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F-15C Build (4/3/11 Update) Finished


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Very nice work Cliff. I had a similar question about the cockpit (I am working on a 1:48 F-15DJ myself). Is the medium grey you are using XF-20 or something darker? Also, when you apply the oil wash to the panels, do you first spray a gloss coat over the side panels or do you apply the wash over the dried Tamiya acrylics directly? I have found that unsealed Tamiya acrylics handle enamel thinners with no problem but was wondering about the wash creeping all over the flat finish.

Also, if not too much trouble, can you explain how you paint the front instrument panel? Specifically, do you use a brush or do you mask and spray?

thanks a lot!

Zidane:

I checked my Tamiya bottles and the color I start with for the cockpit is XF-66 which Tamiya calls light gray. Looks medium gray to my eye. For the washes, I generally apply them over the Tamiya paint without a gloss coat. When I add white to lighten the base color, I'll often times use a gloss white which mixes with the flat gray to produce a semi-gloss finish. This helps eliminate some of the challenges that you mention with the wash "creeping" over the flat. I've found that using turpeniod to thin artist oils works well but go easy on the wash and don't leave it on longer than you have too. The artist oils can stain the Tamiya paint.

The front instrument panel was a slow painful process painting by hand. In this situation, after spraying the Tamiya light grey, I hand painted the flat black using enamel. That way, when I made a mistake, I could quickly clean it off using a small brush moistened with mineral spirits.

-Cliff

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  • 2 months later...

This build has never left the top of my desk and continues to move slowly towards completion. With all the rain we've gotten over the past couple weeks I've been able to make some good progress as of late.

First off, I wanted to highlight and post a few pics of the finished tails, covers and plugs. As i mentioned earlier, I was thinking of having these made available in resin. I'm very happy to say the Two Mikes will have these available in the near future. :monkeydance: I've always been very impressed with the quality of Mike's resin accessories and I really appreciate him agreeing to add these too his line. Look for them shortly!

http://www.twomikesresin.com/

All of these parts are sized for the Revell kit and will likely be available as two separate kits (tails or covers) or all together. If the reaction to these is positive, I'll do up a set for the Hasegawa kit.

F-15CCovers2.jpg

As you'll see below, there are three different intake plugs pictured. I didn't want the left and right intakes to look identical so I did up several different looks. Two of the three will be selected and included in the set. Let me know if you have any preferences between the three.

F-15CCovers4.jpg

The exhaust plugs will fit the resin Aires tail cones as well.

F-15CCovers3.jpg

F-15CCovers1.jpg

F-15CCovers5.jpg

I'll have a sizable build update shortly...

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Wow very nice work indeed!! Would you consider doing them for 1/32 as well?

David

Hadn't thought about 1/32 but that's certainly possible if there's interest. I would need to get a hold of the 1/32 kit and see what it needs.

-Cliff

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OK, a bit more on the conversion. I've made quite a bit of progress over the last few weeks and just struggling to annotate some pictures to help show what I've done. Most of the main wing and fuselage changes have been made and I've applied a first spot coat of primer to identify errors. I'll go back and add a bit more scribing detail and fix the flaws next.

As you can see in this first picture, the Revell F-15E kit has many F-15C details already included. I took a Revell fuselage and used a sharpie to outline the conformal fuel tank location. What's odd is that they include a number of details that would be hard to scratch build for the F-15C but they also didn't bother to provide panel line detail on the sides of the intakes?

1-31-1015-1.jpg

Here's the fuselage side after some scribing and the addition of a photo-etched piece for the missle location.

1-31-105.jpg

1-31-106.jpg

Next, the wing root anti-collision light. On the F-15C, it is larger and located farther out on the wing.

1-31-1010-1.jpg

1-31-107-1.jpg

and finally for this update, a shot of the small screen added to the front fuselage side. This is the piece I'm using from the Hasegawa kit.

1-31-108.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here are a few more pics of the changes I made to the bottom fuselage section. I use a Mac at home and need a software program that will alow me to annotate pictures. Nothing fancy that I'll have to get an IT degree to use. Just something that does the basics. Any suggestions welcome.

First the original kit bottom:

1-31-1013.jpg

Here's the bottom after my changes:

1-31-109.jpg

Changes include: drilled out vent holes, rivet detail added, changed shape of port tail boom, removed tail hook bump out, engine nacel cutouts at the rear opening, and several minor panel line changes.

Next is the mid section bottom of the original kit:

1-31-1012.jpg

and the updated/modified kit...

1-31-1014.jpg

The changes her include: removing the gear door buldge, different vent between the intakes (for the ammo feed?), and some small panel line changes. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to idnetify the panel line differences between a real F-15C and an F-15E. What I've been doing is taking the Revell kit and comparing it to several 100 photos that I have of the real aircraft and making changes that I see based on the sircraft I photographed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for everyone's kind words and progress slowly continues. I'm getting close to mating the front and back fuselage pieces which is motivating me to stay focused on the project.

Awesome stuff, Cliff. You really should put together an article outlining all the changes you did, with labeled pictures, especially for the panel-line changes.

Kevin: I would like to do just that but can't seem to find the right software. I posted earlier in the thresd that I'm a Mac user and looking for recomendations on software that's not to complicated and allows you to easily annotate pictures. I already have all the picures of the real aircraft for comparison.

Here's a small update with changes to the top side of the fuselage. Not much needed on this side other than removing the scribing for a couple access doors on the rear engine humps and adding an exhaust chiminy in the middle. The chiminy area seems to differ a fair bitbetween aircraft which I found interesting.

First the original F-15E part...

1-31-1011.jpg

Second, the updated part...

1-31-103.jpg

And finally, the outer wing where I dropped the contol surfaces.

1-31-104.jpg

My goal is to finish the project before this thread becomes 2 years old. We'll see how that works out.

--Cliff

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Nice job on the build, can't wait to see more. Also, I am planning on building the F-15E, is the Revell kit the way to go for a true F-15e kit??

Thanks for sharing.

I believe that it's a fairly well established fact that the Revell kit makes the best F-15E in 1/48. If I wasn't bashing it into a C model, I would say that it goes together very well.

Here's a link to a great article pinned in the Jet Forum that describes the minor updates needed to bring the the kit up to the very latest F-15E configuration.

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=175501

-Cliff

Edited by Cliff C
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  • 2 months later...

Small update as I finish up the nose section and get ready to attach it to the main fuselage. Here are the final couple pieces for the cockpit.

Models26532.jpg

Final test fitting of the area behind the cockpit that was taken from a Hasegawa F-15C kit.

Models26529.jpg

Final fitting of the front IP cover and ECM noduels from the Wolfpak resin kit.

Models26530.jpg

by Monday, I should have the cockpit done and nearing the home stretch before painting.

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I love this thread, great job Cliff C!

Thanks, Big Fatty

Here are a few pics of the finished cockpit with the conversion piece attached.

Models326846-1.jpg

Models326847-1.jpg

Models326848-1.jpg

And a pic of the finished landing gear.

Models326849-1.jpg

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Wow, this thread is awesome. Boy this started a while back but I'm sure glad that Cliff started it again. Very nice work on the cockpit. I love how it looks. Cliff, I see that your in Norcal. Where about? I'm in Yuba City. Just north of Sacramento. Anyway, keep up the good work.

Mike

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