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KIT: |
Revell 1/48 F-15E Strike Eagle |
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KIT # |
5511 |
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PRICE: |
$18.50 MSRP |
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DECALS: |
390 FS and 335 FS |
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REVIEW & |
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NOTES: |
New Tooling |
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HISTORY |
Developed from the single seat F-15 Eagle, the F-15E is built as a multi-role aircraft, unlike it's earlier cousins, which are strict air-superiority aircraft. A dedicated two-seater, the F-15E is equipped with conformal fuel tanks and a number of hardpoints on which it can carry a wide array of current air to ground ordnance. There are also pylons on which are attached an infrared seeker and a navigation pod that are so necessary for the delivery of modern guided weapons.
The Strike Eagle first entered squadron service with the 405th Tactical Training Wing at Luke AFB in Arizona. From there, pilots went to the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing (now 4th Fighter Wing) at Seymour-Johnson AFB, Nouth Carolina on the east coast, once there were enough Strike Eagles to fill the wing. Since then, all Strike Eagle training has been switched to the 4th Fighter Wing as Luke is now an all F-16 base. Other units flying the Strike Eagle are the 366 Wing at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, the 3rd Wing in Alaska, and the 48th Fighter Wing in England.
F-15E production is now almost over, though the local politicians in Missouri manage to have a few trickle off the assembly lines. Foreign customers for the E version are Israel with the F-15I and Saudi Arabia with the F-15S.
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THE KIT |
This particular kit has been long awaited by Eagle fans world
wide. The previous kit in this scale by Hasegawa was not a true F-15E, but a
doctored up version of its F-15D, missing a number of items such as the bulged
gear doors. These have all been taken care of in this new kit from Revell,
which, by the way, is made in Korea, as all the parts bags proudly announce.
First thing you notice is that this kit is in that miserable new box that Revell is so proud of. My copy had a large rip in the back of the box that had been patched with a piece of scotch tape. In addition, the glue for the box was defective and upon opening the shrink wrap, my box basically self destructed!! Not a very auspicious start, but frankly, most of us who build new Revell kits have a nice Tamiya or Hasegawa box laying about to put the pieces into while we build it.
The sprues are packed one or two to a bag, which is very nice and keeps the parts nice and scratch free. An even nicer touch is that the sprues interlock with each other to prevent them from moving around! I noticed this on the Ju-52 and applaud its use.
The parts are
superbly detailed, as one expects from Monogram......err Revell kits of current
vintage. The exhaust, for instance, includes all the actuating rods for the
afterburner petals. No more having to use resin aftermarket bits or
scratchbuilding. I can see a lot of letters to Revell requesting extra burner
cans!! The kit also includes nice long intakes that will surely be a challenge
to assemble without having a visible seam. For those of us who are cowards,
there are also intake covers provided!
The tree with the fuel tanks and Sidewinders on it has some large blank areas on it. Undoubtedly, this is where the bombs would be had they been supplied with the kit. But they are not, and this is probably the biggest complaint I have heard about this kit. For a kit of a supreme mud-mover to come devoid of bombs and other explosive thingies is not a pleasant surprise. It isn't the first time we have seen this as Hasegawa has been doing the same thing for years, but it is a disappointment. I have heard that there will be two other boxings of this kit; one with AMRAAMS and the other with all the bombs we would have liked to have had now. I guess this is marketing for you, and something I'm not real fond of.
Enough whining
about the lack of weapons, for now. On to the instruction sheet. It is 16 page
booklet with multiple steps and a very good set of diagrams. All the parts are
called out by name and any colors that are needed are listed on each step. One
very nice addition to the instructions is that they tell you the sequence of
putting together some parts. For instance on the section where you glue the
cockpit section and wings to the rest of the fuselage, there are large block
letters telling you to glue the lower wing, then the upper wing, then the
cockpit section. If you have seen the ProModeler instruction sheets, then this
is quite similar, but without the photographs.
Painting this kit should be a breeze as it is overall 36118. No need to freehand camouflage. No need for extensive masking. The decal sheet covers two aircraft; one from the 335FS/4FW (SJ), and the other for the 391FS/366WG (MO). Other than the plethora of mainenance markings so common on modern aircraft, the unit markings are confined to the tail and small badges on the intakes. Face it, the F-15E is not a very colorful aircraft! The decal sheet looks superb and since it isn't done by Scalemaster, is in sharp register. It actually looks very much like a contemporary Aeromaster or Superscale sheet in quality. Could it be that after 30 years of harping about their decals that Revell has finally listened to us?? I sure hope so.
Well, there you have it in a nutshell. It looks like a superb kit and one that I know I will be building very soon. Stay tuned, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. BTW, the Revell copyright is on the underside of the left tailplane, so some things never change!
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CONSTRUCTION |
As it
typical for me, I first scoured the instruction sheet to see what subassemblies
I could find and then started assembling them. This consisted of the drop tanks,
the wheels (which are handed so I etched a small 'L' on the back of the left
one), and sensor pods. Then I went to the first step and started putting
together the bang seats. Each of these is a four part affair and really is well
detailed. I imagine that the real purists will want replacement resin ones, but
for me, the kit ones look just fine. The harness is molded into the seat.
Then the interior bits were taken away to be painted Dark Gull Grey using Testors Model Master Enamels. While that was happening, I glued the engine intakes and compressor faces together. There are a number of large ejector pin marks on the inside of the intake parts. Those and the daunting task of smoothing out that long intake allowed me to make the coward's decision to use the intake covers. Therefore the intakes and compressor faces were not painted, but just glued together. They were then glued into the fuselage bottom after 8 holes were drilled out for the various pods, racks and cooling intakes. Fit of the intakes is superb.
Next the upper fuselage half was glued in place after the gun barrel was glued to the lower half. Fit here was very good as well, much better than the older Monogram offering. You will have to use filler or at least do some sanding on the area behind the wing. I fear there is no real way to prevent this from happening as every F-15 kit I have ever built has this problem. Then the wings were glued in place. You are given stub upper wings with the upper fuselage half to which you glue a lower wing section. Then the remaining upper wing piece (which has the complete lower wing tip) was glued in place. Fit was good, but not great and a small amount of filler was needed. I used Mr. Surfacer 500 to take care of the problem.
While all that was
drying, it was back to the interior for more painting. The proper bits were
painted black with light grey knobs and a few bits of red, yellow, and green
added in there to break up the monotony of greys. Meanwhile, the seats were
painted flat black with the ejection handles painted yellow. Back in the
interior, the control columns were painted Dark Gull Grey with flat black
handles and glued in place. The backseater's two grips were painted flat black
and glued in place. On the instrument panels, the screens were filled with
Tamiya clear green and once dry, the panels glued in place.
Meanwhile, the landing gear, wheels, wells and inside of the doors were painted flat white using Colors by Boyd's flat white primer. I know these are supposed to be gloss and they will be after a coat of Future, but the flat white coats well and dries fast. When dry, the nose gear well (which is made of four parts) was glued to the bottom of the interior. Test fitting showed that it would be impossible to glue in the nose gear once the forward fuselage halves were glued together, so it was glued in place at this time. There is a small strut that goes to the aft nose gear door and that was glued to the door. This door is an integral part of the aft section of the nose gear well. Having it on there makes it easy to get good alignment for the door, but makes it very difficult to sand the seam right under it when the forward fuselage parts are cemented together.
Once that was dry, the forward fuselage halves were glued together after I put a weight in the nose. The instructions don't call for weight, but I just wanted to play it safe. Fit was very good. When dry, the nose section was glued to the rest of the fuselage. The fit here is a lot better than I would have thought, requiring only a bit of sanding to smooth things out. The seams are along panel lines which really helps.
Next, the forward intakes were glued on. These items are really movable on the real aircraft and Revell includes the hinge bulges, but they must be glued in the full up position. It is imperative that you fill the three large ejector pin holes on the inside of each part as they really are quite visible. Assembly of these parts was quick and very straight-forward. Engineering on this part is also quite good. So far, I am impressed with this kit as it is logically designed.
While all this was drying, I assembled the exhaust
cones. Thankfully, Revell supplies the 15 separate actuating rods for the
afterburner section rather than making this a one-piece affair. First one paints
the inside of the exhaust flat black. Then the three sections of the afterburner
petals are glued into the exhaust. Fit is a bit sloppy and there are some gaps
between the three pieces that need additional applications of glue to fill. Then
comes the daunting task of gluing on those 15 actuating arms. This took a while.
I found that the rods are a teeny bit shorter than I would have liked and the
small holes they attach to are not deep enough for the pins on the rods. Again,
a bit of extra glue to bridge the gap was needed and I gave a swipe of sandpaper
to the pins so the hinge end would fit well. As you can see from the image, they
look great when done.
Now on to the conformal fuel tanks. First one needs to glue the small exhaust vents to the aft section of the aircraft. These are what determines how far back the tanks fit, so they MUST be good and solid before gluing the tanks. As one may suspect from long, semi-flimsy structures like these tanks, fit was a bit of a struggle. I had to glue it in stages and use clamps where they would fit. Thankfully, the real things don't fit flush, however they also don't have gaps in them so much care is needed during this part of the build. It is obvious that Revell intends to use this mold for other F-15 versions or they would have molded the conformal tanks as part of the fuselage and saved us the extra work. At this time, the speed brake was glued in the closed position. It is only used to slow the aircraft down or to impress photographers so is normally not seen in the deployed position.
While those bits
were drying, completed the cockpit section. This involved installing a little
spacer and the HUD for the front guy and the anti-glare shield and grab bar for
the back guy. Then the canopy was glued onto the frame (which had already been
painted) and a front section was also glued in place. Since there is a nice
bubble section to the canopy, there is a seam that needs to be removed. This was
done using various grades of sand paper and a buffing pad. It was then masked.
When I tried to install it on the aircraft, I found that it would not fit in the
closed position. Not sure why, but there it is. Next, the windscreen was glued
in and also masked. The open cockpit sections were then sealed off with tape in
preparation for painting.
I always like to have all the bits that are to be painted the same color glued in place before painting if at all possible. That saves me the embarrassment of spilling glue on nice paint. Well, it cuts back on it a bit anyway! Returning to the underside, the various bomb racks were glued in place. The kit instructions want you to glue on the smaller outer racks to the conformal tanks first, but I glued the long inner rack first. Good thing too as I needed some clamping and the outer racks would have gotten in the way. Then the smaller outer racks were glued in place. All fit very well, but the aft one is a bit tricky to get in the right position. Then the centerline rack and the two pods were glued to the lower fuselage. Finally, the forward nose gear door was glued in place. That is normally closed when on the ground.
I had thought about masking off the nose gear and door prior to painting, but it would have been a real hassle. Instead, I'll either brush paint over the overspray, or mask off the nose and spray the white parts again, which in this case seems a lot easier. This wasn't done for the main gear. Here, a bunch of toothpicks were placed in the gear well so the kit wouldn't have to touch the spray bench while drying. Then it was off to the paint shop.
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PAINT & DECALS |
This is the easy part. The whole aircraft is simply overall FS 36118, Gunship Grey. I used Aeromaster Enamels for this and it was a piece of cake to paint. It does take quite a bit of paint to cover all the aircraft plus the drop tanks and various pylons. On some Mudhens, the nose radome is a bit browner than the rest of the aircraft. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to paint that a different color. Once it was dry, the aircraft was overcoated with Future gloss acrylic in preparation for the decals. Then the tail section was masked in preparation for getting what on the instructions says should be titanium paint. I used Tamiya tape for the masking and sprayed the area with Testors Titanium Metallizer. The very ends of the jet pipes and the inside of them was sprayed with Burnt Iron Metallizer. After taking off all the masking and looking at books, I realized that the Titanium Metallizer is too dark. What would have been more appropriate is a lighter metallic like steel or even aluminum. Something to think about.
Well there certainly are enough decals to make everyone happy.
Typical of modern aircraft, there are zillions of small maintenance decals to go
on. Enough so that decaling itself took several hours. It was during this phase
that I noticed that not all of them were in register. Specifically those with
white in them, the white seemed to be the culprit. Not a major problem as there
is darn little white on the sheet, but something you may wish to consider.
Another glitch is that the nose 'slime lights' are larger than the engraved area
on the nose in which they fit. It also seemed to me that the call outs for
placement of some of the maintenance decals didn't exactly seem to correspond
for what was where the decals were placed. For instance, the grounding decals
weren't near any grounding jacks that I could see. Those that work on the plane
will undoubtedly be able to find more.
The decals themselves are really excellent. They go on as well as any aftermarket sheet and are as thin as any Aeromaster or Superscale sheet. I used the Superscale system on them with the more recalcitrant decals getting the Champ treatment. I chose the 4th TFW scheme from Desert Storm, mainly because of the nose bomb markings, the eagle on the inside of the tails, and because I wanted a TAC bird, not one from ACC. As mentioned in the instructions, this bird also has the distinction of wasting an in-flight Iraqi helo with a Paveway laser guided bomb!
A downside of applying all those decals on a rather large and heft kit is that there were sections along the leading edges where I wore off all the clear coat and paint! These needed to be touched up before the final clear coats could be added. Let me tell you, it was rather nerve-wracking having to do touch-up spray painting on a kit that was already decaled! Once that was dry, a couple of coats of semi-matte clear were sprayed on to seal the decals.
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CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES |
Now that it was all painted, the last fiddly bits were added,
and on this kit there are a lot of them! For one thing, there were a myriad of
sway braces to add on. In addition, there were various sensor intakes and pitot
tubes, the fuel tanks were glued to the pylons which where glued to the wings.
Then the Sidewinders (which, by the way, are not white but ghost grey with black
heads) had their decals put on them and were glued to the pylons. The tail hook
was decaled and installed as was the boarding ladder and main gear doors.
Finally, the canopy and windscreen were unmasked, the afterburner cans plugged
in, any touchup paint needed in the cockpit was done, the seats installed as
were the canopy actuator and prop, and finally the canopy glued in. Whew!!
A bit more painting of lights and antennas and it was done. End result was one very nice looking Strike Eagle that didn't take two months to build. Sure, most folks will take a bit more time and undoubtedly do a bunch of more detailing than I did, but modern aircraft are not my purvey. I didn't anguish over whether this bit was the right one or if this particular aircraft had white antenna covers near the exhaust.
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CONCLUSIONS |
A really great kit and one that everyone who does modern jets should have in their collection. Would have been even better with a full suite of ordnance! I'm sure that there will be several aftermarket sheets for this aircraft as I can think of over a dozen squadrons that have flown this aircraft. Highly recommended.
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REFERENCES |
Combat Aircraft Magazine. January 2000
April 2000
Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet! If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has over 800 visits a day, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.