Deciding to build this one out of my stash, no wife anymore and my little one getting big enough where he plays on his own, need something to fill the time, take up a long lost hobby (cant believe last time i was really active on this forum was 5 years ago when he was born!), enough off topic though, I dug the box out yesterday, I had started on the cockpit prior to my retirement and now those parts are long gone, since I dont need any more an excuse than that to go aftermarket I figured I would post and see what if any recommendations anyone had for a good resin cockpit, and pretty much anything else, I love photo etch, and was thinking of some metal landing gear since this is kind of a big boy and can imagine the completed kit sagging under its own weight. Anything else anyone would recommend?
There ought to be a fair amount of AM goodies for this kit, and some stuff for other kits might be modded to make work in the Revell version. Resin-wise, Avionix and Aires make some fantastic cockpit sets that are a real treat to use. Eduard is the obvious source for any PE…
Unless you’re gong to add a ton of weight to the nose, you should be able to use the plastic landing gear without issue.
Using a resin set really made me bring up my painting game, so good luck and happy modeling!
That is one of the best kits Revell ever made. I don’t know of much aftermarket that is needed for the kit other than more ordnance if you want to really load it up.
I built the Monogram 1/48 F-15 years ago and I used a spent 230 gr 45 bullet epoxied into the nose cone. There have been no issues with the kit landing gear to date. I think it’ll support the weight without problem.
I’m building this kit at the moment and about to wrap it up. First off, this kit is simply amazing. It fell together basically. The only real problem was a step between the nose piece and the fuselage. That took a wee bit of sanding and filling. I was worried about the conformal fuel tanks; nope, they fell into place and fit like a glove.
As far as AM, if you don’t have the cockpit pieces you pretty much have to replace it. I built mine OOB, but I did some research and saw the Aires pit being used. It looks real good, but honestly the kit cockpit is pretty good. The instrument panels are superior to resin offerings. I saw a number of build logs where resin cockpits were used but the original plastic IPs were used. They are really crisp. The kit burner cans are spectacular. You’re wasting money if you go AM on those. The only thing I think that would add an extra touch would be some Eduard PE…placards etc. the biggest improvement would be weapons. Unless you have the Pro Modeler release all you got was Sidewinders. I grabbed some stuff from another kit that wasn’t getting used, but a Hasegawa weapons set would set your build above and beyond.
Get some AM decals for sure. The kit ones (on mine) were ok and didn’t tear or anything. But the bigger ones are kind of thick so it’s going to take a lot of future over them to level.
Finally, if you’re doing a more modern Eagle (OIF etc) some changes have been made to the airframe. I believe there is a conversion set to bring it to a modern configuration.
edit to add: the update is by Wolfpack it’s item WP48005