was removed as these are A-4/A-7 seats and is not required for the F-15. The next addition were the rails and cross-bar supports at the back of the seat. I chamfered the bottom ends to keep the tops parallel and most of this area will be hidden anyway. The main reason for not splitting the entire seat was to preserve the pole detail you can see at the top and rear of the seat. In addition, I've modified the rear cockpit section of the Revell kit to add some rear wall detail, remove spurious instrument detail, reposition the throttles and narrow the side walls by about 1 mm. I'll have to modify the rear instrument panel it doesn;t match the profile of the revised cockpit and it's too wide. With the seated pilot on board the fit now looks a lot more snug. Other items in the cockpit also need attention. The canopy frame below is quite plain and I'm not sure if it is the correct shape either. Any steers gratefully received! Hopefully I'll get some time between now and the new year to do some more tinkering but in the mean-time, have a great Xmas everyone and best wishes for a model-tastic New Year! (Maybe I'll even finish this one before 2020!)

Superb rendition, love the paint job!

Whilst fiddling with the cockpit layout I thought I'd have a look at how much extra detail the Tamiya kit has compared to the Revell one. A quick brown wash reveals the Tamiya (on the right) is a smoother plastic and has some riveting detail (although nowhere near the Trumpeter levels) whereas the Revell has none. It also shows some differences on the panel lines so I will have to work out which is the correct one and whether to amend accordingly. The Tamiya is a 'C' model so there may be some differences that are not on the 'B' ie the airbrake detail at the rear. Overall, not too dissimilar and should respond well to some added riveting detail. The small gun vent in the Revell kit also appears to be in the wrong place. I have the GT Resin vent update set for the F-15 which looks like it should work for the Revell kit though it doesn't include the rather large vent behind the cockpit so I'll have to work out how to enhance this detail. Any more early-B detail references gratefully received!

Utterly brilliant remake. Tomcatastic!

Also on the (ever increasing) build list so watching with interest!

On the build list so watching with interest!