Vegas Strong F-15A

[daveculp]

There's a retired F-15A at Nellis AFB that has been painted in a left-right scheme.  The left side is in honor of the victims of the October 2017 shooting from the Mandalay Bay hotel.  The right side is a tribute to the 70th anniversary of the USAF.  The airplane is rolled out for air shows only, as far as I know, so I've gotten plenty of photos of it at the Aviation Nation air shows.  The kit is a 1/48 Italeri F-15A/C.  Modifications include removing the antennae from the rear fuselage boat tails, and cutting off the center boat tail that sits between the nozzles. Also the flaps and ailerons were cut off and re-positioned.  I was hoping it would be a quick and easy build so I could concentrate on the decals - but the kit fought me the whole way (when I wasn't causing enough trouble for myself).

 

Paint is Vallejo Model Air for the most part.  Decals home made.  I stuck a bit of toothpick in above the front tire to keep the strut from bending - not sure what I'll do for a permanent solution.

 

A fellow in my scale modeling club is planning to build a 1/32 version, which I'm sure will put this one to shame

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by daveculp
wording more clear

[Out2gtcha]

Nice!!!

[Uncarina]

That looks spectacular!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[daveculp]

Thanks guys.  One thing I forgot to mention is the difficulty of matching the home made decals with the paint.  The orange is supposed to be a pumpkin color - in my build the decal orange looks right, but the paint is a bit reddish.  It also looks redder in some of the photos than it actually is.  The dark blue wasn't bad, but the bright blue on the tail was tough.  My blue paint is a bit more purplish than the decal blue.