Building an accurate F-15E Strike Eagle
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Building an accurate F-15E Strike Eagle |
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Product: | Hasegawa 07008 (P8) | |
Manufacturer: | Hasegawa Seisakusho Co. | |
| Modeler: | Bob Dedmon | |
| Email: | robert.dedmon@dla.mil | |
| Copyrights: | Text, Photos © 1991 Bob Dedmon / Kalmbach Publishing | |
| Note: | Reprinted with permission of FineScale Modeler First published in FineScale Modeler Issue March 1991 | |
| Building an accurate F-15E Strike Eagle Correcting details on any F-15E kit |
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| The US Air Force’s air superiority Fighter, the F-15 Eagle, has always been capable of delivering air-to-ground weapons as well. But not until the production of the F-15E Strike Eagle had the Air Force taken advantage of this potential. | ||
| The F-15E looks like a standard two-seat Eagle, but it is equipped with the latest navigation and attack equipment while retaining its air-to-air capability. Designed to replace the F-111 Aardvark, the F-15E won a fly-off against the General Dynamics F-16XL in 1984, and it entered service with the USAF in 1988. The first wing equipped with the F-15E was the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina. | ||
| Most kits labeled F-15E are actually replicas of a standard F-15B/D two-seat Eagle with painting guides and decals to make the models look like Strike Eagles. To make an accurate F-15E, you’ll need to modify those kits. I used Hasegawa’s early 1/48 scale kit (No. P8), but this detail improvements can be applied to any two-seat Eagle kit. | ||
 Fig.1 |  Fig.2 | |
| Detail Changes | ||
| Fortunately, no major surgery is involved, but the changes are noticable. First add a bullet-shaped AN/ALQ-135 antenna housing to the end of each stabilizer mount, Fig. 1. (Early F-15Es had this antenna only on the right mount.) These can be made of sprue or from a spare-box missile. A small reinforcement plate is located on the top of the leading edge of each fin. Cement .005” sheet styrene to the kit fins. The rear fuselage formation strip lights are slightly different from other Eagles; use Detail & Scale decal sheet No. 08-48 for the strip lights. | ||
| The streamlined fairing around the emergency tail hook has been deleted on the F-15E. Cut it away and cut a small trough for a tail hook taken from a 1/48 scale Monogram F-15A. The hook extends beyond the abbreviated fairing, Fig. 2. The Hasegawa kit I used included the old-style exhaust nozzles with the “turkey feather” covers. However, the Air Force’s F-15Es no longer use these covers, so I added resin nozzles from Parts-R-Parts to show the uncovered exhausts used today. | ||
 Fig.3 |  Fig.4 (Click to enlarge) | |
| To carry the heavier load of the F-15E, stronger landing gear is installed. The main gear axles are angled down, which moves the top of the wheel away from the strut. The main tires are 3” wider, so sandwich .060” plastic between the tire halves, Fig. 3. The main gear wheel covers are bulged to make room for the larger tires, Fig. 2. Laminate .060” sheet styrene to the doors and round edges with files and sandpaper. | ||
| A new “clip load” ammunition system for the internal M61 Vulcan rotary cannon produces a distinctive fairing on the belly of the aircraft, Fig. 2. This fairing can be made from .060” sheet styrene shaped with files and sandpaper, Fig. 4. | ||
| LANTIRN System | ||
| The two pods for the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infra Red-Night (LANTIRN) system are next. The system has a navigation pod mounted underneath the right intake and a targeting pod underneath the left intake. If your kit lacks these pods, Fig. 5 shows their shapes in 1/48 scale. I made my pylons from sheet styrene; the targeting pod came from a mechanical pencil tube and a split shot lead weight. I used a pencil and a dome lens from a Hasegawa Maverick missile for the navigation pod, then covered the assembly with putty and sanded it smooth. | ||
 Fig.5 (Click to enlarge) |  Fig.6 (Click to enlarge) | |
| Tangential Pylons | ||
| The Strike Eagle can carry Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFT, formerly FAST Packs for Fuel And Sensor, Tactical). Mounted on each CFT are four external weapons pylons know as “tangential” pylons. These pylons, the last modification made to the Strike Eagle, are incorrect in most kits. The long main pylon conforms to the undulating outline of the bottom of the CFT, Fig. 6. This pylon has four weapons stations, of which three can be used at one time. | ||
| The other three pylons on each CFT are mounted at a 28-degree angle from vertical. I made all my pylons from laminated sheet styrene. | ||
| Up Front | ||
| Since the Strike Eagle has no rubberized tip on the radome, fill in the engraved line. The F-15E nose gear’s lower fork is heavier than those on earlier versions. The fork is shaped like an I beam with the open ends forward and aft, Fig. 7. I used the smallest piece of Plastruct I beam I could find and shaped it by heating it over a flame. A piece of copper rod serves as the nose wheel axle. Some of the small antennas under the nose of the F-15E are mounted flush; only the three UHF antenna blades remain the same as earlier Eagles, Fig. 8. | ||
 Fig.7 |  Fig.8 | |
| The instrument panels for the pilot and weapon systems officer are different from standard Eagle setups. Computerized displays and a large Head-Up Display (HUD) for the pilot replace many of the old-fashioned dials and radar screens, Fig. 9. Sticks on the consoles of the rear cockpit control the LANTIRN system’s sensors. I formed a scrap of clear butyrate over an eraser for the pilot’s HUD screen and used Plastruct angle stock for the frame. | ||
 Fig.9 (Click to enlarge) | ||
| Currently, all F-15Es are painted Gunship Gray FS 36118 with various flush-mounted antenna panels painted either FS 36320 of FS 36375. | ||
| (Thanks to Jay Barber, Fred Claypool, and the 4th TFW for their help in this project. – Bob Dedmon) | ||
| Meet Bob Dedmon | ||
| Bob Dedmon is an F-15 crew chief stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa. An active modeler for over 25 years, Bob has been a member of IPMS /USA and many of its local chapters. During a tour of duty at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, Bob built an exhibit of all the aircraft types flown by the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing since its days as RAF “Eagle Squadrons”. Bob’s donation of this F-15E Strike Eagle model completes the exhibit. | |
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