Tamiya F-15E Strike Eagle Bunker Buster 1/32 resurrection

[Colin]

I have an embarrassing 6 or 7 1/32 Aircraft kits on my shelf of doom in various stages of build now and recently vowed to finish them before starting anything more.

Won this kit second hand on Ebay about 2 years back, kit was unstarted though and I was really taken with it at once and made a start within days, built the intakes and exhausts (that could really do with seamless ones) and after that it was straightforward to assemble the main fuselage body that is part cemented and bolted and self tapping screwed together, wing fit is not quite up to modern Tamiya standards on the visible upper surface area ... I understand this is one of Tamiya's older 1/32 jet kits with their F-16 being the latest, have that one too but wanted the F15 finished first before starting it.

Since I put the wings on back then I've discovered at least one other way to improve the fit in that area, its not bad though and obviously I'll finer sand what I've done so far and re-scribe the little detail I've lost before overall priming ... I'm very confident that will all gel well though.

Anyway, here was where I left off getting on for a couple of years ago, its a big lump of kit just now and looks ungainly here ... but as an F-15 fan I really want to build this up into the sleek magnificent Jet it is in real life.



I pulled the kit from my shelf of doom a couple of weeks back and hopefully this time will finish it, my eyesight is not as good as it used to be and I'm sure I used to do better close up work on 1/48 cockpits when that was my thing when younger, but I'm happy enough, we have what we have health wise and I'm not getting any younger





From what I've read cementing and bolting the cockpit tub to the fuselage is the last possible problematic fit area on this kit? but I've tried the dry fit several times and it looks OK to me so far, there is one other top fuselage part to go on though and that might change things? but from what I've read its not insurmountable ... we'll see. My research says no nose weight needed for this kit so I'll heed that advice and move on with intention to display avionics bay and nose radar.

Seats finished, no belts as I'm going to use the kit crew this time for once in my builds. It looks like the nose cone and avionics panel can be opened and closed with decent enough fit if you want although I've opted for canopy permanently down here as that is either or it seems.



And on to the crew, actually really enjoyed this part to my surprise, this is the first figure painting I've done since I was about 12 years old (I'll be 55 this year), obviously the arms will go on last so I can get them as close as possible to the controls once the seats with figures are slotted in ... I'd love to do some larger scale more "eye sight friendly" figures in the future after that fun though.

The figures were not bad BTW, separate heads and oxygen hoses and arms to be added later, just gave them a rub over obvious mould seam lines with grades of skinny sanders were it was noticeable and without removing too much detail, I've also made the pilots head look a bit to the left to keep it more dynamic.





It does not look like it from my figures but the Tamiya instructions call for an amazing amount of different paints of theirs in instructions, so I duly bought them all, you are hard pushed to see the difference in shades to be honest and its certainly the first time I've bought flesh paint in decades! fun though.



And that's where I am so far, hopefully want to get this kit completed as and when I can in the near future without returning it to the shelf of Doom for so long.

[Paul]

Excellent Colin, look forward to seeing this come together and is a kit i would like to get at some point. Your gonna love the F16 when you come to build it

[gaz45]

Very nice work that cockpit looks awesome

[Gav0909]

Sweet build dude. Looking forward to seeing this monster come together. I have some 1/48 jets that I really want to get on with. Think I am done with 1/72 now after losing interest part way through several 1/72 plane builds.

What kind of scheme you going for on this?

[Colin]

Thanks all

Gav, this is going to be totally out of the box and using the Bunker Buster scheme that is one three choices in this kit, its overall Gunship Grey 2 I think with the nosecone a slightly different shade of that, the Tamiya instructions suggest polishing that part to contrast against the body, but I have some original Gunship Grey paint I'll try first, hopefully that will provide the correct subtle difference that is needed.

About the only opportunity for fancy paintwork would be around the tail exhaust area, undecided yet as to try some pre-shading or weathering as I really need to get some builds done to fill storage shelfs ETC I've put up recently that are embarrassingly empty.

I dont have my own pic of my boxart to hand, but this picture of one on Ebay is what it looks like and is the example with loadout I'm doing too.

[Paul]

Yeah colin it'll need some pre shading and paint weathering or it'll look like a solid block of grey, it doesn't take that much longer really to add some paintwork weathering and the results are well worth it

[Colin]

Yeah colin it'll need some pre shading and paint weathering or it'll look like a solid block of grey, it doesn't take that much longer really to add some paintwork weathering and the results are well worth it

You're right Paul, although I want to press on and get this and my half dozen or so other shelf of doom kits completed I'm sure I'd regret it later not doing the best possible job I could do on such an expensive kit, thanks for the advice, will try some pre shading ... Gunship Grey is a dark shade of grey so I guess black pre-shading on a grey primer cote? also the tail area just begs me to start using alclad paint there.

That was my hidden concern actually, being such a big model and mostly all one shade of grey might leave it ending up looking like a Toy!

Having said that I think most land based jets are kept pretty clean unless they are in a warzone, carrier borne Aircraft in times of conflict get most weathered I think ... I still concede your point though mate, I dont want a big lump of Grey.

Cheers.

[Paul]

Yeah colin it'll need some pre shading and paint weathering or it'll look like a solid block of grey, it doesn't take that much longer really to add some paintwork weathering and the results are well worth it

You're right Paul, although I want to press on and get this and my half dozen or so other shelf of doom kits completed I'm sure I'd regret it later not doing the best possible job I could do on such an expensive kit, thanks for the advice, will try some pre shading ... Gunship Grey is a dark shade of grey so I guess black pre-shading on a grey primer cote? also the tail area just begs me to start using alclad paint there.

That was my hidden concern actually, being such a big model and mostly all one shade of grey might leave it ending up looking like a Toy!

Having said that I think most land based jets are kept pretty clean unless they are in a warzone, carrier borne Aircraft in times of conflict get most weathered I think ... I still concede your point though mate, I dont want a big lump of Grey.

Cheers.

Yeah black preshading on the grey primer, the you can use lighter and darker tones of the base colour to add fading in random places and post shade with tamiya smoke too, it all adds to make the paintwork as you say less toy like.

Alclads look great on the exhausts too

[MerseyTrainz]

WOoooooW Maybe one day I too will learn how to produce models to such a high standard as these examples and other modellers work on this forum!!! That's why novice and other modellers are so greatful for the tutorials we find on here, thanks. I hope other modellers will agree with me.

[DC87]

Used to do better close up detail when you were younger - YIKES what you've done now looks as good as it gets, great work Colin.