Cheetah11

Well done. Unusual subject and great build.

Great looking gear bay Sean. I still think you missed you calling.

Alain your Cheetah turned out beautifully. What an incredible build. The long wait was worth it. Nick

Wow. Great build and paint job.

Hi Rudy It is not box-art but a painting by the artist Phillip West. Cheers Nick

Tom this build is incredible. I am looking forward to seeing it completed. I have one small criticism though. It is not an MR3 Nick

Great model Sean. It has been a pleasure to watch this build with all your attention to detail. Well done! Nick

Thanks Rudy. BTW I am planning a F-4E in the near future. Unfortunately not a Wolfhound but this one. Cheers and happy modeling Nick

Hi Eric Thanks for the compliment and interest. The one problem that stalled the project was doing the markings but your great build on the Mirage III enlightened me to the Silouette Cutter. Thanks for that. I have never looked back since getting it. Cheers Nick

Hi Rudy I have understood you perfectly and it is on the model. The subject in 1986 in low vis form. As you can see the Royal Crest does not stand out a lot. Thanks for all the interesting background. I was fortunate enough to see the Eagle in the Museum at Soesterberg and knowing the background makes it just more interesting. Cheers Nick

Thanks for the compliments and interest gents. By all means Ray, I will be honored. Hi Rudy If you look carefully you will see the Royal Crest. It is in low-vis colors. I was very fortunate to get a good photo of the subject as there are some differences from the standard USAAF aircraft such as very little standard stencils. The F-15 seems to have been in a bit of a transition in 1986 as far as markings go. On the subject there is a mix of high-vis, reduced-vis and low-vis markings. Cheers Nick

I don't think you have too much to worry about. Just a little patience. In comparison my two books from Belgium has been in the post since March 2019 and my Mouse House 1/25 Centurion engine deck has been in the post since 2015. Somehow I don't think I will ever see them.

Thanks Max.

During the Cold War USAAFE kept units in Europe for air superiority and interception of Eastern Block intruders. When the Mig 25 Foxbat was introduced by the Eastern Block , the F-4 units were promptly replaced by the F-15A and later by the F-15C. These were stationed at Bitburg and Spangdahlem in Germany and Soesterberg in the Netherlands. The 32nd TFS was the unit stationed at Soesterberg and at the time the only F-15 unit to carry a bit of nose art in the form of a Wolfhound on the left side of the cockpit. It was also the only USAAF unit to be under the control of another air force, in this case the Netherlands Air Force. The Tamiya model was build pretty much OOB. A few small details was added in the cockpit and the fuel tank modified from a Sufa tank to give a better representation of the belly tank. The afterburner nozzles were also shortened. This kit is relatively old but is still a pleasure to build and because of its size has a great presence. A pity Tamiya has not updated this like the F-14. One sprue with modern weapons, a tank and new nozzles would fix the most of the inaccuracies and make it easy to do a more modern Eagle. Here is the model( part of the Cold War Jets) group build. And now off to the display case. Nick

One more detail with the Silouette cutter. The Duch Decals I have been saving for this build was totally unusable. I bought them about 20 years ago and I suspect it is the age of the decals that caused the problem. I think some decal sheets just do not age well. I copied the details onto AM clear decal and used some of that. It came out with a some pixels showing, but looks good from normal viewing distances. The circle around the dog's head was also cut and masked. I fortunately found a good photo of the subject to digitize the mask from. And with that the build is done. Only to post on RFI. Nick