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F-15E strike eagle loadouts being used over syria


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34 minutes ago, Niels said:

CL pylon is in the kit. Wasn't yours? 

No,

it's mentioned in the painting instructions but not in the kit. It should be sprue J according to the F-15I instructions but it's not in the E kit L4822.

 

 

 

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Damn, haven't noticed this until you told me. Built the F-15I as an F-15E first time around, hence never suspected this. Guess I'll be OK as I have 2xF-15C which I have already planned atleast one to be without the CL

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18 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

To add some clarity here- it has nothing to do with pods, but everything to do with the hardware in the stations.  The bottom CFT stations (1-3), wing and centerline stations(2/5/8) have 1760 transfer buses and are “smart” pylons that can carry JDAM class munitions - the shoulder stations (4-6) didn’t receive the upgrade but pretty much every F-15 variant after the E is wired that way.   If you look at a JDAM, besides the bomb lugs, there is a cylindrical plug on the aft top of the bomb body.   That connects to the transfer bus within the “smart” BRU.   As to why the USAF E’s aren’t upgraded to enable smart weapons carriage on every station?   Money.   
 

Hope it clears things up a bit.   

Steve

 

Could this be the reason why the shoulder station pylons (4-6) on the K/SG/SA are longer than the standard USAF ones because of the updated transfer buses?

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50 minutes ago, mika14 said:

Better than Revell's 1/48 F-15E?

 

 

Basically the rundown on GWH is this:

Best 1/48 F-15E OOB for a post OIF jet.  Obviously the surface detail and engineering is state of the art, but they left the door open to be superseded at some point (I’m looking at you Tamiya and hoping George Canare reads this 😂).  
 

 If you want to build an earlier F-15E, use the Revell kit.   A few notes on the GWH kit:

 

Errors:
Canopy profile is off.  Not really much you can do, but the omega shape isn’t quite there.  

 

Doesn’t include the new-style UFCs, which every jet post 2014ish has.   Quinta’s Revell cockpit set has this!

 

The exhausts actuators are a wee bit thick.   

 

The wheels are terrible and ovoid.   

 

The ejection seats are massive- noticeably so- but they include the right sheepskin seat cushions and not the old-school ribbed cushions. 

 

Omissions:

The beautiful 1-piece missiles from their C model kits.  Instead you get an academy weapon sprue.  

 

There is no station 5.  You will have to source a new centerline pylon from a Revell kit.  Maddening.  

 

There is no pylon to mount the included SNIPER pod.  Extremely maddening.  Hasegawa weapons set to the rescue.

 

//break break//

 

A few notes on the Revell kit:

 

Older comm antennas under the forward fuselage.

 

No shimmy dampener on the nose landing gear.

 

No GPS antenna, but that is an easy scratch built solution.   


No LAU-128s for AIM-120s, so you will have to source these from a Hasegawa weapons set or get the resin ones from Phase Hanger. 
 

The APU exhaust needs to be updated for a newer jet (check references).   
 

That’s all I can think of off the top of my noggin’

 

Steve
 

 

Edited by Falconxlvi
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1 hour ago, Falconxlvi said:

There is no pylon to mount the included SNIPER pod.  Extremely maddening.  Hasegawa weapons set to the rescue.

 

That's not quite correct, you use the same pylon as if you would mount the AAQ-14. AAQ-14-sprue holds the pylon you're after. It's not shown in the sprue map, but it is in the kit. 

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19 minutes ago, Niels said:

That's not quite correct, you use the same pylon as if you would mount the AAQ-14. AAQ-14-sprue holds the pylon you're after. It's not shown in the sprue map, but it is in the kit. 

I don’t see it.   😂🤷‍♂️
 

EDIT: Never mind, found it.  Thanks   👍🏻

Edited by Falconxlvi
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4 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

 

Basically the rundown on GWH is this:

Best 1/48 F-15E OOB for a post OIF jet.  Obviously the surface detail and engineering is state of the art, but they left the door open to be superseded at some point (I’m looking at you Tamiya and hoping George Canare reads this 😂).  
 

 If you want to build an earlier F-15E, use the Revell kit.   A few notes on the GWH kit:

 

Errors:
Canopy profile is off.  Not really much you can do, but the omega shape isn’t quite there.  

 

Doesn’t include the new-style UFCs, which every jet post 2014ish has.   Quinta’s Revell cockpit set has this!

 

The exhausts actuators are a wee bit thick.   

 

The wheels are terrible and ovoid.   

 

The ejection seats are massive- noticeably so- but they include the right sheepskin seat cushions and not the old-school ribbed cushions. 

 

Omissions:

The beautiful 1-piece missiles from their C model kits.  Instead you get an academy weapon sprue.  

 

There is no station 5.  You will have to source a new centerline pylon from a Revell kit.  Maddening.  

 

There is no pylon to mount the included SNIPER pod.  Extremely maddening.  Hasegawa weapons set to the rescue.

 

//break break//

 

A few notes on the Revell kit:

 

Older comm antennas under the forward fuselage.

 

No shimmy dampener on the nose landing gear.

 

No GPS antenna, but that is an easy scratch built solution.   


No LAU-128s for AIM-120s, so you will have to source these from a Hasegawa weapons set or get the resin ones from Phase Hanger. 
 

The APU exhaust needs to be updated for a newer jet (check references).   
 

That’s all I can think of off the top of my noggin’

 

Steve
 

 

The missing centreline pylon is a whopper of a mistake.

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21 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

 

 


No LAU-128s for AIM-120s, so you will have to source these from a Hasegawa weapons set or get the resin ones from Phase Hanger. 
 


 

 

For LAU-128, which is the most accurate dimension wise in 1/48? Academy? GWH? Or Wolfpack F-15E F-15K Conversion set?

 

Thank you...

20200212_110541.jpg

Edited by mika14
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3 hours ago, mika14 said:

For LAU-128, which is the most accurate dimension wise in 1/48? Academy? GWH? Or Wolfpack F-15E F-15K Conversion set?

 

Thank you...

20200212_110541.jpg

I don’t know, but with the Phase Hanger resin set in hand, my vote would be for them - they are incredible 

 

best bang for the buck is the Hasegawa set.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

Recently a post was made explaining why the strike eagle was not carrying more than 3 GBU 54s on each side whilst currently on operations against terrorist groups in Syria. I came across an article stating the that this had been changed and the US strike eagle is now able to carry 6 GBU 54s per side as the problem that had prevented this had now been fixed.  Can anyone cast any light on this? From what I read it appeared the US strike eagle had undergone modifications to rectify the problem

 

Cheers

 

Edited by Modelkeenfan
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Just going back on original  topic.  Is it possible because of the reasons explained about only being able to carry 3 GBU 54s per side, would they also use the unused pylons without GBU 54s with dum bombs such as mk 82s thus using all pylons on the aircraft?

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Likely not. The point with using GBU-38/54's is to use fewer bombs per target, both reducing/eliminating collateral damage and allowing for more targets to be hit per mission. 

Adding Mk 82 on the other pylons to supplement the GBU-38/54's would not give you the necessary accuracy of hitting your target like a GBU-38/54 would. 

 

It is a bit sad that the USAF never modified their F-15E's to carry the full 12 off GBU's as on the F-15SA/SG etc. But likely this is fixed with the F-15EX? 

 

 

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On 4/3/2021 at 3:45 PM, Modelkeenfan said:

Just going back on original  topic.  Is it possible because of the reasons explained about only being able to carry 3 GBU 54s per side, would they also use the unused pylons without GBU 54s with dum bombs such as mk 82s thus using all pylons on the aircraft?

It’s not possible - the PACS programming won’t allow it in USAF F-15Es.   The PACS allows you to select the weapon type on each CFT side, but not the individual stations - you can’t tell it that the upper shoulder stations are Mk 82s and the lower stations are GBU-38s, 54s, etc.  

 

 

On 4/4/2021 at 7:35 AM, Niels said:

Likely not. The point with using GBU-38/54's is to use fewer bombs per target, both reducing/eliminating collateral damage and allowing for more targets to be hit per mission. 

Adding Mk 82 on the other pylons to supplement the GBU-38/54's would not give you the necessary accuracy of hitting your target like a GBU-38/54 would. 

 

It is a bit sad that the USAF never modified their F-15E's to carry the full 12 off GBU's as on the F-15SA/SG etc. But likely this is fixed with the F-15EX? 

 

 

It is fixed with EX 😉

 

Steve

 

 

Edited by Falconxlvi
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On 4/3/2021 at 11:28 AM, Finn said:

Here is an article that says the top racks are just used for transporting JDAMs:

 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39553/f-15e-strike-eagles-may-have-yet-another-role-smart-bomb-transporter

 

Jari

That was done for a proof-of-concept test.  It hasn’t been done operationally.   But it is a smart idea for all the reasons mentioned in the article!
 

The shoulder stations are used all the time for other weapons like GBU-12s 👍🏻

Edited by Falconxlvi
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