Tamiya 1/32nd F-15C 65th Aggressors

[Rick De Smet]

Hi fellows,

After building quite some Trumpeter & Academy kits in a row I really wanted to taste the quality of Tamiya again. So what did I find in my stockpile? One of Tamiya's big F-15C Eagles .

I don't think I'm the only one obsessed by the colorfull aggressor birds but as I don't have a single one of them in my collection its time to change that. Finding the kit was one thing, finding the decals was way harder as the decals are out of production now. In the end I found an example of it at a e-store in Australia.

The first things to start with was to fill al the ejection holes. I must say there are quite many holes to be filled. The intakes & exhaust are the most visible ones.

This is just to bad, Tamiya did a wonderfull job on the outside of the exhausts but failed on the inner parts. Leaving 3 ejection holes on each nozzle section.

Filled them up and sanded them smooth with my custom sanding stick

Furthermore the assembly is pretty straight forward. Just the amount of parts makes it a bit of a challenge.

I used Alclad II for the metals, lightened Tamiya Buff for the inner coatings and enamel black for the streaks.

I'm still planning to do somekind of weathering on the outside but I didn't had the time yet.

I also adjusted the rudders. Early Eagles have those reinforcements on their rudders, but those were later on replaced by a new type of rudder, without the bulges. Check your references to see which type of rudder you need as you can have both types. My Eagle has the newer type of rudders.

The last thing for today are my adjustments to the panel lines on the back of the fuselage. The fuselage panles on all Tamiya Eagles ( F-15C and F-15E ) represent those from an F-15E Strike Eagle instead of a Charlie version. On the F-15E there are more acces panels and the layout of the intakes of the starter are totally different. On the F-15E there are 6 small air intakes, on the F-15C there is only one big one just of center.

Those are the panel lines that need attention.

Masked the details that didn't have to be removed.

After some filling and sanding the panel lines were gone and with the help of a nice scribing template from Verlinden I added the new air intake.

And this is it now. A bit hard to see with the primer coat but I'm very pleased with the result.

So thats it for now.

More to follow!

Greetz

Rick

Edited November 29, 2010 by Rick De Smet

[Jonathan_Lotton]

Good start, looking forward to following.

[JimE]

Great start! Looking forward to this build.

[Tomcatfreak]

Hey Rick, great start on the aggressor Eagle!! Are you building the blue or brown Eagle?

Edited April 4, 2010 by Tomcatfreak

[Rick De Smet]

Hey Rick, great start on the aggressor Eagle!! Are you building the blue or brown Eagle?

I'm planning to do the brown Eagle as you almost never see those. I've seen quite some blues in the past but the brown ones are more eyecatching for me.

This is the one provided by Afterburner on their sheet.

http://img339.imageshack.us/i/117506111024.jpg/

Thanks for the comments! I'm currently tackling the Aires pit. A magnificent piece of resin but not that easy to install.

Greetz

Rick

Edited May 13, 2010 by Albert Moore
Airliners copyright infringement

[HOLMES]

Rick,

It will be SO good and different to see a Browncolored Aggressor Eagle...

you are so right in saying that Brown ones are far more eye-cathcing than the usual blues.

I like your build and like what you have done so far..Good neat work

:P

[Paul Mullins]

Hey Rick,

You actually have the Afterburner Aggressor Sheet in 1/32???? I don't suppose you would be willing to scan it in and post it would you?? I've been looking for one for literally years.

Paul

[mareku]

Hi Rick! Great start and work so far Keep working , mate. It will be a great looking model. Can´t wait to see it finished

[Marcel111]

Nice start, Rick--I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together!

Cheers,

Marcel

[Youngtiger1]

Rick my friend, next project started already. After your work on the F-8 this is going to be awesome. A must follow and save

Mike

[Rick De Smet]

Hi everyone,

Long time no see I know but hopefully thats gonna change. Last month I bought myself a new desktop and I must say my flightsim addiction took over for a few weeks.

So were did we end last time? Right, the cockpit.

As you've noticed in my first post I've decided to use the Aires cockpit set for the late F-15C. I must say I'm really floored from the detail they've put in this set, its a real piece of art on its own! If I were to compare this set to the one I've used on my Crusader project I must say this one comes out as the better set. The buttons and switches one the IP's are of the finest I've ever seen and the PE front IP has a lot more depthfeeling on it. As my crusader panel existed of a single layer of PE this one uses multiple layers, so your instruments rise out. The set itself exists of no less than 58 parts.

I started with the front IP, this one alone exists of 24 different parts (PE+plastic rod buttons+film).

After assembly I've painted its base color, Dark Gull Gray (FS36231).

The next I did was the glareshield, which I painted flat black.Notice that Aires forgot a cable from the radar scope recorder, see the electrical wire. (or the cable was so fragile it just broke of when it left the mold)

After the glareshield I've painted some of the basic colours of the pit itself. Dark gull gray was used for the first part and flat white for Bay 5. Why the bay 5 is white has been discussed a lot on the forum so I won't explain it to much. If you build an Eagle that has been been build before 1980 is either the metallic green or white (if it had its MSIP upgrade), If its an Eagle build from 1980 is white all the way no discussion. Check your references to be sure.

Mine is is produced in 1980 so its a white one.

The IP details are hand painted.

Some further detailing and drybrushing on the avionix boxes. Data placards from Eduard are a real joy to work with.

Done a bit more work on bay5. I'm really glad Aires developped their pit in 2 pieces, this made the painting a little easier but it remained a nice challenge nevertheless. A steady hand proves to be very usefull.

The front IP panel. ( On the picture my instrument film moved a little to the left but no worries, it hasn't been glued yet )

Some more general pics:

So thats it for this update.

Next up is the ejection seat and than everything has to be fitted in the FWD fuselage. Thas gonna be quite a challenge I've heard.

Thanks for watching.

Greetings

Rick

[Qian]

WOW! Nice cockpit, Rick! ^_^ :lol:

[mareku]

Real good work ^_^ Please keep it up

[geedubelyer]

Some beautifully crisp painting going on there Rick B)

The fuse and circuit breaker panels in bay5 plus the avionics boxes look outstanding.

Stellar job.

[Marcel111]

Rick, your scribing worked out very well and the pit is looking strong!

Cheers,

Marcel

Edited May 13, 2010 by Marcel111

[HOLMES]

The Pilots office and the IP panels looks absolutely BRILLIANT. B)

The scribing is very good and I can't wait to see more of your progress.

HOLMES

[Rick De Smet]

HI everybody.

Back from the death I would say. After the completion of the airshow season I can finally proceed with my modeling.

My Eagle is as good as ready, I just need to glue the canopy to the canopy frame and varnish my AIM-9X. But I'll try to do my best to put up a little overview.

We finished with the cockpit last time so it's time for the airframe now.

Some additional hydraulic lines were added, the scissors were hollowed and everything received a little paint.

The Regenerative Heat Exchanger was deleted, this is no longer installed on my Eagle.

I also chose to rework the screens at the gun bay. They are normally molded close by Tamiya bit I wanted to add some more detail in that area.

The kit parts were sanded from the inside and a PE screen was added.

Much better now!

In the meanwhile disaster stroke. I overtorqued the screws on the rear fuselage resulting in a nasty cracked & deformed upper surface.

Very annoying as that area has to receive a metal finish, highlighting every defect... :)

So back to filling and sanding...

Next is th Aires pit. Typical Aires again, marvellous detail but a really difficult fitting. The bottom and sides require a lot of sanding to fit the front fuselage.

And that isn't the only problem. The pit is about 2-3 mm too short, resulting in a gap behind bay 5.

Again some putty came to the resque.

Thats it for the first winter update.

Greetings

Rick

Edited November 29, 2010 by Rick De Smet