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Revell 1/32 F-15A, 71-0281 NASA


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Another NASA F-15 ? Yessssss !!!

Why ? Well I bought a second hand Revell 1/32 F-15C, or that's what I tought. The box contained an incomplete F-15D/E two-seater. The biggest problem was that both the forward fuselage halves were missing.

So I bought another Revell F-15C (a REAL F-15C this time), hoping that I could use the forward fuselage halves from this kit to build the first one.

But these parts are a little different and can't be used - without modification - on the two-seater.

Luckily Bruce from partsrparts provided me with the missing parts, so I had two more or less complete kits.

The first one will be build as NASA 836, an F-15B like she looked in 2005. The WIP is on the forum.

The second kit will be build as the second prototype F-15A-1, 71/0281 in service with NASA in 1978. (This airplane never received a NASA number).

Here's some pics :

F-15A%2071-0281%20C.jpg

F-15A%2071-0281%20B.jpg

305828main_EC78-09359_full.jpg

305816main_EC78-09319_full.jpg

This aircraft had sabre drains and NACA ducts under the rear fuselage and straight wingtips. It also had a Douglas Escapac IC-7 ejection seat.

There's no seat of this type available in 1/32 scale, but Revell provides them in the two-seater kit :

18102014%20(4).jpg

I haven't found a good picture of this type of seat, but I guess that those big loops at the front need to be filled ? Can anyone confirm ?

18102014%20(5).jpg

I will try to do some modifications to the seat, if that doesn't work I will order one for the Skyhawk or Corsair II. They're not exactly the same seats, but a close match :

All info and pictures of this aircraft are very welcome.

Sincerely

Pascal

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Great choice again Pascal! The single is 2 tone blue. Do not be fouled its just one colour of blue. The shades are this way as one area is matt while the other is more glossy. Giving 2 shades of blue. The orange is dayglow orange. For this aircraft it would be good to search prototype stuff on google like YF-15A or TF-15B.

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That's interesting Eric. I've looked at the full size pictures, but the 2 shades of blue are hardly visible.

Do you mean that the big blue stripe is matt on one side of the fuselage and gloss on the other side ?

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No, the first eagles where painted in the same patern of the than later ghost greys. Only oversprayed woth either matt or gloss coats. So like the very early F-15A. Also the early A models die have other shape and size of their speedbrake. But this scale you can work that out. If not do PM me Pascal.

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First order of business is to try to alter the shape of the wingstips. I cut a piece of plasticard an used my Dremel to reduces the thickness of the plasticard :

19102014%20(5).jpg

This way I can slide the piece into a slot that I made in the wing :

19102014%20(6).jpg

This gives a stronger bond then "butt-gluing" it to the wing. Slid in place it looks like this :

19102014%20(3).jpg

19102014%20(4).jpg

The joint will need some filler and sanding and the outher edge needs thinning. But before I glue this piece to the wing I need to know if the panellines are correct. Drawings and pictures (and the GWH kit) have a panelline that I marked in pencil, Revell made the panellines different, I marked those in white pencil. Can anyone tell me wich one is correct for a F-15A or B ? :

19102014%20(2).jpg

19102014%20(1).jpg

Sincerely

Pascal

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Great choice again Pascal! The single is 2 tone blue. Do not be fouled its just one colour of blue. The shades are this way as one area is matt while the other is more glossy. Giving 2 shades of blue. The orange is dayglow orange. For this aircraft it would be good to search prototype stuff on google like YF-15A or TF-15B.

Hi Eric, I apologise for picking you up on this but I think more research may be needed. From what I understand you are correct in that matt and gloss coats were used but they were the same shade of air superiority blue. There should be no apparent difference in the colour on a model except for the fact one is glossy and one is matt. Due to the natural soiling of an aircraft there is very little difference to be seen in photos of the full sized birds.

I do recognise that English is not your native tongue and in fact this is what you mean so apologies if I have my wires crossed.

No, the first eagles where painted in the same patern of the than later ghost greys. Only oversprayed woth either matt or gloss coats. So like the very early F-15A. Also the early A models die have other shape and size of their speedbrake. But this scale you can work that out. If not do PM me Pascal.

Again, I think more research may be warranted. From looking at books on the subject the gloss was applied in a straight line along the bottom of the fuselage and intakes and then on the undersurfaces of the wings and horizontal tails not in the Compass Ghost cammo pattern.

It is a moot point if Pascal is building the white scheme but for your own purposes (and that of other modellers building Air Auperiority blue machines) it may be worth re-visiting your reference material.

HTH

Cheers.

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@ gedubyer

I have been doing some homework for pascal. Just to offer help on his eagle. The blue version is hard as the Air Supriority Blue ASB is not a easy colour to get. I do have the old monogram eagles which are blue as well. But it seems one has to mix this colour somehow. I agree with you that it is hard to be visible on a model is matt and glos are aplied. For my models I would opt for satin.

Looking at the pics pascal posted on the first eagle he changed the wing already. I am not sure if the white one still has the short speedbrake.

@ Pascal there is a metal landinggear for sale. Made by Scale Aircraft Conversions

http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?KIT=198

Edited by Eric2020
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Thanks for the help guys. I will order a couple of landing gear sets from Scale Aircraft Conversions.

The single seater was delivered to NASA in 1975, before that time it still had the bigger spine and short speed brake. The second photo in my first post shows this aircraft in 1980, it clearly has the larger spine, don't thing that they changed the speed brake (from short to long) without modifying the spine.

Edited by Pascal D
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Eric,

That helps to see the position of the short speedbrake and longer spine.

The first wing tip has been glued and the gaps were filled (with CA glue, flour and putty) and sanded :

01112014B%20(1).jpg

A bit more filling and sanding is required to get the seam smooth :

01112014B%20(2).jpg

It wasn't easy to get the curvature (aerofoil ?) of the wing on the wing tip, but I'm glad it worked :

01112014B%20(3).jpg

Sincerely

Pascal

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Hi Pascal,

I seen this F-15 in person when I was a kid. It was at the McDonnell Douglas Long Beach Open House in 1976. What I remember of the paint was it was all one tone of blue(besides the hi viz flashing) and an overall dull finish. The aircraft at the open house were not roped off either so we could walk under them too.

I can't tell you if it started out like that but that is how it appeared in 1976.

Nice job on the wingtips too!

-Gregg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Had some problems with the intakes. Those of the two-seater got one coat of latex and looked like this :

28092014%20(6).jpg

The intakes from this kit received 2 coats of latex which gave a very rough finish with lots of small bumps. After a few hours of sanding I sprayed a coat of white, but the paint from the spraycan had all kinds of dried pieces of paint, the finish looked like sand.

A few more hours of sanding gave this result :

07122014%20(1).jpg

After two coats of white putty from a spraycan the surface is finally smooth :

07122014%20(2).jpg

Sincerely

Pascal

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