McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

After nearly 4 months, this one is finished.
As written earlier the tiny decals were very time consuming and the instructions of the underside were not useable.
The remove before flight tags are from Eduard (49546) and the F.O.D. covers from Q-M-T (R48002).
Paint is from Vallejo.

Thanks for looking.

Jan Remco

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force finished 23-04-2016

Finished today, for now this build is the longest build timewise. It took me 4 months to finish  the F-15. Mostely due to the tiny dcals.

Later I'll take some photos with a decent camera.

Jan Remco

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

 Finally most of the decals are placed. I'm sure I've missed some, beside the underside of the aircraft.
I don't know the idea behind the way the decals sheet was set up, but I would have prefered another set up. Not left right but on the way you place them on the aircraft (left, right, top and bottom).

The undercarriage is attached, hopefulle I get this bird done in the next view days.


















Thank you for reading.
Jan Remco 

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

Time for the decals.

Placing the decals on the Baz will be a long stint. It seems that all panels are numbered, the blue numbers.
























Above the sheet with the panel numbers, on the right and below to make things worse the positions are not correctly placed on the model.

This will take some time and motivation.

Thank you for reading.
Jan Remco 

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

The progress since the last update.

The front landing gear, as it comes out of the box.












 After struggling with stretched sprue, copper wire and aluminium foil this is the result. Took me nearly 10 days, getting the strechted sprue onto the right places took a while.












 Masking the tail section.

The result.

The colors are from Vallejo :USAF Colors Gray Schemes from 70s to Present Model Air Paint Set, 70.615 - USN Light Ghost Primer and 71.120 - FS 36320 - Dark Ghost Gray.

And the  fuselage was done, for masking I used Tamiya Masking Tape for Curve 3mm, great product, but not suitable for very tight curves.

Thank you for reading.
Jan Remco 

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

Update from 14 february 2016:







Done less since the last update than I wanted, instead I was reading Encyclopedia of Aircraft Modeling #1 "Cockpits" and #2 "Interiors" great books with a lot of photos and good detailed explanations.


Masked the area around the engines before getting the gungrey color.









Another fit issue, this time around the engine, the engine doesn't get far enough in the bay. I'll deal with this later. 







 The Python 3 missile.

On the left hydraulic cylinder for the airbrake and on the right together with the hydraulic piping, made from stretched sprue

The hydraulic piping attached to the cilinder.

 Thank you for reading.
Jan Remco

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

Update from 7 february 2016:







As written in my update form january 31nd, the Python 3 where painted and the Sparrow got the decals on.
Beside the weapons I had to redo the handles and still wasn't happy with the air inlets.

The rear fuselage section was joint with the cockpitt section, despite testfitting and grinding I still got a gap. To close this small gap I used some Evergreen and the Tamiya extra thin glue.

 Before









After closing the gap with Evergreen and some Vallejo Putty








After closing the gap with Evergreen and some Vallejo Putty

As written above I wasn''t happy with the air inlets. I managed to seperate the wrong glued parts, from the air inlet up and started all over. This time I test fitted the parts as seen below, but now with the cockpitt section in place. I think that this is the best way instead of following the instructions (sub assembling the air intakes first and than joining them with the airframe). The down side is that there isn't plenty of room.

Starting over with the first choice for the air inlets I found a mistake in the instructions.

The parts were I did start with were for the left side of the aircraft

This is H8 for the righthand side of the aircraft,
But the best fit (after trying both of the parts) is changing left for right and right for left.







Next updat will be with the painted and decaled weapons

A fun shot of a F-16 on top of the F-15, it is a massive beast compaired to the F-16.

Thank you for reading.
Jan Remco

Under construction: McDonnell Douglas F-15B "Eagle" Israeli Air Force

Update from 31 january 2016:






I have made little progress with the "Baz". The F-16C needed some attention as well.
The rear fuselage section was completed. and test fitting the speed brake.

In closed position there is a gap vissible.














 Below in open position and the hinge side is looking much better.

 I'll probably choose for the speed brake in open position.

As mentioned earlier I decided to get the avionics bays open, as a starter I drilled out the openings for the hatches.

And created some handles, while looking at the pictures I realize they are should be on the bottom and look a little to big. Some extra work.

In the avionics bay I wanted the do some wires. A horrible task, I wanted to do some more but I ran out of good drills. The best thing is to drill the holes through and glue the wire from the back side.

 After 2 days trying to get the wires in I left it as in the picture (and some wiring on the other side as well). May be it is easier with an electric drill device, as you have one hand free (I only have a pin fise).

The Python 3 are masked (no photo) and the painted Sparrows, with the biggest decal sheet, with decals for the missiles.

 Thank you for your time.
Jan Remco