F-15E - Operation Iraqi Freedom

[Zero77]

Hi,

 

I've started this build last week. I think i will paint it with markings of 89-0487, nicknamed "lucky" because it won a victory on ODS in 1993 with a GBU-10 lauched on a Mi-24 while it was taking off. It is the only air-to-air kill credited to the F-15E.

In addition, 89-0487 is the first F-15E to have reached 10000 flight hours.

 

So this aircraft have all my interest and in addition, she have a nice little noseart, and the air-to-air victory marking.

 

To ehance to good tamiya kit, i also have an avionix cockpit wich does not bring much compared to the inbox cockpit. I will certainly keep the tamiya cockpit and only add a few resin accessories from the avionix. I have also the eduard exterior and interior set, and the nice flightpath PE exhaust set, which i will mix with eduard and kit parts.

 

So let's begin with a few pictures.

 

The intakes ramps that have been sanded, and then the eduard PE glued on it :

 

 

Edited May 16, 2015 by Zero77

[Showtime 100]

Awesome plan you have there !

 

 

Will definitely be following this build!

[Zero77]

Then the problem of the intake ducts, with the famous seam issue...

 

I wanted to buy a rhino model resin intake set, but his ebay shop is off at the moment.

So i tried to solve this issue by myself, as i already did with the F-16 intake. It is possible, it only need a few hours of work.

 

I began to fill the ejection roundels with thinned tamiya putty, then sand it clean :

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Here it is (dry fit) :

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Then a thick coat of an old alclad primer i keep only for this kind of filling job : 

 

Then i glue the 2 parts and roughly fill the seam with thinned tamiya putty (sorry no picture of that). Then i sand all this mess with sanding sticks and home made primitive tools, like sanding paper wraped around a bit of sprue, or around a pen. You better use a lot of water and wash the job quite often because it produces a lot of dust. Here is the result, still quite rough, but the seem has disapeared :

 

Paint job technique in the next post.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Zero77

[Zero77]

Thank you Showtime !

Having some people reading is rewarding !

 

 

Now the paint job technique. Quite strange but very effective. You only have to buy a pot of paint (for walls), for US jets gloss white is OK if you want to get the super smooth polished finish you can see on the real thing, but you can also use matte or semi-matte paint. It costs only a few bucks, and you can paint a lot of intakes through the years with one pot, as you get back 80/90% of the paint.

 

Here is what you need :

 

Then you put some tape at the end of your intake, in order to make it quite tight. Always put the tape on the fan side, not at the entrance of the intake because the paint will flow by this side and this could be there where you could have some little defect, and it is better to have this on the side where it will not be visible. So consider the fan side as the bottom.

Then fill your intake with paint (use a plastic glass as it is more easy to control the flow than directly with the pot of paint) :

 

Then make some holes in the tape at the bottom, so the paint can flow and empty your intake. Do this above your pot of paint, so you can get back the paint :

 

Then when your intake is almost empty, you can remove the tape, and let the last drops drip.

 

Then you can wipe the excess paint at the bottom with a wet sponge. After a few minutes you have to keep an eye on the bottom and remove any excess with a slightly wet paper roll :

 

And then you let it dry a few hours. Keep it away from any dust, obviously, as it can ruine your work.

If you missed it, you can rinse your intakes with water within about 15 minutes, then you can with alcool (when it is dry).

 

And here is the result :

Edited October 26, 2013 by Zero77

[Guest]

Most excellent !.............Harv

[ghatherly]

Hey Zero77, Glad to see another big Eagle being built, and I must say an excellent choice of subject.  It looks like you are off to a good start.  If I could as a suggestion, Tamiya's intakes are too narrow for the lower fuselage at the radius, and this shows up when you install the intakes into the lower.  I solve this by cutting a slot 1' from the front and spreading it about 2mm with plastic strips and widen the bottom to make the radii match up.  Otherwise the ducts are too narrow for the lower in the lower corners and do not line up with the fuselage.

 

Looking forward to your build!

[Daywalker]

Off to a fantastic start, looking forward to this one!
 

Gary- thanks for the tip on fitting the intakes, duly noted for my future build.

[Showtime 100]

Cool technique for 'killing several birds with one stone' !

[Zero77]

Hey Zero77, Glad to see another big Eagle being built, and I must say an excellent choice of subject.  It looks like you are off to a good start.  If I could as a suggestion, Tamiya's intakes are too narrow for the lower fuselage at the radius, and this shows up when you install the intakes into the lower.  I solve this by cutting a slot 1' from the front and spreading it about 2mm with plastic strips and widen the bottom to make the radii match up.  Otherwise the ducts are too narrow for the lower in the lower corners and do not line up with the fuselage.

 

Looking forward to your build!

 

I have not noticed that... At the moment, my intakes are still drying, so i cant check it, but when i take measurement of the width at the bottom it does not seem to be exageratingly not matching.

I will see that tomorrow morning.

Thank you for your tip, but anyway i dont think i would correct it now it is already painted (almost 2 days spent for those intakes !), unless it is really noticeable.

 

And obviously congratulations for your exhaust. I am still analyzing your topic about your Bitburg F-15C to know how to tackle mine.

 

 

Now the big thing will be to find a way to mask the white area in the intakes and paint gunship grey the first 6 feet from the mouth. I still wonder how i am going to do that...

Edited October 27, 2013 by Zero77

[ghatherly]

IF you have any questions, just ask, I am glad to help you out. Please just give me time to respond.   My exhausts are the product of kit bashing three different PE sets, Tamiya F-15 and F-16CG parts, and scratch and I have to look at my notes every time I build a set.

 

 

If I can offer a little help on how I deal with the color issue, I cut the front off which is what Rhino Does.  First cut the front off of your intakes at the color line so you have three parts.  Then take some strips of sheet plastic about 1 cm wide and long enough to wrap around the duct and attach then to the front part to from a sleeve to fit over the back section. The front and back will have a slight gap when installed but you will never see it from the front as the sleeve lines up the duct.  Install the main duct to the rear, and then install the two front sections.  I then make any adjustments and tack glue into place until I am sure all is good, then I finish up the gluing.   

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

[Azgaron]

Very nice work with the intakes, Zero77! Looking good!

 

HÃ¥kan

[Guest Peterpools]

WOW. The intakes looks amazing. Thanks for the tutorial, as it will come in handy down the road.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

:popcorn:

[pouikpouik]

Your paint job for air intake is very useful!!! I'll use this tip for my next project!! Thanks for sharing!!

[Zero77]

Thank you for your help Ghatherly !

 

 

This evening i've just started the cockpit. I have the avionix resin cockpit but it is quite disappointing. The major parts are simple recast of the kit parts, with an inferior quality (micro bubbles on the rear IP...). So, in order to avoid heavy surgery for a result not guaranteed, i will only use a few resin parts, the seats (with some modifications and repair), possibly the control sticks, rear bulkhead and rear instrument shroud. I will possibly also cut the "good" parts with pipes and cables in the resin bathtubs and glue them on the kit part.

I also have to say that some parts are missing, there are only 2 pedals and seats height adjusters instead of 4 (but the 4 headrest sensors are there, hopefully !)

 

Concerning the seats, there are 2 majors issues : firstly the ejection rails are broken (except one) as you can see in the picture. And secondly there is a box on the left side, just above the oxygen bottle, that is ok for an F-16 ACES2, bot not for a F-15 one. I think avionix may have build their seats based on the pictures in the "air data" book, where there are 2 seats pictures, but they are actually F-16 seats (you can notice the F-16 rear shroud and cables behind the seat). I dont know what this box is but i have to remove it.

Here you can see the broken rails and the box to remove :

 

For the rails, it is quite simple. I took the kit seats, cutted the rail with my new JLC razor saw (great tool !), cutted the resin rails and glue the kit's ones :

[Azgaron]

Looking good!

 

HÃ¥kan