1/48 Revell F-15E Strike Eagle

by Dean Large

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I can see why everyone raves about this particular kit – it really is a beauty. I originally bought it to make for a friend, but after deciding he’d have no room to display it, I built him the 1/144 scale version instead, which can be found elsewhere in the ARC archives. Good job, too, as this is bigger than I’d thought, and is almost the same length as my F-16 in 1/32 scale!

I’d bought an Eduard PE set for this kit, but didn’t end up using much of it except the seatbelts and a few levers in the cockpit, as the kit parts are pretty well spot on. I simulated the switched off MFDs by painting the panels black, then covering them over with clear paints of different colours. Looking closely you can just about see the green or red tinge to them. Drybrushing and a panel wash brought out the highlights and lowlights in the cockpit respectively, and I added the oxygen hoses from coiled wire.

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The parts fit is excellent, with just the well documented step as the nose section is joined to the fuselage, but a bit of filling, scraping and rescribing covers this well. Everything else was perfect, and even the finely engraved panel lines matched up on both sides of the joints. The only other place filler was used was in the conformal fuel tank joints, as these have a sealer around them in real life.

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The undercarriage is well done, so I added a few hydraulic lines with fine wire according to my references, gave it a pastel wash and left it at that. The exhaust nozzles were pretty good too, and all I added here was the afterburner ring inside, as the moulded details on the outside did away with the need for any PE parts. Each can had a total of 21 parts in it, making them a mini kit in themselves. The ceramic insides were done in simple white primer, with airbrushed brown and black streaks. The outsides were done with Alcad Steel and a pastel wash to simulate the grime and oil.
 
Painting was up next, and I tackled the metallic engine areas first using Alclad Aluminium covered with Johnson’s. Then a pastel wash, more Johnson’s, then airbrushing other shades of Alclad at panel lines and around the petals at the back. On the underside is a vent which I assume is from an APU or something, and a couple of my reference photos showed heat staining on the metal panels here. I tackled this by laying down rolls of Blu-Tak and airbrushing Alclad pale burnt metal between them. I was happy with the result. These areas were then masked over until the model was complete.

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Colour scheme was a simple all over grey, so I decided to combine a few techniques from ARC to liven up the surface a bit. I preshaded the top surfaces, and then made sure that I didn’t overdo the top coat of grey as I usually do. The results were a bit over the top, but I found that with all the subsequent layers of paints and varnishes on top, the effect gets ever more subtle. The lesson then, is overdo it at first, confident in the knowledge that it will tone down as the job progresses. After the top coat, it was a coat of Johnson’s and then on with the decals. These in the main went down well, but I still had some silvering at panel lines despite meticulous surface preparation and patient use of solutions. Oh well.

The whole airframe then received a pastel wash, and then the matt coat. The preshading had almost disappeared by this time, so I applied the toning down matt coat more heavily in some areas than others, to regain the colour variation I was after. Some might find it a little overdone, but it’s quite mild compared to some reference photos I’ve got, and according to the serial number this airframe is 20 years old, so I feel comfortable with the weathering it shows. The camera has lightened the overall colour too – it’s pretty dark in the flesh.

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One drawback with the kit however, is the almost complete lack of things under wings. Apart from the two tanks and four Sidewinders there is nothing to hang on the other thirteen empty hardpoints, so a fully laden aircraft is out of the question unless you want to go for aftermarket weapons sets. I don’t usually put too much on my aircraft anyway, so for me it wasn’t a problem, but some might find it irritating.
 
All in all, a nice kit. I was reasonably happy with the way it turned out, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement on my part. Onwards and upwards!

Dean 

Photos and text © by Dean Large