F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (finished)

Finished long ago, I finally have some spare time to shoot some complete pictures about it.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (8)

After some refinements and the painting of the ejection seat by Andrea paints, this flight is now done.
I am so glad to share with you my little words along with my progress here in this blog. I hope you;ve enjoyed. Thanks for reading.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (7)

After some days of resting from my MotoGP trip, I have finally get back some mood for modeling. I just painted the fuel tanks and the landing gears, get everything weathered and a quick flat coat.
And it is done.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (6)

Some may think I am just holding too many different projects at one time, yes, but I am just trying to be focused on each of these projects while I was working on them.

And here, I am getting this F-15C closer to completion now.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (5)

Over the weekend, I have completed the weathering of this plane and flat coating has been applied as well. With the enamal weathering, the pre-shadowing effect was toned down and it looks better than before (in my opinion of cox.... =_=)

The rear flaps have not been done as well as the fuel tanks. I will handle these together soon. But before that, I couldn't resist to remove the mask at the tail and start working on the exhaust. This was just simple steps to get it painted with gloss black and then with SM07. And a little super black was used to touch up the heating effect.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (4)

After the base color is done, the darker camo color is to be done. I have regenerated the marking scheme to a 1:1 scale from the instruction. And then I have the mask cut from the copy. In this way, the camo can be applied free-handed. The paints used for the camo are Gunze #305 and #307.

After the camo is done, I have applied a thine layer of clear coat before I put on the decals.

I have found that the GX100 has been a lot more helpful with being used as a gloss medium as well as compared to the Gunze basic clear and super clear. The density delivered by GX100 is a lot more concrete and in this way, a thinner layer will do the job as a gloss medium.

As for the decal, these are original Hasegawa Japan decals and the quality is as usual. And little decal softener will do the job well enough. If too much softener is used, the decal will collapse striaght away....

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (3)

Progress has been much slow so far this week as I was actually no in a very good mood all week, even now.... But though, I have a bit spare time to put on some new pics here.

The main frame was assembled together with the front end, and gaps were all filled. I was actually planning to make use of the Eduards color photo etch here with these 2 F-15s. But I found that those sets on hand are for F-15E instead of F-15C/J. So I decided to work out the cockpit straight from the plastic parts, which doesn't look bad at all actually.







Afterwards, I have also fitted in the intake parts. And then I went straight ahead to get the jet painted. I have some Gunze flat black ramdomly in the first hand and then I have the assigned grey ( Gunze #308 + #317) focusing at each panel.



After the first round, I have refined the panels with more diluted paints and lower pressure. And that is it for at the moment and I will need to photo copy the marking scheme to get the actaully marking mask.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (2)

There is still a long way to go before I could have actually start painting this flight.

After studying the parts and having a discussion with one of my fellow builders, I have had a general plan for this kit.

First of all, I have fitted both wings on the upper deck of the flight, ensuring the wings are flat with the top. In the mean time, I have also assembled the bottm of the wings and gaps are all filled.

Afterwards, I have looked into the assemble of the intakes at the front. And I realised this time that the upper walls of the intake are missing at the outer side of the intake. And that is why I have put in plastic sheets and filled up the lack. I have quickly got the inside of the intake painted so I can sooner move on to the rest of the test fitting in details.

F-15C Eagle - Gulf Spirit (1)

After some painting work over the BMW FW24, it just comes to a moment when I will need to stop and wait until the clear coating for the body to dry out completely. Meanwhile, I didn't really try to stop putting plastics around myself. I have just started a new project of a couple of Hasegawa 1:72 F-15(s).

In fact, the F-15 was actually the reason why I have started building kits other than cars. A few years back, the JASDF 50th Annivesary serise of F-15J and F-4EJ have been a fantastic kits with really wonderful markings! I have been caught up with one of those F-15J and that is the very first reason why I have got my first jet plane model bought home.

Later on, I have found that my skill was far from the standard to complete one of those limited issues, so I went on to a continuos prastice over the years to get familar with the set of technique to deal with jet kits. And of cause, there are some of dozens kit here still to go and I will still have plenty of chance to improve before I really get those limited issues built.

So, let's see how these two will go....



I was really surprized when seeing the filmings around the edges.... Afterall, this has been a kit older than me anyway........XD



And I have got the frame setup in about half an hour....

Let's see how it will goes......