1/72 Hasegawa F-15J Eagle

Gallery Article by Burt Gustafson on Apr 5 2013

 

 

For your viewing pleasure, here are some photos of my 1/72 scale F-15J.  The Mitsubishi F-15J Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather interceptor fighter based on the McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle, in service with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF).  The F-15J was produced under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and is identical to the F-15C except for some avionics changes.  The JASDF acquired 203 F-15Js and 20 F-15DJs.  Note that Japan is the largest customer of the F-15 Eagle outside the United States. 

Armament for the F-15J includes a variety of air-to-air weapons i.e.: four AIM-9J/L Sidewinders and four AIM-7E/F Sparrows.  Like the F-15C, the F-15J sports a 20 mm M61A1 six-barrel gun with 940 rounds of ammunition.  Three air-to-surface weapon stations allow the F-15J to carry up to 10,705 kg (23,600 lb) of bombs, rockets, or additional ECM equipment.

 

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Construction
This was an out of the box build and was part of a Hasegawa F-15J 30th/50th Anniversary special (two F-15J kits in one box).  The model here depicts an F-15J of 203rd SQ, 2nd AW, JSADF, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chitose A.B.

Construction began with the cockpit that included the ejection seat and the cockpit floor assembly, all of which went together nicely.  For the instrument panels you could sand off the raised detail and use the kit provided decals, or you could carefully paint the raised detail.  I chose to paint the raised detail.

Overall, the parts fit of the kit was pretty decent, allowing the kit to go together without a lot of difficulty.  There was some seam filling and sanding, but not a lot.  Building the two engine nozzles (Turkey Feathers) was a bit tricky, and the windshield and canopy posed some fit problems.

Painting
In painting my F-15J, I deviated a bit from the standard F-15J paint scheme; Light Ghost Gray with a Dark Ghost Gray camouflage pattern.  Because the Light and Dark Ghost Gray paints are almost the same color, I thought I would darken the Dark Ghost Gray up a bit by mixing a little MM Blue with the Gray.  Well the resulting color was way to dark, but the shade of blue was a good contrast to the Light Ghost Gray.  So, I airbrushed the camouflage pattern with the Blue and Dark Ghost Gray Mixture.

The engine compartment was airbrushed with Floquil Bright Silver, and the exhaust nozzles were painted MM Burnt Metal.  Landing gears, wheel wells, and the inside of the wheel well doors were painted with Floquil Reefer White.  The centerline fuel tank was airbrushed with MM Gunship Gray.  Once the paint dried and cured, I applied two coats of Future to the model in preparation for decals.

Decals
This F-15J kit is a decal intense kit, but the decals were flawless.  They are well printed, easily placed on the model, and snuggled down nicely to the model.  Once the decaling was complete, I wiped down the model with a damp cloth and applied a light coat of Future to the model.  To finish off the model, I airbrushed it with a coat of MM Semi Gloss Lacquer Finnish.

Comments
This kit was a pleasure to build.  The parts fit was good, cockpit and external detail is quite good, and the decals were super.  The overall quality of this kit is excellent, typical of a Hasegawa kit.  I was pleased with the finished model. 

Burt Gustafson

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Photos and text © by Burt Gustafson