Just thought I would offer this tip. I see people paint the wheels on their 15s silver all the time. From 77 to 79 our 15s had dull or burnt aluminum wheels. That is the modeling color equivilant. I have tons of pics and i don’t ever remember seeing any silver. Now I have seen polished wheels from other bases at the time. C/D models had a different color, when we started converting late 79. Research!!!
The F15As wheels,at Holloman AFB, were white like the struts. Some crew chiefs painted the hub caps, to match the squadron color or striped and polished the aluminum.
I’ve always seen white wheels also. All the references that I have (three books) show white wheels. I’ve never seen a modeler paint them silver.