Revell F-15 Strike Eagle – Build

Jos Jansen
Interesting....!

Maciej Bellos
In!

Schnemat
thanks for your interest. the cockpit was painted with a "conventional" brush, meanwhile i also started airbrushing (experimenting with an italeri f-5f tiger). it was also the first time using photoetched parts (which gave me a headache until they were glued to the plastic). hopefully i will have less troubles with my next project, but still i think it doesn't look too bad.

Schnemat
some progress on the fuselage, the front part with the cockpit has been glued to the wing section. alignment is not too bad.

Maciej Bellos
Following!

Stephan Ryll
Nice start 👍

Konrad -
Looking good so far 👍 ! Count me in here as well 😉

Schnemat
first efforts of black basing/marbling techniques

Bryn Crandell
Great start. The cockpit with the PE looks amazing. PE can give you headaches. Especially when the carpet monster gobbles a piece up.

Schnemat
some parts finished and coated in semi-gloss. the bombs were handpainted, as they were done before i started airbrushing. the fuselage is now gloss-coated and decalling will start soon (there are a few...). somehow the fuselage got quite rough even after applying the gloss coat, already the base color was like that but now it's even worse. haven't figured out why that happened (the ext fuel tanks have been done the same way and are ok...)

Michael Phillips
This looks great so far! I really enjoyed building the Revell Mudhen kit, it really is a fantastic inexpensive kit.

I feel you on PE, I really do not enjoy working with it and will do so as little as possible on all my builds.

As far as the paint roughness, it might have to do with the twin tail and twin intake design of the aircraft and the air from the airbrush causing turbulence that causes the paint to dry prematurely before reaching the surface. I tend to see the same issue myself on aircraft such as the F-15, F-14, and Flankers. Sometimes dialing down the air pressure and/or shooting paint from different angles along the fuselage seems to help.

Slavo Hazucha
Good stuff, engines looking great! @roughness, I too get the issue even with MRP's (particularly the primer) on less accessible areas - I try to smoothen it out with microfiber cloth/medium pressure, then usually things go fine without any damage/unwanted effects to the paint coat...

Schnemat
thanks for your comments, this might explain why some YT modellers glue the vert stabs to the fuselage at the final assembly stage...

Michael Phillips
When I get paint roughness, I have found using 0000 or 00000 steel wool will quickly smooth it out and not negatively affect the paint in my experience. Just make sure to use the airbrush with just air to blow off all the residual that comes up from the buffing.

Schnemat
hi guys, the strike eagle is progressing well, all decals are on it (not my favorite part...) and just received a satin coat, readying it for a bit of weathering. on one photo you can see the roughness which i talked about earlier.

Nathan Dempsey
Nice work! Not sure how I missed this earlier.

Slavo Hazucha
Looking good, take care the rough surfaces do not spoil the weathering... You managed to get the stencils on there without any silvering so far, so I am sure it will work out...!

Schnemat
yes, i have the same concerns. i'm using the flory models dirt wash, covering the whole model and then remove it with a dampened kitchen towel. but due to the rough surface in some areas i'm thinking about only doing a panel line wash...

Slavo Hazucha
If you have enough of the grey and nothing is mixed, maybe give the flory wash a try on a small representative area without a decal on it, worst-case you can re-spray the small area... Or go for panels only this time, should look decent enough & it would be a pity to compromise all that nice cockpit, engines and paint- job work with an uncontrollable wash...

Schnemat
@ Slavo: yes, i will do a test run somewhere on the bottom side if a wing... btw, looking forward to your f-111 build, i also like that plane!

Schnemat
after the wash testrun i decided to do a full wash, i think it worked out quite well. unsure about the weapon loadout, what do you think? the gbu-10's at the front or the gbu-15's a bit further back?