Over the past 18 months, I’ve grown to realize that many of you guys are kind of “down” on modern aircraft. I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. I’m fascinated by the technology of todays modern aircraft and want to recreate some of them as best I can. I’m hoping that there are a few out there who take an interest and can give some advice.
I’m currently building the 1/48 Revell F-15E. It calls for ModelMaster “Gunship Grey” for it’s overall color. Maybe I’m wrong, but that color scheme seems awfull dark. I’ve done a lot of photo gallery searching and have come to realize that the Mud-Hen is darker than most of the other modern era planes, but gunship just seems sooo dark?
Anyone out there sprayed their “E” Gunship Grey and wished that they hadn’t?? I have masked and sprayed the canopy, and it looks so dark.
Our city is having an air show this weekend. We have no F-15’s but the F-16’s, F-18’s and A-10’s all are nowhere near that dark. As I mentioned, I know that the 15 is darker than these, bet hey, Gunship darker?
P.S. …I had the opportunty to ride in an AT-6 Texan with the AeroShell stunt team yesterday. Got to experience a barrel roll & a loop…what an experience!! I now want to build a Texan!!
I like the modern as much as the prop jobs. Been around planes in one form or another for much of my life.
36118 Gunship Gray is the correct color for the F-15E. There are a few other schemes for the other variants. But the E model has only been in the single color scheme since it became operational. You’d be suprised how that color changes according to lighting conditions and backgrounds.
Here is my[2c] The gunship gray fades bad on the flight line. I worked around AC130’s back in the day and after going to the sandbox the paint takes a beating. That is wye the GS gray looks so dark new.
I have 4 F-15’s I want to put in a flight line dio some time soon Good luck on your bird.
I do like moedrn jets, but build old prop ones, my modelling skills not up to par to do jets (yet), specially the paint job.
I did pick up a MM enamel color, Dark Gray (F-15), FS 36176, MM# 2036.I was planning on using that one on my old 1:72 Italieri F-15C , before trying the 1:48 Revell F-15E
oh yea i love my f-15. many people do, its a great aircraft. only one not to be shot down in battle. and the sound of the engine is out of this world. iu have a 1.48 i need to build. but im getting experience before i do it
I started to do my Eagle in the two tone gray scheme and found it not to my liking, though now I cannot remember exactly why?[%-)] So I opted instead to go with the earlier blue scheme, either way you need to mix and test spray something before committing to applying paint to the whole model just in case it isn’t “right”.
As mentioned already the GS Gray fades a great deal once exposed to the sun. Depending on the look you want you may want to tone it down with a lighter color gray. Don’t go crazy and take note of your ratios. But a light gray not only scales down the color but also can give you a nice slightly weathered appearance. Also pastels worked into the paint can give you similar effects.
I had the opportunity as well to go up with an instructor in a T-6 for some basic combat maneuvers. That is one sweet flying airplane. Modeling choices are limited. I’m in the process of completing a Tuskegee bird modeled after the gent that restored one in Colorado. I merged the best of the Monogram and Italeri kits. There are also some upgrade out there such as the Eduards PE set, Squadron canopies, and resin wheels. I used Alclad to finish the airplane. I would give myself a B+ for this effort and would love to see somebody do something better than these two 1/48 scale products. I saw a while back that somebody was doing one in 1/32 scale but have yet to see that come out to the market. I’d build it again if that happened.
As a follow up to the 1/32 T-6, Hobbycraft are the ones that were supposed to come out with this. I wrote them an email but honestly would be surprised to hear back from them. I guess they anounced that they were going to do this in the fall of 07.
Dragonfly – that’s a good looking build. Got more photos to share?
ABSOLUTELY there’s an Eagle guy here. This is my favorite combat airplane. While Gunship Gray is technically correct, I would vote to lighten it a shade for sake of scale. Personally, I do not like the overall dark gray scheme, nor do I like the shape of the 2-seat canopy, so I went with a “C” variant in ANG colors.
I would post some photos, but my stinking Photobucket account is not working.
I’ve built two Eagles. As another eagle fan to another, you’ve probably heard of the F-15 ACTIVE and S/MTD variants.
Here’s some pics of my F-15 ACTIVE build. Yes, it is a real plane. It’s paint scheme is fictional, but the design is real. Go to a site called “Global Aircraft” and look under the “X-planes” sidebar. It’ll give you a whole page on the ACTIVE.
I love the F-15 as well! So far, I’ve built the Revell F-15E (Gunship Gray), Tamiya F-15A (Compass Ghost), and the Revell F-15C (Mod Eagle). I have a Hasegawa F-15B on the shelf that I plan to paint air superiority blue (going to use Humbrol 47, which I HOPE is a good match).
I did have a bit of trouble with my Revell F-15C. Other than the fact that it’s not that great of a kit, I noticed too late that the FS36176 (MM Dark Gray F-15) is too dark for my decals! I wanted to use the Superscale 173rd FW Oregon ANG decals and I was disappointed to discover that the gray on the decals blends right in with 36176!! You can’t really see that eagle on the tail!! Big disappointment. I recently purchased the Tamiya F-15C and another set of those same decals (this time using the sharkmouth version)…Going to give it another shot and try lightening up the 36176.
