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Revell 1/144 F-15E Strike Eagle in-box review - UPDATE Sep 2015


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  • 3 months later...

Chris-

Any chance of you doing a LANTIRN pod set-up for them as well? I'm getting ready to place an order for a set of your F-15 parts and your OH-58D set.

Aaron

ps. Can you send me a PM with your answer? I'm not on here hardly at all any more. I've got refs if you need.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 years later...

After the first release came without air-to-ground ordnance and, perhaps even worse, without the navigation and targeting pods, Revell decided to re-release their Strike Eagle and throw in another sprue with the missing bits.

Box-art:

Revell-144-F-15E-w-bombs-01_zps1kwlb04i.jpg

The sprue (about 6.5 x 9cm)

Included are (clockwise) :

2x GBU-15 (the span of the rear fins is way too short, especially obvious when compared to the forward fins).

2x GBU-10

1x AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pod

1x AN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN targeting pod

1X AN/AXQ-14 data link pod for the GBU-15

1x centreline rack in the centre of the sprue

Apart from the GBU-15 fins, the lengths and proportions of the new bits seem about right. If at all, they appear slightly undersized.

The rest of the kit wasn’t changed at all.

Revell-144-F-15E-w-bombs-02_zpsh0xnambr.jpg

Decals:

No tiger - for a change! ;)

There’s one option for

F-15E Strike Eagle AF 89-0487 of the 335th Fighter Squadron, at Bagram AB in Afghanistan, January 2013

This airframe carries special markings for reaching a 10,000 flight hour milestone (just this one airframe!) on January 13th of 2013. This is also the F-15E that shot down a Mi-24 with a GBU-10 during Desert Storm.

More info on this particular F-15E:

>>HERE<< on af.mil – article on reaching the 10.000 flight hour milestone, including pics of the load-out used on that particular flight (different bombs and a Sniper XR – time to raid the spare parts!)

>>HERE<< on f-15e.info

Some of the decals appear slightly smudgy (the big emblem #16) and slightly out of register (e.g. the emblems #8 and #11).

The decals for the cockpit are a nice touch!

Revell-144-F-15E-w-bombs-03_zpsaa3imzs8.jpg

Colour callout:

Revell-144-F-15E-w-bombs-04_zpslhikelrs.jpg

Mistakes in the instructions:

Parts #11 and #12 (vertical stabs) and parts #13 and #14 (air intakes) are swapped!

GBU-15s go under the wings. When they’re used, the AAM rails on the underwing pylons aren’t used (fin clearance issue).

GBU-10s go under the wings or (far more common) under the lower, “continuous” CFT pylons, NOT on the upper, “separate” CFT pylons (they aren’t stressed for those weights).

VERDICT:

Revell’s nice little Strike Eagle kit just got even better!

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Thanks for posting this. The decals have all the basic bits so it's pretty easy to just add a few home printed decals to make many other examples of F-15E's. The targeting pods look nice, but I don't know why Revell keeps making big bombs and not the more commonly used small ones. A 2013 Afghanistan F-15E needs a pair of GBU-12's and three GBU-38's. Lots of Dragon kits come with GBU-12's, but I had to buy a Tomytec weapon set for the others.

2x GBU-15 (the span of the rear fins is way too short, especially obvious when compared to the forward fins).

Yeah, it's not really close at all.

w8oSm7d.jpg

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Thanks for the update! I'm glad we now have nice LANTIRN targeting and nav pods, but it boggles my mind why Revell wouldn't include modern weaponry like the SNIPER pod and GBU-38s especially considering the decal option...oh well home station birds still fly mostly with LANTIRN so I'll still get a few!!

Edited by Kingoalie
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I'm a little diappointed with their decal sheet, which seems to be now printed by Colorado Decals in Portugal.

The markings on the decal sheet in my kit are misaligned and are partly printed on the backing paper, instead on the decal film.

Most noticeable on the stars & bars.

I've made a slanted picture with reflections to show the misalignment between the artwork and the carrier film.

Moritz, are your decals also misaligned?

Revell03972_Decals.jpg

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<...>

I've made a slanted picture with reflections to show the misalignment between the artwork and the carrier film.

Moritz, are your decals also misaligned?

Revell03972_Decals.jpg

Yeah, mine are also slightly misaligned, but not nearly as bad as yours seem to be. :o On my example, only one or two of the cockpit decals are just barely outside the carrier film (fractions of a millimetre, really), the rest are all on the film.

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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I see about the issue on the decal sheet. I order the Monokio's release with the "F.D.N.Y" one. I already have some of Monokio but never one applied yet. I hope Monokio has good quality. I will obviously using the cockpit decals from the kit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just picked up a set of F-15E decals from my LHS, It's manufactured by a company called "WaterSlide Decals" the set is #WD44046 "F-15E 391th/335th Fighter Sdn 'I'll take it from here/ F.D.N.Y. -Let's Roll" Now the big question, WHO makes a SNIPER pod in 1/144 scale??? - EDIT: Just ordered a second one from eBay: Here's the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MONOKIO-1-144-F-15E-391st335th-Fighter-Squadron-Ill-Take-it-From-HereF-D-N-Y-/111762069030?hash=item1a0589d626

Edited by MattP
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  • 2 weeks later...

Matt, you might be referring to Monokio's 1/144 decal set. I have that as well and there's no "MO" tail code for the 391st. I'm so disappointed with the decal set. No tail bands too. So I'm gonna steal some on the kit supplied.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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