Revell 1:144 scale F15E

[robemcdonald]

Having recently completed an airfix 1:72 spitfire I realised a couple of things.
1. I found it a really enjoyable build
2. Progress is pretty quick
3. Modelling in a smaller scale is quite rewarding.

So I thought I'd try something smaller...


Only a few small sprues but lots of parts. Most of which are the armaments.



The first step is to assemble the cockpit



I then painted the assembly in NATO black, before picking out the seats in green and applying decals to the instrument panels.
This then gets assembled into the front section of the fuselage.


I then decided to go a little off the instructions and mask and fit the canopy.


The next step (bringing me up to date) is assembling the upper and lower halves of the main fuselage and attaching the front fuselage assembly.


So far I have only spent 2 hours on the kit. As with the spitfire I am really enjoying it.

It's also nice to use minuscule amounts of paint for a change.

Edited by robemcdonald on Saturday 27th January 07:14

[Eric Mc]

Small is beautiful.

[robemcdonald]

Eric Mc said:

Small is beautiful.

It certainly seems to be. Did a little bit more first thing and came up against the first slight issues with the kit... Fitting the engine intakes. They took a bit of fettling to fit. At this scale you have to be really careful or you can "fettle" half the part away.

[robemcdonald]

The larger fuel tanks and weapons pylons all mounted



The parts are a lot smaller than I'm used to dealing with.

[robemcdonald]

NATO black base / shadow coat

[robemcdonald]

The next step will be to mask up and paint the aluminium finish near the exhaust area.

[Langweilig]

Revell do produce some good 1/144 aircraft kits. Their Micro Wings series is actually 1973 tooling.





Micro-managed kits here. I'd recommend the Revell Messerschmitt 262. Lovely little kit.

Edited by Langweilig on Saturday 27th January 23:04

[robemcdonald]

Quite a collection. If this is a seventies kit it's not too bad. The instructions seem to be consistently wrong about whether parts go on the port or starboard sides and a few minor fit issues, but not too bad.

A bit more progress tonight.

First I painted the aluminium area around the also painted the landing gear bays, engine intakes and nose cone white. The reason for painting the nosecone was this appears lighter than the rest of the aircraft in every picture I've looked at.

Next I assembled and painted the exhausts.


And lastly for tonight I painted the fuselage in XF53 which is apparently the right colour at scale.



First thing tomorrow I'll give it a clear coat before adding decals tomorrow evening. That's the plan anyway....

[dr_gn]

Looking excellent!

I think it’s a new kit rather than one from the original Revell 1:144 series. The F-15E wasn’t around then, plus the mouldings look like they have more modern surface details.

The only one I ever built was the Me 262. Blue plastic IIRC, and I put too much glue on it and melted a wing off.

[robemcdonald]

I thought it seemed a bit too good to be an old kit.

So tonight I have mostly been doing some decal application. I also painted the missles and bombs. I need to apply a few decals to the armaments then another clear coat before some very light weathering.

[robemcdonald]

I managed to finish it this morning before starting work.
[url]|https://thumbsnap.com/yHUCQtwh[/url
]





Not quite as enjoyable to build as the spitfire as it got quite fiddly and frustrating in the end. I am pleased with the result though.

I think the sweet spot might be 1:72 warbirds so I have an Airfix P51D waiting to go next.

[Eric Mc]

That looks good - especially considering how small it is.

[robemcdonald]

Thanks.

I'm looking forward to trying natural metal finishes on the mustang. Should be a good challenge.