Mountain Home F-15E Commission build

Hollow LH CFT from the kit vs. the RH CFT with the scratch built back side details. I will eventually get the CFT and CFT Dolly scanned for 3D printing, as well as the CFT sitting on the dolly. 

Back side of the RH Conformal Fuel Tank (CFT). Still a few pinholes and scratches to fill and some fine-tuning to do, but I think it looks the part. 

Initial mock-up of the CFT maintenance dolly. still a lot of details to add but it's coming along nicely. 

 

PW-220 engine trailer. The wheels are from an AeroBonus flightline trailer, but everything else was scratch built. Still a little finishing to do, but I'm very happy with how it turned out! It will look awesome sitting behind the Strike Eagle in the commissioned maintenance diorama. 

The wheels are from an Aero Bonus flight line trailer. Everything else is scratch built.  

Steering linkages and tow bar 

$28 Chinese knock off of the $120 Black Dog “Big Set” for the GWH F-15. #1 engine bay, all forward avionics bays and the gun bay will all be exposed. I found it on Aliexpress.com listed under "1:48 resin cockpit" - A couple of the parts came warped, but a few seconds under the heat gun straightened them right out. 

Initial fitting of the fwd engine bay bulkhead. 

GWH kit engine vs. resin engine, which has a LOT more detail!!! I'll have to scratch build all the detail for the kit engine that will be sitting on the engine trailer.  

Still have a few more ring segments and other structural pieces to make, but it’s turning out great so far. 

#2 engine bay scratch built. The panels are scratch built copies of the resin kit for the #1 engine bay (mirror images, of course). I will glue in the resin walls and details in the #1 bay, but I won't have to add nearly as much detail because the resin engine will be filling the bay. 

I'm nearly halfway to my goal of cutting open the engine bay(s) for display. 

Now to install the resin walls and resin engine in the other bay 

More details of the resin detail kit. 

Avionics bays. SO much surgery up ahead! 

Kit engine vs. resin engine (top). 

The forward half of the resin engine SOLID RESIN! It's really heavy so I’ll have to drill / dremel out the center to remove most of the weight, and add nose weight to compensate for the rest. 

Open (scratch built) bay vs. the Black Dog Resin (BDR) side. The engine bay panels for the open bay will have to be scratch built mirror images of the right engine bay panels. The surgery begins… 

I found that the BDR resin walls were too short in height and width, so I added onto them. Somehow, the Evergreen styrene actually fuses to the "resin" parts with Tamiya cement! I was glad to discover this, as it makes a much stronger bond than just using super glue. 

 

One down, five more to go! 

 

Resin replacement panels for the #1 engine bay. I will have to scratch build mirror imaged duplicates for the other side. 

Close enough match to the resin wall detail, I'd say. 

The engine bay wall "blanks" I traced and cut from .020" Evergreen sheet styrene. 

 

I’ve got the walls, wiring and plumbing installed, now I’m using.005” styrene to make the panel attachment flanges. 

The upper ring segments glued in, waiting to be trimmed.  

A heat gun helped me form structural ring segments around Dad’s old aluminum cane.  

The resin kit walls were too small to display the engine bays completely open, so I scratch built extensions for them.  

 

 

Center walls installed  

Test fitting the resin engine  

Structure and details are complete and now it’s in primer. Time to move on to opening up the gun bay for display.  

 

Cutting the massive pour stubs off of the resin parts with my trusty Trumpeter saw. 

Rotary filing close to the panel lines. Jeweler's files and a really sharp OLFA X-acto knife were used afterwards, to get everything crisp and precise. 

Resin Avionics bays glued-in with homemade "Sprue Goo". Once it was half-cured, I pushed the bays inward by 1/64" for that proper recessed look. 

FWD Avionics bay rough cut 

FWD Avionics bay cut / filed / sanded and ready for the resin insert installation 

Initial cuts for the exposed gun bay 

All three resin replacement Avionics bays are now installed (glued-in from the back with Sprue Goo). Thin .005" and .010" styrene shims were required to get the proper look and fit. 

Cutting the pour stub from the long, right side Avionics bay insert. The saw blade that came with this new Japanese "OLFA" brand knife is unbelievably sharp and cuts much better and faster than my old Trumpeter saw. The OLFA knife blades are very, very sharp as well. 

RT Avionics bays being rough cut 

Time to start opening-up the gun bay! 

Glued-in; waiting to be shimmed and finished-up. 

Kit + resin gun bay parts ready for fitment 

Gun bay walls and ribs installed with styrene reinforcements, super glue and Sprue goo.