F-15 Eagle
[Page 3]
F-15 plastic scale models in 1/32 scale
Revell and Tamiya
VARIANTS:
kit A= F-15J
Japan Self Defence Air Force
kit B= F-15B
USAFE
kit C= F-15I
Ra'aam Israeli Air Force
The F-15 two seater kit of the F-15B was now further finished [kit B].
The older style F-15's such as the F-15B had wheel hubs with more cooling gaps. The kit parts are for later F-15's such as the C/D/E. The gaps were filled with white glue and painted black as the earlier F-15's often had. So this error is not longer really obvious.
As stated earlier
also, older type F-15's had exhausts with the Turkey feathers installed.
The same applies for the F-15B kit.
The envisaged
finish is that of the USAF 32 TFS from the Soesterberg Air Base in the
Netherlands in the beginning of the 1980s. The USAF 32 TFS
unit has a long history in The Netherlands, look at the F-102
page for info...
The decals of the F-15B from 32 TFS came from various separate decal sets. There are a lot of detail differences between particular aircraft, but for the F-15B there are only a few options as each squadron had a few trainer planes only.
I found nice
pictures of an F-15B, plane Fiscal year 1977, code:
CR , AF
77 , 158
A sisterplane
F-15B is seen above, having a clear picture of a real plane is important.
Used reference books (in
Dutch) were:
a. "Wakend
boven Nederland", van den Brink, Reconnaissance 1984
b. " 32 TFS"
, Loeber, Bataafsche Leeuw, 1984
c. "Modelbouw
in Plastic", IPMS Nederland, MIP-1982/2
Details of the
finish of this particular F-15B are:
- old style
small USAF "star and bars" without the black edge (came from the old Revell
decals)
- orange tailbands
of 32 TFS on outher vertical fins (came from Dutch Decal set)
- red framed
canopy, made from thin cut decal stripes from XtraDecal
- black wheel
hubs, with white aisle
- coloured
32 TFS badge on fuselage sides aft of intakes, came from old Revell F-15
decal sheet
- many "No
step" markings, in black, many from DACO decals (for an F-15E)
- yellow style
no step "honeycomb" markings, from MicroScale sheet
Decalling takes
at least 10 hours, so... be patient! The end results are very nice however.
The decals were applied after putting on a couple of gloss coats on the model of Johnson Klear/ Future. A real gloss underlying finish is essential to prevent "airbubbles" that cause "silvering". Decals were applied, using Microscale Sol & Set in places to get a good flexible decal to curve to the lower surfaces.
After putting on the decals, the model was left 24 hours to dry. Some cleaning was done with a soft cloth a water. After ample drying time, the model was given a semi-matt end finish with a sprayed coat of Johnson Klear/Future mixing with some 15% Tamiya acrylic X-21 FLAT BASE.
A Sidewinder air-to-air missile was installed from the TAMIYA kit and set in place.
Sidewinder missile
Exhaust
pipes with turkey feathers in place were painted white inside with brownish/black burned striping.
red
framed canopy
Upper view,
the air brake being in the just opened position. The kit was made as a
taxiing plane, with its nose wheel turned.
A very nice model of the important American 32 TFSquadron that flew in The Netherlands at Soesterberg Air base, starting with F-86 Sabres in the fifties and ending with F-15C/D's before the turn of the previous century.
See also the 1/72 F-15C 32 TFS model here...
(c) Copyright "designer"/ All rights reserved. Your comments are welcomed by webmaster
Created December 11, 2004;
updated August 2018
