I am building this kit for the F-15 Eagle Group Build but thought that I’d share the pics with everyone here as well!
Here are some WIP pics, I have her almost ready to get gloss coated and thought I’d share what she is looking like right now.
I preshaded, painted the base color, and then post shaded the panels, and then sprayed a slightly lighter mix of the base gray to give the bird more depth and detail, I love the way it looks but I would like other opinions on the painting, did I over do it? And now looking at the pics I see that the vert stabs are a bit more “weathered” looking than the rest of the bird, I might have to fix that, maybe. [:D]
I will be adding the 2 external tanks, painted light grey, kinda like the war reserve tanks that you see in some pics, as well as 2 AIM-9’s and if I can find some 2 AAMRAM’s. (Think that I can steal them from my Eurofighter kit)
I am going to put the intake covers that were provided in the kit on after I paint them Red so dont panic about the overspray on the intake trunks.
I have a question for you F-15 experts out there - if the bird is ready to fly a mission but waiting on the pilots to show, how many Remove Before Flight flags would there be and where are they located? Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks for looking,
Matt
Edit - the build is a bit further along now, with my decals arriving in the mail yesterday, I’ll be putting them on this afternoon/ evening with any luck!!
Most here know a lot more about these modern birds than I do, but from what I see, it looks like a real nice build so far, Matt. I especially like the exhaust nozzle detail. Keep us posted. [tup]
What reference are you using as a guide to your finish? If the model were enlarged to lifesize, and parked next to a real F-15E, how would the two compare? That would be my guide.
It’s going to be a beauty Matt. the shading looks great. I’ve seen some cleaner…and I’ve seen some dirtier. If you like it…that’s all that matters. Mountain Home?
I am really liking the paintjob you have done with the shading and weathering. I have this kit in my stash, and to be honest, I am afraid to do it because I know that I will just end up getting a big, monotone hulk of gray. I’d like to be able to do the shading that you have here. What kind of airbrush setup do you have, and can you explain any of the pressures or thinning ratios you spray at?
if you feel its overdone, thin down your basecolor to about 90% thinner and 10% color and give the model a few coats. it will tend to blend things in a bit
looking forward to seeing the finished product! [:D]
Here is my setup, I have the Testors oil-less compressor( the black one that you could find at squadron), I am spraying through a Badger 150 with the fine needle/ tip. For the most part I use acrylic paints, easier to clean up and not as offensive smelling in the house. I always thin my acrylic paints, unless the directions call for water, with rubbing alcohol. First I pre-shaded the panel lines with tamiya gloss black, followed by the main color - in this case tamiya dark grey, thinned to apporx 60% paint - 40% alcohol, for the insides of the panels. I try to get as close to the lines as possible but the first passes are always very overstated looking. Wish that I had taken some pics of the model at this point. [:I]
After this drys, and it does so pretty quickly, I thin the base color to about 70% alcohol and lightly mist the color over the entire model. The idea is to gradually blend in the paint colors without totally overpainting the pre-shading. Once that was done I added some Tamiya Med Grey to the mix, (sorry cant give you specifics on the ratios, I just added a bit until I liked what I saw in the jar) and with as fine a line as I could muster, began to highlight the panels. What you want in the lighter shade is something just a hair lighter than the base color, enough so that it stands out but doesnt look too much lighter. This color should be thin enough so that with a very fine line and as little pressure as possible it is a very light mist that can be gone over again to achieve the look that you want.
My final step is to put a 70 - 80% thinned mix of the base color back into the cup and lightly spray it over the surface to blend everything back together just a bit. I missed this step on the vert. stabs and that is why they look the way that they do.
Hope that helps,
Matt[;)]
BTW- after a coat of future and an oil wash it looks great and the decals are going on slowly.
Everyone, thanks for the kind words. I will be using the new TwoBobs decals “Da Heath”
Point taken, Pat, and I do tend to agree. I am definitely NOT a fan of over-weathering, or of extreme pre-shading of panel lines.
However, I was just trying to learn how I can make those subtle weathering effects that all vehicles and aircraft experience, carrier-based or not. There will be a paint splotch here or there, and maybe some wear around panels that get removed for maintenance a lot. I think Matt has a fine representation.
In terms of painting in ‘scale’, due to lighting and its reduced size, painting a whole aircraft with a rattle-can of gunship gray may be what’s called for technically, but it doesn’t necessarilly look realistic. Even with a ‘clean’ bird like the Strike Eagle, I feel in my own opinion like I at least need to add some shading and subtle wear to make it less toy-like.
I found a couple pictures to try and show how even a mono-color aircraft has paint and wear variations:
Copyrights to airliners.net and the appropriate photographer
If you want to show it as it’s waiting for the flight crew, it should have a pin (with streamer) in each of the gear struts. The streamer on the nose gear is usually also tied to the forward strut link to prevent it from possibly ripping loose and getting injested. The gear pins are removed after engine start. There should also be a pin for each piece of ordnance on the pylons. These pins are inserted through the pylon just above the ordnance attachment point. They’re removed at the end of runway check. One possible problem may be that if the jet is ready for the flight crew, the intake covers would already be removed. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the info on the RBF flags. I think that I have it sorted out now.
Pat, I agree with you about the over weathering of some builds, and as I am further along in the build now, with decals and a few coats of future added, the differences in shades and panels is a bit more sublte now. Thanks for the input everyone, it is appreciated, usually I start out a build with a ton of photos for reference and then attempt to make my model look the same as how I see the subject in the photos. (to be honest, I’ll try to match the photo much more closely for WWII aircraft and the UH-60 that I am building, than for a build like this one[:I]!)
In the end all that really matters is that I can look at it and like what I see, since none of my builds will ever be entered into a contest. I have seen some pictures on the net of mud hens with a used and a small bit abused looking paint job, but most of them are a grey monotone thanks to outstanding Air Force maint!
I appreciate all the comments and pointers that I always get from all of you here, thanks for the input.
