YF-15

[Murph]

On ‎11‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 6:55 PM, X-Plane Fan said:

Jay, that cockpit photo of 280 was taken about a year after first flight in July 1973. Here's an earlier one from November 1972. You can see small changes in various test panels and highlights of gauges but the overall layout is about the same. For some reason, the fuel quantity gauge is covered in both views.

 

Tony

 

 

 

At that time the fuel capacity was probably considered sensitive information; it would have been at least at the FOUO level and possibly higher.

 

Regards,

Murph

Edited December 1, 2016 by Murph

[Ol Crew Dog]

On November 27, 2016 at 5:48 PM, Slartibartfast said:

I would like model a YF-15. I have the 1:48 Streak Eagle kit, is that the place to start?

 

Thanks

There was a 1:48 Revell kit, first F-15 on the market, it had a short speed brake and I remember it was Mildred in blue. Could try and find one if those allot of work though!

[Scooby]

On 2016-11-29 at 4:55 PM, X-Plane Fan said:

Jay, that cockpit photo of 280 was taken about a year after first flight in July 1973. Here's an earlier one from November 1972. You can see small changes in various test panels and highlights of gauges but the overall layout is about the same. For some reason, the fuel quantity gauge is covered in both views.

 

Tony

 

 

The bean counters probably didn't want to reveal the fuel quantity at the time.

[Scooby]

On 2016-11-30 at 6:52 PM, Murph said:

 

At that time the fuel capacity was probably considered sensitive information; it would have been at least at the FOUO level and possibly higher.

 

Regards,

Murph

 

Then I scrolled to page two and saw Murph's reply.

[Youngtiger1]

Just saw this thread and I have to say Tony those are some great shots. Especially, the those cockpits. You should put together a photo CD of all these F-15 and other prototypes as I'll love to purchase it. And, I'm sure I won't be the only one. Just food for the though :)

 

Mike

[PA28Ace]

Looks like I'm about seven years late responding to these posts, but I'm way into building a YF-15A using the Monogram F-15A kit I've had in my stash for nearly forty years.  The big mods are the square wingtips, filled-in hound's teeth on the stabilators, much smaller speed brake, and filled-in gun port and grill behind it.  The mods to the kit are easy just compared to dealing with the dreadful fit of the kit.  I'm a veteran of the Monogram F-100, F-101, F-105, F-106, and F-4D, but their F-15 takes the cake for fit problems.  On the good side, the overall shape is really beautiful and captures the lines of the real aircraft.  In the pictures below I've got all the big parts pieced together, and you can see progress on my mods.  I've got the Caracals "F-15 Eagle - The Early Years" decal sheet which depicts 10280, the first F-15, which I'm doing, and some of the other pre-production F-15s.  I wish I'd seen the cockpit photos with all the 'orange wire' stuff before I finished mine with a generic F-15A instrument panel.

 

I've got a long way to go on this one.  Hopefully I'll finish it in 2023!

[GreyGhost]

Looking good ..! 

 

-Gregg

[Geoff M]

Looking forward to more progress on this one.  

[JohnEB]

This, and a similar thread about someone doing a YF-16, remind me when both types were new and the first kits were pretty exotic.

Makes me feel old.

 

Last year, I saw a F-35 up close for the first time, I got the same feeling as when I saw my first Eagle at Luke AFB, in 1976.

They were air superiority blue with LA codes.

I think that is what Monogram meant to do in their kit. Somehow someone changed LA to IA.

Edited February 28, 2023 by JohnEB

[Scott Smith]

10 hours ago, JohnEB said:

This, and a similar thread about someone doing a YF-16, remind me when both types were new and the first kits were pretty exotic.

Makes me feel old.

 

Last year, I saw a F-36 up close for the first time, I got the same feeling as when I saw my first Eagle at Luke AFB, in 1976.

They were air superiority blue with LA codes.

I think that is what Monogram meant to do in their kit. Somehow someone changed LA to IA.

Tell me about it!   I recently built the very old (44 years old) Hasegawa 1/32 F-16.  I wanted to build it as a YF-16 until I started reading and noticing the differences.  So it went on as #1 off the assembly line.  I was pleasantly surprised when the decals worked as good as if they were printed yesterday.  
I started thinking about it when I pulled it out of the stash and remembered I’ve had it for probably  20-24 years just waiting to be built. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Scott Smith

[PA28Ace]

 I'm looking for a good air superiority blue paint.  I've got Mr. Color (74) but it looks too blue (checkout the inside of the right intake in the pictures above).  Anyone with suggestions?

Edited March 2, 2023 by PA28Ace
Found new information

[ORANGF15Guy]

3 hours ago, PA28Ace said:

 I'm looking for a good air superiority blue paint.  I've got Mr. Color (74) but it looks too blue (checkout the inside of the right intake in the pictures above).  Anyone with suggestions?

MRP makes Air Superior Blue, looks pretty good to my eye!

[PA28Ace]

Thanks!

[Cajun21]

Another note, depending on how early it was manufactured it may have the main gears doors open on the ground.

Itch 

[PA28Ace]

Thanks Cajun!  I've been looking at pictures of the MLG doors hanging down, making a mental note to do it and been preoccupied with all the other stuff I need to do to turn this into the YF-15 that I'd overlooked the fact that Monogram molded the doors closed!  I'll have to cut the openings and box-in a landing gear bay of sorts.  I haven't attached the nose yet so I can still get into the fuselage.

 

I've been really busy trying to get the modified stabilators to a degree I'm happy with and finish up the dreadful intakes.  Nothing in the intakes seems to fit well, and there's a big lighting bolt shaped seam on the inboard sides.  Once I get everything fitting as well as possible I'm going to fill the gaps with bathroom caulk.  I've used this before in inaccessible spaces.  Not perfect, but it gets close.  I'll post some in-work photos when I get to that.

Edited January 20 by PA28Ace
Spelling

[Paul Boyer]

Landing gear doors closed? Not a problem!😁

[aircal62]

Kit wise in 1/48 scale, the Revell Streak Eagle kit has the small speed brake initially.  It may have been changed in later releases.  The Fujimi F-15A had the larger speed brake with he raised strake seen on some early F-15A/B.   Tamiya F-15A also had the larger speed brake without the strake.  Monogram in their 1979 F-15A was the first to incorporate the latest speed brake without a well which laid on the top of the fuselage.  The first few F-15's had the squared wingtips, but those were very quickly changed as flight test showed if I recall correctly, flutter and poor roll response.  One of the F-15 crew chiefs at Edwards showed me on F-15 #1 where in his words, they took a saw and cut the wing tip to the new shape, filled in with wood and fiberglassed the tip to test the new wing tips.  This was changed by McAir after favorable flight test and results and these new tips were refitted onto all the test birds.  Testing also showed the need for the dog tooth on the stabs which was quickly incorporated into all the test aircraft.  The small speed brake also proved somewhat ineffective, but it was changed in later production blocks through several variations.  

[habu2]

The small speed brake extended to a greater/higher angle than the later large brake. This design encountered substantial buffeting when extended.  The larger brake extends to a shallower angle but the overall "height" when extended is approximately the same as the smaller brake, and provides approximately the same drag but with less buffeting.

[PA28Ace]

Progress so far: on the main part of the fuselage, modifications to make this the YF-15 prototype include filling in the gun port and associated vent behind it, fairing in the big speed brake and scribing the small early one, and filling-in the hounds teeth on the stabilators:

Here’s a detail of the stabilator: I filled-in the hound’s tooth space with a piece of Evergreen plastic a little larger than the open area, glued in with CA.  I sculpted this into the right shape and filled with putty and Mr Surfacer.  It’s primed with grey paint.  This took a long time to get to the point where I was happy the filled-in area fitting in well with the surrounding contours of the stabilator.

Fuselage bottom: The greatest amount of work was opening-up and boxing-in the main landing gear wheel wells.  On production aircraft, the only gear door open on the ground is the one just inboard of the gear leg, the other two doors over the wheel well are closed on the ground and are molded closed by Monogram.  These are open on the ground on the prototype aircraft.  I used a razor saw to cut those two doors open and did a basic job of boxing in the well.  (This model will go in my office when it’s finished and no one will ever see the gear wells, therefore I’m not seriously detailing them)  The early Eagles had a fairing covering the tail hook.  I used the kit tailhook for the forward part and sheet plastic to create the aft end of the fairing.  I also filled-in the six holes in the fuselage bottom for attaching the Sparrow missiles and the centerline drop tank.

You can also see the ‘air superiority blue’ color in the intakes – this is Mr. Color’s version.  It sure looks dark to me compared to all the old photos I’ve been looking at, but of course they’re taken in the sun and the photos could be faded.

 

To create the square wing tips of the prototypes, I traced the kit wing on a sheet of paper and sketched in the square extension.  I cut a 1/8 inch thick piece of plastic the same shape as my sketched extension and glued this with CA to the kit wing top.  To prep the wingtip, I sanded the edge flat to get more bonding surface.  Once the piece was attached, it was just a matter of filing, sanding and sculpting the plastic to the correct shape.

 

Next on the agenda is to modify the instrument panel with all the orange test instrumentation depicted in a couple of photos kindly provided earlier in this thread.  Until later….

Edited March 30, 2023 by PA28Ace
Bad grammar

[PA28Ace]

The build continues…

 

The forward section of the model contains the cockpit, landing gear, and a radome that can be posed open to display the radar dish.  I started with the cockpit, applying an Eduard F-15C PE set for the side consoles and instrument panel.  I modified the instrument panel to make it look like photos of the prototype panel using Airscale instrument decals and bezels.  I replicated the small HUD and two instrument boxes next to it.  I replaced the kit seat with a KMC resin Escape Pac seat dramatically cut-down to fit in the space available.  To keep the model on its nose gear, I put at least an ounce of lead fishing weights into the nose, stuffing the rest of the space with foil so they wouldn’t rattle around, and closed the radome.  Up to this point, everything fit adequately.  I attached the lower canopy frame to the top of the canopy with difficulty, because it did not fit!  Lastly, I attached the nose to the rest of the fuselage…this doesn’t fit at all, and requires lots of sanding and filling.

 

[PA28Ace]

The wings are attached, top and bottom, to a big tab extending out of the fuselage making a strong structure.  The wing to fuselage gap on the bottom of the wings is negligible, but huge on the top of the fuselage.  On the bottom I filled the gap with water based bathroom caulk, and on the top big amounts of gap filling super glue.  Lots of sanding and filling…

 

I added the first part of the huge test boom this aircraft carried.  This is a length of 1.5 mm brass rod with a smaller one nested inside which is rooted in the nose.  I filed the end of the nose to make a flat spot, and then carefully drilled into the nose, ensuring a straight entry.  I glued the tubes in place and fared in the joint with Mr. Surfacer.

 

At this point I had all the major assemblies complete except the canopy.  You guessed it, it didn’t fit!  There are separate windshield and main canopy pieces, so to reduce the space between the two, I had to place them so they sort of “averaged” into the right position.  I ended up with about a 1/32” gap between the two pieces, which left a gap between the front of the windshield and where it is supposed to join the fuselage, so same, though not as bad at the rear end of the main canopy to the frame.  After masking the clear parts, I started filling these gaps with clear white glue.  When it was dry I painted the first coat of flat black on these areas and exposed parts of the canopy.  This made a black background that would be visible on the inside of the canopy so I could fill the gaps with putty and Mr. Surfacer.  I wouldn’t see that I was successful until after I removed the canopy masks.  Lastly, I added an Eduard grill for the ECS vent behind the canopy.

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by PA28Ace
Grammar

[PA28Ace]

Painting finally starts!  First were the canopy frames, which I painted Model Master British Crimson, a dark red.  I masked those off, and then painted the main overall color, Mr. Color Air Superiority Blue.  After covering the whole model, my first impression was, “Wow, that sure is blue.”  I really thought it was too dark, but in the end, I think it’s perfect, comparing the model to old photos.  I didn’t realize how masking intensive this model would be until I began preparing to paint the International Orange (Model Master) markings.  There’s a small strip of blue left at the leading edges of the intakes, wings, and tail surfaces.  I used 1 mm tape for all except the wings, where I used 2 mm tape to accommodate the tip antennas and inboard position lights.  I painted the position and nav lights with Model Master metallic Burgundy Red and British Green.  These are dark colors that well simulate colored light lenses.  I later go back over these with high gloss clear paint.

 

 

 

[PA28Ace]

To begin the decaling process, I over coated the whole model with Alclad clear gloss.  Once totally dry I began to apply the main markings from Caracal’s F-15 “The Early Years”.  This sheet has decals for three prototype Eagles, the Streak Eagle, and four early operational Eagles in Air Superiority Blue.  I can’t say enough about these decals.  They laid down perfectly with no silvering.  This sheet has few stencil decals and the air refueling door marking is too big, so I had to go elsewhere for those.  Most of the stencils came from an old Microscale sheet, and a few from the Monogram sheet.  The old stencil decals silvered despite my best efforts treating them with Future after they dried.  One issue was trying to figure out what stenciling was on 10280.  I used pictures of the real airplane but there’s only one of the top of the aircraft that I could find.  This is a black & white photo in the 1975 edition of "F-15 Eagle in Action" (which I’ve had since 7th grade!).  Most of the placement of stencils on the top of the model was total guesswork.  With decaling complete I over coated the model with Alclad flat clear (the bottom surfaces should be gloss).

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by PA28Ace
Grammar

[PA28Ace]

While all that was going on I completed assembly and painting of the landing gear and scratch built doors for the parts of the landing gear bays I opened earlier in the build.  Nothing remarkable about the landing gear, which I built straight from the kit, and are pretty detailed.  I tried one new thing here, which was creating lenses for the taxi and landing lights on the nose gear (don’t you miss MV lenses?).  I found a technique on line which I modified a little.  I hollowed-out the plastic lights on the nose gear strut, cut a small round piece of foil to fit with a Waldron punch & die set, then formed the clear lenses with 5-Minute Epoxy.  I made the two lights on the vertical tails in the same way.

 

[PA28Ace]

The Monogram engine tail feathers are really lame.  I found substitutes from Metallic Details and they’re some of the best resin castings I’ve ever seen.  I painted these with various shades of Mr. Color metalics and Alclad.  I lightly added clear blue over silver on the ring forward of the tail feathers.  The inner surface of the tail feathers is painted Mr. Color Sail Color with black pastel shades.