1/48 Academy F-15SG "what if" Tiger Meet

Gallery Article by Christopher Yee on Aug 3 2011

 

Kit: 
Academy 1/48 F-15K 
Paints: 
Tamiya TS-12 Orange decanted and airbrushed
Tamiya & Mr Hobby acrylics
Alclads
Scratch built:
Various antennas, RWR, and other lumps and bumps specific to this variant.
This project was a unique one in that it was commissioned by a friend who is a F-15SG pilot.
 
His only request... To make this unique, custom, beautiful & in flight.
After contemplating ideas for a little while, we agreed on a scheme that adorned the F-16AM "Solo Display Team 2009" J-015 from the Netherlands. 
Not entirely confident that I could pull off the paint job, I began with the construction of the kit and scratch building the additional parts for this variant. Some issues with the intakes which is usual for this Academy kit as it is the same tooling as all their other F-15's. I encountered the same issues when I built the F-15i Ra'am. In addition there are plenty of ejector pin marks to tidy up, and gaps at the wing roots. Other than that, the build went along smoothly.
Being displayed in-flight I made sure details such as the ailerons and horizontal stabilizers were positioned in the correct stance, even the pilot and his WSO was modified and positioned to look the part of a 45deg left climbing bank. 
Constantly referring back to my references of the actual Dutch aircraft I noted that being a fresh paint job that there is absolutely no weathering to speak of. So with this in mind I made a mental note to minimize the pre-shading and panel line demarcation. However being a scaled down model I also realize that without some panel line detail it would simply look like a mass of solid color and somewhat like a toy plane. So using some artistic license I still wanted to define some areas.

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Time for the paint. After pre-shading the entire fuselage I laid down the black areas first with Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black. I could have used flat black, or gloss black actually as the model is going to receive a coat of Future/Klear anyway, however I really wanted to get a feel for the final look of what the satin black would look like at the end to boost my confidence of the final product! After allowing to dry I masked the black areas to remain. I decanted a rattle can of Tamiya's Orange and laid down the Orange in light coats at first over the pre-shading. Once I was more confident that I could achieve the desired effect, I laid down the last two coats slightly heavier with the pre-shading just peeping through the surface enough to break up the fuselage.

Next came the tedious and nerve racking task of scaling off the lion emblem that is the centre piece of the scheme, creating the masks and applying it to the complex curves of the F-15's upper and lower fuselages. Of course the lower fuselage was the most complicated due to the rise and falls of it's profile.

Once done however, a deep coat of Tamiya X-7 red was applied. Allowed to dry for half a day, I nervously peeled off the masks to reveal just the look I was hoping for. Some touch up was needed here and there, but I was pleased with the result!!! Final to the custom job was the vertical stabilizers. Here I chose to enlarge the "Shikra" silhouette form standard and mask them to cover as much of the vert stabs as possible in line with the lion on the fuselage. Again this worked a treat. The rest of the build went as usual with Alclads used for the engine areas and nozzles, and then the mandatory coat of Future to seal in the paint and allowed to dry for 2 days ready for decals. This too was a slight challenge as now I have numerous black surfaces which requires white or in my case light grey decals. Afterburner decals came to my aid with a set of F-15C decals that came in light grey. Perfect!!!

So finally another two coats of Future to seal and protect the decals, a VERY light panel wash to subtly highlight the panel lines, and then a coat of Mr Hobby Semi Gloss Acrylic clear coat.

To finish her off a custom case was made to measure, and while that was being done, I fashioned up a brass rod and holder to mount the "bird" in her "cage".

Overall it was an enjoyable build. Not one that I will attempt again any time soon however! 

Thanks for looking. :)

Christopher Yee

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Photos and text © by Christopher Yee