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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

F-15DJ Kai or Eagle Plus- Finished!


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With the extra work done to the back half of the fuselage, the Eagle is now a tail sitter. 

So time for some nose weight. 17¢ was put in the nose cone and glued in place. Once dry, I can then attach the nose cone. 

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Started work on the landing gear. Lots of flash and ejector pin marks to clean up. Then I noticed that half of the nose leg was short shot. Thankfully I just grabbed the one out of the second kit and started over on the cleanup. 

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The main assembly has been getting the seams filled and sanded so it's getting close to a coat of primer. 

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I think I finally got all the seams filled. Of course I dropped it and snapped the nose section off so that had to be glued back on and seams filled again. 

Speaking of dropping the model, I did that earlier on in the build and snapped off one of the tips on the aft end. I tried to make a replacement from Apoxie Sculpt but didn't have any luck. So I ended up grafting on an ECM fairing from the Tamiya kit.

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With that done, I started on the paint. 

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Looking good Carl, this will be a one off Eagle and a beautiful one. With these large kits, gravity takes it´s toll sometimes. Better now, than after painting.

Cheers Rob

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Carl catching up and some amazing progress. Front office looks mighty good and with all the alignment and fit issues correcting at this stage of the build, I tip my cap more then a few times, as all is looking incredibly good. Just seems the project has stored up a lot of these little hidden gems and which are keeping you from the paint booth. 

Terrific work

:construction: 

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Thanks Peter! It's certainly been more filler and scribing than I usually do on a build but it'll be something different when done. 

I did some touch ups on the filler and then then sprayed some more paint. 

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Thanks Peter! I'm getting there. Might even make the deadline. 

Landing gear is assembled.

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I had to adapt the resin AM wheels to fit the kit legs. They were designed for the Tamiya kit and mounted in a different way. I ended up gluing the kit hub to the resin rim. Well I must have used a bit too much CA as you might able to see from the pic. 

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Needless to say, it was securely bonded to my bench. After some liberal applications of CA debonder and some prodding with a hobby knife, I got it free. You can see the but of damage compared to the other wheel. 

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Next up was masking the gear bays and the burner cans. The gear bays was straightforward. I just followed the opening. 

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It was pretty much the same with the burner cans. Except I noticed I'd missed scribing some panels and had to do those first. 

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Then a coat of gunmetal, nothing fancy. 

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I shaded it with some light gunmetal but that was it. 

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The angle of the canards with its high dihedral looks weird to my eye, and make the canards of dubious aerodynamic function IMHO, even if this is a what-if model …

But the whole is great 👍 !

Hubert

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1 hour ago, Martinnfb said:

NASA approved  :)

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Damn ! Me and my big mouth 🫢 ! You’re right Martin, and I should have checked references before pretending to be an aeodynamics expert 🤣🤪😂 !

Hubert 🤐

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Thanks to Martin's pics, I don't have to change anything with the canards. Except maybe glue them on better as one has fallen off already. 

Wayward canards notwithstanding, I decided to start on the decals. 

First up was a shark mouth.

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These were carried by many of the JASDF's F-4 squadrons so I thought it fitting. The shark and tail emblem belong to the 303rd Squadron of the JASDF and came with the Tamiya F-4EJ kit.

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Then while looking at the hinomarus on the same sheet, I noted that they seemed big for the F-15. Searching through my stash of kits, I didn't find anything a suitable size. I even briefly considered some from an Eggplane F-4E kit but they were too small. Next step was looking online for something but it meant:

1) buying a complete decal set for just the hinomarus, leaving the rest of the sheet useless

2) getting rush delivery so I'd have it in time for the GB deadline

Finally I remembered the Dspiae circle cutter in the tool box!:hsmack:

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So I'm off to cut a couple quick templates and paint the hinomarus. 

 

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2 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Wait!!! Where are the stencils!!   :rofl:

I can't see any on the painting diagrams so I'm good to go. 

Mind you, the painting diagram is maybe 1.5" long but that's my story and I'm sticking with it. 

Plus there aren't any visible in the anime so it must canon as the Star Wars fans would say. :lol:

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