Academy F15E - the colours

[Ivan-otter]

All,

I bought this brand-new Academy F15 E Strike Eagle set (1:72).

The box is very nice, but the inside is a bit here and there.

The worst part is the assembly sheet.

Quite often, any set would have a colour reference (Humbrol, etc).

This time: Nothing.

Now, the obvious one's I can figure out: flat black, gloss white, etc.

Some of it I can see on airliners.net

The colour scheme for the entire ac is FS 36118 - gunship grey = Humbrol 125. That one is very dark grey but could match some of the pics from airliners. net.

Is this the correct one? I tend to believe it is.

Now cockpit interior colou is mentioned as "metallic blue green". Ovbiously very clear language, that. Any ideas on what that can be?

Green cushions. Yes, well. Olive? khaki?????

It is an impressive array of things to carry, so I might also ask for a typical load, but I will try to research some of it first.

Thanks in advance.

Ivan

[blackwidowmaker]

All,

I bought this brand-new Academy F15 E Strike Eagle set (1:72).

The box is very nice, but the inside is a bit here and there.

The worst part is the assembly sheet.

Quite often, any set would have a colour reference (Humbrol, etc).

This time: Nothing.

Now, the obvious one's I can figure out: flat black, gloss white, etc.

Some of it I can see on airliners.net

The colour scheme for the entire ac is FS 36118 - gunship grey = Humbrol 125. That one is very dark grey but could match some of the pics from airliners. net.

Is this the correct one? I tend to believe it is.

Now cockpit interior colou is mentioned as "metallic blue green". Ovbiously very clear language, that. Any ideas on what that can be?

Green cushions. Yes, well. Olive? khaki?????

It is an impressive array of things to carry, so I might also ask for a typical load, but I will try to research some of it first.

Thanks in advance.

Ivan

The metallic blue green is completely off - that used to be the color of the avionics bay of A model eagles. By now that bay is white in all fighter eagle. For the mudhen this color was never used in the pit. There you got your standard dark ghost grey interior up til the canopy sill, from there everything is flat black (or even better some version of scale black) The color of the cushion changes and fades very frequently and you can commonly see different colors on the seat and on the back cushion. Everything between olive to a sand color. In the recent years black sheep skin cushions have become more and more common, so some textured black would also be an option.

For the overall color, yes gunship grey is correct. Mind that that radome weathers very differently and usually has a different (sometimes darker, sometimes lighter) hue and in mixed fighter/strike eagle wings you can often see medium grey radomes on dark grey eagles. Same goes for airbrakes, rudder, panels... basically everything you could change during maintenance. See for pictures from Lakenheath or Mountain Home for that phenomenon.

[Rank11]

Cockpit tub should be 'dark gull grey' fs36231.

[Ivan-otter]

Thanks a ton, all.

I was also a bit sceptical on the cockpit colour, but maybe this was something new (to me as well).

Yes, I can see the point that there would be different shades of grey as things get changed and maintained. I am trying to make it less out of the factory and a bit mroe used. Of course the difference in material must also have an impact on how the different things will weather.

I will use the 36231 for the cockpit.

It is a bit strange that the "paint4models"converterr ists both Humbrol 27 as well as 140 as equal to 36231, but only 140 as Dark Gull grey.

In any event, 140 is what I have used before and 27 is simply too dark.

Thanks for the advice. It is always a joy to ask here as the advice is typically spot-on.

... and based on our previous discussions, I am not using gloss white anymore. it looks too "toy" like. Humbrol 130 white satin does look better.

Ivan

[blackwidowmaker]

I will use the 36231 for the cockpit.

Yupp dark gull grey is the right one. Got the two mixed up