494 FS TigerMeet F-15E Strike Eagles
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| Home | 494 FS TigerMeet F-15E Strike Eagles |
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Credit: | Natotigers.org - The unofficial NATO Tiger Association website | ||
Author: | Gert Weckx | ||
Photographs: | Patrick Van Den Langenberg & Gert Weckx | ||
Copyrights: | Natotigers.org website | ||
Notes: | This article is published with the permission of the www.natotigers.org website. | ||
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I still regret that we had to leave Lechfeld Air Base during TM'98, at a time that two 494 FS Strike Eagle's came in for the weekend. Nevertheless I got a glimpse on one of them clearly showing Tiger stripes painted on the CFT's (Conformal Fuel Tanks).
| Some weeks later the same aircraft attended RIAT 1998 at RAF Fairford and T for Tiger member Patrick Van Den Langenbergh was able to photograph all the details of this scheme. About the same time I got some pictures from Mark Attrill who was able to photograph the aircraft at Lechfeld during the TM'98 weekend. I immediately noticed some of the differences between both appearances. On this 3 page article we will focus on those differences, provide you with a walk-around of the aircraft and we have some 14 photo's of the 2001 Tiger Meet F-15E which came in at Kleine Brogel prior to the Tiger Meet weekend.
| Lechfeld Appearance
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| The 494FS F-15E arrived at Lechfeld in similar markings as most of us saw it at RIAT Fairford a month later. However during its stay at Lechfeld some extra markings got applied on the nose. One of these was a Tigerhead which was put over the EAGLE head on the pilot and WSO banner just under the canopy. (A) This tigerhead was a CORELDRAW clipart image brought out of its original proportion.
| On both sides of the nosecone the text NATO TIGERS HARD TO BE HUMBLE was applied in a shadowed AACHEN typeface, the colour of this lettering was orange ± similar to the orange applied on the conformal fuel tanks.
| On the other side of the nose the squadron patch was applied in full colour. (B)
| A smaller coloured item on the aircraft was the centre of the mainwheel disc. (C) This marking is believed to be an integral part of the markings. Note that while the aircraft was at Lechfeld, all the wheeldiscs are painted WHITE as quoted on Revell's kit instructions.
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| Note that all markings applied at Lechfeld were removed PRIOR to their departure back to Lakenheath, as stated correctly on the kit's instructions.
| RIAT Fairford
| The aircraft that attended Fairford retained basically the same scheme as worn at Lechfeld. But I found a detail that changed, and that is included in the Revell kit as well. Namely the GoodYear tires got coloured lettering, but that's not all... the wheeldisc was painted in a steel/aluminium colour and was not coloured white as it was at Lechfeld. Note the centre of the wheeldisc pictured in close-up.
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| Another detail I spotted while looking at Patrick Van Den Langenberghs' Fairford pictures was that the same Tigerhead as applied on the nose at Lechfeld was applied on the inner side of the large airbrake on top of the airframe... (D)
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| General References | |||||||||||||
The following pictures have been included for those who would like to build the F-15E kit, they can be useful to create the correct general appearance of the aircraft.
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| The picture above gives a good view on how the tigerstripes are painted, with a small soft edge as represented on the decalsheet. Also note the three MK82 AIR bombs in line on the CFT's large bombrack. But the most important thing you can see on this pictures is that all area's covered with tigerstripes are PAINTED GLOSS while the normal colourscheme of the Strike Eagle has a MATT appearance. (demarcation GLOSS-MATT is marked with (E)). I would not overdo the GLOSS on your model but advise to finish the tigerstriped area's with a SEMI-GLOSS varnish so that the contrast is not to big.
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| Note the HORN intake (F) on the picture above. I'll advise to put this on your model after you applied decals 22 and 28. This is not stated in the kit's instruction but I believe it would be easier to apply the decals when this intake is not in place. It will also be easier to paint / spray the gloss/semi-gloss finish in this area, since the Horn is in the Matt FS36118 Dark Gull Grey colour.
| Also note the colouring of the bombs which might be handy if you like to scratchbuild them. As mentioned on page 1, the F-15E air defence armament mostly consists of two SIDEWINDER and two AMRAAM missiles. Aircraft 604 was armed in this way when it attended RIAT. While at Lechfeld it only carried 2 AMRAAM missiles at the outboard launchers. NOTE that the AMRAAM launchers differ slightly from the SIDEWINDER launchers.
| Close-up photographs
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| Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4 | |||
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| Photo 5 | Photo 6 | Photo 7 | Photo 8 | |||
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| Photo 9 | Photo 10 | Photo 11 | Photo 12 | |||
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| Photo 13 | Photo 14 | Photo 15 | Photo 16 | |||
Photo 1: The Eagle's head was covered with a Tiger head during the aircrafts stay at Lechfeld (see page 1) This aircraft seems to be piloted by Capt. Ken Carpenter while Capt. Jim Harvey takes care of the different weapon systems in the back. Photo 2: Overall view of the left side. Photos 3 & 4: Closer views of the left side. Photo 5: Detail of the 494 FS patch as applied on the conformal fuel tank. Note that the lighter shade of gray within the patch is a non-standard deviation. Photo 6: Detail of the Tiger walking on the serial as applied on the tail. Photo 7: Overall view of the starboard side of the aircrafts tiger stripes. Photos 8 - 13: Detail views from the starboard pattern. Photo 14: Detail of the Tiger marking on the tail at starboard side. Note that although port and starboard side markings seem to be similar, there are some variations in pattern and colouring. Photos 15 & 16: Details on the Air Retarded MK 82 practice bombs. These bombs are not included within the REVELL kit, and I didn't see any of them in Hasegawa's are common weapons sets.
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| Above: Tiger F-15E at Fairford RIAT, note the similar coloured ladder in front of the aircrafts nosewheel. Also note the missile armament configuration, with AIM-120 AMRAAM's on the outboard sides, while AIM-9 Sidewinders are attached to the inboard sides of the wing-missile pylons.
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Prior to the NATO Tiger Meet 2001 weekend activities 2 F-15E Strike Eagles from 494FS, based at RAF Lakenheath arrived at Kleine Brogel Air Base. One of the aircraft AF91-601 had its conformal fuel tanks painted in a tiger scheme. The painting of these fuel tanks was not finished when the same aircraft attended the NTM Spottersday earlier that week, and the tanks were applied when the aircraft returned from the spottersday.
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| Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4 | |||
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| Photo 5 | Photo 6 | Photo 7 | Photo 8 |
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| Photo 9 | Photo 10 | Photo 11 | Photo 12 | |||
| All photos Copyright © by Patrick Van Den Langenbergh and Gert Weckx. Special thanks to 'Sammy' from 494FS for sending the inflight photo's. |
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