McDonnell Douglas F-15 A/C by Danstream - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1:48

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

 

It's amazing after all the years the F-15 has been in service, it's still one of the very best fighter aircraft in the world's air forces.

It would possibly still be one of the top planes of it's type if they could retro design more stealth into it economically.

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, CDW said:

It's amazing after all the years the F-15 has been in service, it's still one of the very best fighter aircraft in the world's air forces.

I think I remember that the F-15 took its first flight in '72 or around that era... the F-16 shortly afterwards... a very long life... 

 

The only reason the F-22 is the superior aircraft is its ability to not be tracked on radar, if they could add that capability to the F-15 it would double our fleet of advanced fighter aircraft...

The Israelis say when encountering an air battle, "it is the only fighter plane in the air" and none are better in a dog fight...

 

Adding F-22 levels of stealth to it would be outstanding...  (for a 50 year old design)

[CDW]

Just now, Egilman said:

The only reason the F-22 is the superior aircraft is its ability to not be tracked on radar, if they could add that capability to the F-15 it would double our fleet of advanced fighter aircraft...

The Israelis say when encountering an air battle, "it is the only fighter plane in the air" and none are better in a dog fight...

One of its strong suits is the superior weapons guidance system

[mtaylor]

We'll have our annual Memorial Day fly over tomorrow.   F-15's from the base in Klamath Falls.  I hope to be sitting up on the high ground on the east side of the valley to see it.  Depends on the weather.  Pity that they aren't going to stand them on the tails and climb out.

 

Edit... scratch the climb out.  I got an email from a former Marine friend said they'll do that over the VA Cemetary in Eagle Point.  A bit of a drive so I may go there for the services, ceremonies, etc. though the weather will be a factor.

[Old Collingwood]

34 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

We'll have our annual Memorial Day fly over tomorrow.   F-15's from the base in Klamath Falls.  I hope to be sitting up on the high ground on the east side of the valley to see it.  Depends on the weather.  Pity that they aren't going to stand them on the tails and climb out.

Should  do a missing man though.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Respect and love to all the Vets.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Absolutely correct, OC. Should do a "Missing Man" at the cemetery. And thank you, it was an honor to serve.

[FriedClams]

Nice tutorial on the painting Dan - it looks terrific.

 

Gary

[amateur]

Yrah,, and it is self-classified as ‘good enough, but not perfect’. Makes me wonder:  How would a ‘very good, near perfect’ look like??

 

I only know paint by brush, those airbrush-jobs look terrific. But I guess it takes more thsn you can see (in talent, time and experience) to get it ‘not perfect’ like this…

 

Jan

[Egilman]

55 minutes ago, amateur said:

But I guess it takes more thsn you can see (in talent, time and experience) to get it ‘not perfect’ like this

I wish I was that un-perfect..... That is beautiful work....

[Javlin]

Don't worry Dan she will end up being a Nice addition to the Air Fleet. 

[Danstream]

12 hours ago, amateur said:

But I guess it takes more thsn you can see (in talent, time and experience) to get it ‘not perfect’ like this…

OK, beside 'talent' which is a big word and I do not consider applicable to me, the other two ingredients are correct. I started with brush painting (my other hobby is actually... 'brush painting') and then I moved to airbrush. However, I soon realized that the time spent in airbrushing models was too short, too insufficient to learn reasonably the basic techniques and, in addition, it needed a long preparation in building the model before I could get into action with it. Hence, I started to spray paint on scrap cardboard and the like trying several effects that I wanted to reproduce. This way, I could get some of the 'time' and the 'experience' that were needed.

Excuse me for this unsolicited long digression and thanks to all of you that offered benevolent comments and 'likes' 🙂,

cheers,

Dan

[king derelict]

Thanks Dan

That is a good idea to put in some dedicated airbrush time. I need to do that instead of trying to learn on the current model

Alan

[Danstream]

Hi all,

some little work done over the weekend, painted the control surfaces and posed together with the main body to see the effect.

Then a first light coat of Tamiya gloss followed by a light wet sanding. Before a second coat, I masked some details to get a metallic paint on the cannon opening and on the largest dorsal grilles:

I sprayed on these details a coat if Vallejo metallic 'steel' obtaining some points of interest on the large upper surface.

The simplified cannon opening gained a bit of detail:

Meanwhile, waiting for the gloss coat, I started to work on the landing gears.

That's all for now,

kind regards,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi,

I had little time for the hobby lately and I am posting just few images to show that the build is going on. From the images above, I noted a blemish in the filler located next to the cannon opening which I could not ignore and hence had to be corrected. Then, after a light wet sanding of everything, I sprayed a second layer of gloss clear to prepare the surfaces for the decals:

I sourced a decal sheet that contained the service stencils and one for the insignias of the 32nd Squadron which was based in the Netherlands since the early 50's at the Soesterberg Air Base. The squadron was under Royal Netherlands Air Force control, therefore it was the only American Squadron that was under the command of a foreign nation. The role of the 32nd TFS was to guard the West-European air space which stretched right up to the Iron Curtain. Below, I just started to apply the decals:

This is an early scheme which will display the high-visibility stencils as I found in some pictures on the web (note: I find strange that the diagram around the fueling port is so larger than the outline of the port, but I do not have other options).

That's all for the moment,

best regards,

Dan

[Egilman]

8 hours ago, Danstream said:

I find strange that the diagram around the fueling port is so larger than the outline of the port, but I do not have other options

That line is a no-step line so it would be larger than the actual port cover.... And the two perpendicular lines extending from the front of it are indicators for the refueling aircrafts boom controller....

 

Nice work Dan...

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by Egilman

[Javlin]

Coming along Nicely Dan.Stencils that's one one thing modern a/c do not lack a few hours in those.

[amateur]

The military museum n Soesterberg still has one in the collection. (The emblem in colour) Rather noisy things, those f15s, flying low above the surrounding villages (and never alone. Teacher had to stop talking when they were flying over, and the windows  were trembling ... )

 

Jan

[Danstream]

@amateur, I visited the museum about three years ago, and, yes I could see the thing hanging from the ceiling. I can easily believe that they were noisy planes. What impressed me were the sheer dimensions of the aircraft.

Kind regards,

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi,

while going on with decaling, I tackled the modeling of the landing gears. The kit provides a fair, quite accurate representation of the main structural parts. The legs were provided split in half and you have to insert a metallic rod in the vertical element before closing the halves. One end of the metallic rod inside the forward leg protrudes outside and it is supposed to get clamped into the wheel. This is the first time I see such a feature. The first step was to add few lead wires to busy up a bit the parts:

Then, I sprayed a light coat of primer followed by a satin white and I glued on the landing lights. To render the shiny struts of the shock absorbers and the oleo, I used a strip of thin self adhesive aluminium foil. The placards are made with small pieces of decal.

After that, I painted black some portions of the wires and sealed everything with a coat of gloss clear varnish. At this point, details can be picked up by applying a black wash (Tamiya panel liner):

That's all for now,

Thanks for following,

Dan

[king derelict]

Beautiful work Dan, the landing gear struts are spectacular

Alan

[Danstream]

2 hours ago, king derelict said:

Beautiful work Dan, the landing gear struts are spectacular

Thank you Alan, I am happy that you like the work done on the LG. As you might have noticed, there were quite a number of steps involved (i.e. a number of different coatings), but, eventually, it is easy to obtain a satisfactorily result. Actually, if the mould is good, most of the job is done by the wash 🙂. Presently, I am repeating all the coatings with the wheels.

 

I have just finished decaling the fuselage, omitting some of the many stencils.

 

King regards and thanks for all the 'like's! 

Dan

[Danstream]

Hi,

working on finishing the wheels:

Wheels mounted on the LG legs:

Finally on its legs (but legs are not glued yet):

Kind regards,

Dan

 

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Danstream

[Danstream]

Hi,

After having applied (almost) all the decals onto the fuselage, I sprayed the last coat of gloss to seal them. Then, the diluted oil color was liberally brushed on the panel lines of the upper side. This operation is always a bit frightening to me:

After 20 minutes, I removed the wash with a cloth damped with white spirit:

Next, the underside fuselage will be similarly treated. Meanwhile, I restarted working on the exhaust jet pipes because they will be glued on soon. With a fine brush, I picked few details with aluminium metallic paint and Tamiya panel liner, then I sprayed a mist of flat brown to mute down the contrast of the metallic parts:

Best regards,

Dan

 

 

[king derelict]

Terrific work Dan. I'm learning a lot from your techniques. The panel lines are really neat

Alan

[Danstream]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

Terrific work Dan. I'm learning a lot from your techniques. The panel lines are really neat

Thank you Alan. I am not a master, but if you have any question on the above that I am able to answer, please do not hesitate to ask.

Dan

[Javlin]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:58 PM, Danstream said:

I have just finished decaling the fuselage, omitting some of the many stencils

Oh No you don't you cheated  Dan I wanted to see you labor for hours on those stencils! She's looking good Sir.

[Canute]

Your tail feathers have a nice burned metallic look to them.

[Danstream]

Hi,

some progress on my F-15. Similarly to the upper side, the panel lines of the underside of the fuselage were treated with Payne's Grey oil color, while the wings were left natural with the exception of the control surface gaps. I might come back later to the panel lines of the leading edge.

Then the jet nozzles were glued on and some stains were added by putting some black oil color dots on panel junctions and smearing them with a flat brush. Also the nozzles were drybrushed with black oil color.

The underside engine area of F-15's might get really dirty by gases leaking from the junctions, but I prefer to keep the weathering quite limited. The engine area seen from the above will remain cleaner:

A rear quarter view of the jet nozzles area:

The jet exhausts of the kit are quite simplified, but I preferred not to replace them and get the best I could by playing with paints and oils.

On the upper surface, I added some streaks of color from the hinge lines of the surfaces as suggested by some pictures.

Finally, I sprayed a transparent layer of Tamiya Smoke and clear yellow on the underside of the engine area to mimic the discoloration of this area as seen in pictures:

That's all for now, I hope you like my weathering effects.

Best regards,

Dan 

 

[Old Collingwood]

First class  work  - Really nice.

 

OC.