Mountain Home F-15E Commission build

Hollow LH CFT from the kit vs. the RH CFT with the scratch built back side details. I will eventually get the CFT and CFT Dolly scanned for 3D printing, as well as the CFT sitting on the dolly. 

Back side of the RH Conformal Fuel Tank (CFT). Still a few pinholes and scratches to fill and some fine-tuning to do, but I think it looks the part. 

Initial mock-up of the CFT maintenance dolly. still a lot of details to add but it's coming along nicely. 

 

PW-220 engine trailer. The wheels are from an AeroBonus flightline trailer, but everything else was scratch built. Still a little finishing to do, but I'm very happy with how it turned out! It will look awesome sitting behind the Strike Eagle in the commissioned maintenance diorama. 

The wheels are from an Aero Bonus flight line trailer. Everything else is scratch built.  

Steering linkages and tow bar 

$28 Chinese knock off of the $120 Black Dog “Big Set” for the GWH F-15. #1 engine bay, all forward avionics bays and the gun bay will all be exposed. I found it on Aliexpress.com listed under "1:48 resin cockpit" - A couple of the parts came warped, but a few seconds under the heat gun straightened them right out. 

Initial fitting of the fwd engine bay bulkhead. 

GWH kit engine vs. resin engine, which has a LOT more detail!!! I'll have to scratch build all the detail for the kit engine that will be sitting on the engine trailer.  

Still have a few more rings, formers and other structural pieces to make, but it’s turning out great so far. 

#2 engine bay scratch built. The panels are scratch built copies of the resin kit for the #1 engine bay (mirror images, of course). I will glue in the resin walls and details in the #1 bay, but I won't have to add nearly as much detail because the resin engine will be filling the bay. 

I'm nearly halfway to my goal of cutting open the engine bay(s) for display. 

Now to install the resin walls and resin engine in the other bay 

More details of the resin detail kit. 

Avionics bays. SO much surgery up ahead! 

Kit engine vs. resin engine (top). 

The forward half of the resin engine SOLID RESIN! It's really heavy so I’ll have to drill / dremel out the center to remove most of the weight, and add nose weight to compensate for the rest. 

Open (scratch built) bay vs. the Black Dog Resin (BDR) side. The engine bay panels for the open bay will have to be scratch built mirror images of the right engine bay panels. The surgery begins… 

I found that the BDR resin walls were too short in height and width, so I added onto them. Somehow, the Evergreen styrene actually fuses to the "resin" parts with Tamiya cement! I was glad to discover this, as it makes a much stronger bond than just using super glue. 

 

One down, five more to go! 

 

Resin replacement panels for the #1 engine bay. I will have to scratch build mirror imaged duplicates for the other side. 

Close enough match to the resin wall detail, I'd say. 

The engine bay wall "blanks" I traced and cut from .020" Evergreen sheet styrene. 

 

I’ve got the walls, wiring and plumbing installed, now I’m using.005” styrene to make the panel attachment flanges. 

The upper ring segments glued in, waiting to be trimmed.  

A heat gun helped me form structural ring segments around Dad’s old aluminum cane.  

The resin kit walls were too small to display the engine bays completely open, so I scratch built extensions for them.  

 

 

Center walls installed  

Test fitting the resin engine  

Structure and details are nearly complete and now it’s in primer. Time to move on to opening up the gun bay for display.  

 

Cutting the massive pour stubs off of the resin parts with my trusty Trumpeter saw. 

Rotary filing close to the panel lines. Jeweler's files and a really sharp OLFA X-acto knife were used afterwards, to get everything crisp and precise. 

Resin Avionics bays glued-in with homemade "Sprue Goo". Once it was half-cured, I pushed the bays inward by 1/64" for that proper recessed look. 

FWD Avionics bay rough cut 

FWD Avionics bay cut / filed / sanded and ready for the resin insert installation 

Initial cuts for the exposed gun bay 

All three resin replacement Avionics bays are now installed (glued-in from the back with Sprue Goo). Thin .005" and .010" styrene shims were required to get the proper look and fit. 

Cutting the pour stub from the long, right side Avionics bay insert. The saw blade that came with this new Japanese "OLFA" brand knife is unbelievably sharp and cuts much better and faster than my old Trumpeter saw. The OLFA knife blades are very, very sharp as well. 

RT Avionics bays being rough cut 

Time to start opening-up the gun bay! 

Glued-in; waiting to be shimmed and finished-up. 

Kit + resin gun bay parts ready for fitment 

Gun bay walls and ribs installed with styrene reinforcements, super glue and Sprue goo. 

Engine trailer and CFT dolly scratch-built from sheet, rod, I=beam and L-angle styrene plastic. The wheels are from an AiRes AeroBonus flightline repair trailer. I'll be using the same set of wheels on the CFT dolly. 

I will be finishing the scratch-built CFT dolly very soon. I plan on scanning both the CFT dolly and engine trailer to start 3D printing them. 

Awaiting more resin wheels for the scratch-built CFT dolly--the wheels are the only parts of these two trailers that I didn't hand-make. 

This is the way the swing away aft engine crossmember will be displayed hanging from the model during maintenance. I'm also adding the short engine removal / replacement rails that are attached to the structure during engine changes. 

The piece on the bottom is the wimpy swing-away structural cross-member that was supplied in the resin kit. The one above it is the one I scratch-built. 

#1 engine will be exposed and #2 will be behind the aircraft on its trailer. 

Finally attaching the forward fuselage section! 

Good old Riffler files! I rarely use them, but sometimes they really come in handy! 

 

The sheet of styrene plastic was heated with a heat gun and quickly clamped to the original panels that were cut from the belly of the model to give them the proper shape, for starters 

 

 

 

I now have two complete sets of engine bay panels 

I had to make a mirror imaged set of engine bay panels to match the ones that came with the resin 

Since it’s a maintenance hanger, diorama, I decided to make a large parts table that will go well with the toolboxes, bucket and other accessories. It will hold the left aileron, gun bay fairings, etc. 

The left aileron will be removed for maintenance, so I added a few trailing edge spa details 

The completed cockpit is ready for installation 

The female avionics technician will be seated in the pilot seat with her laptop. The maintainer figures, toolboxes, fire bottle, etc. came from www.videoaviation.com (an Italian company) 

Using open cell foam, kabuki tape, and white glue to completely seal the cockpit shut for painting the outside of the model 

 

Nose section glued-up and curing 

A piece of flattened brass tubing with a 90° bend makes for a great mounting point that allows Raydome removal for transport 

I notched-out the molded-in wingtip light, and also surgically removed the RWR antenna to avoid damaging it when sanding the blue / red acrylic lights. 

Glued-in and waiting to be shaped... 

Test-fitting the odd-shaped red anti-collision lights 

Hole drilled in the back of each acrylic chunk to simulate the "bulb" inside. The hole was filled with chrome paint. 

Acrylic chunks glued-in with 10-minute Epoxy. 

Acrylic chunks glued-in with 10-minute Epoxy. 

Masked-off to avoid damaging the wing tip during sanding, shaping and polishing. 

Completed right wingtip light after wet-sanding with 3600 grit and soapy water. I think it turned out fairly well for my first attempt, but I'm definitely going to start using this process when possible. 

I added a few extra details to the PW-229 engine that came with the GWH kit (two engines included) 

Test-fitting the resin 20MM rotary cannon 

I added some detail to the bottom of the speed brake, to mimic the newer "Grid Lock" style, instead of the older original design (carbon fiber and honeycomb core). 

Speed brake will be displayed up, with a red actuator lock installed. 

She's finally got her Verts! 

She’s sitting on her SAC cast metal landing gear for the first time to test the fitment along with the Eduard resin wheels. 

I’m loving the stance of this thing so far, but it will look 100% legit once it’s painted and weathered 

Still adding details to the backside of the CFT and the scratch-built CFT dolly, and the tow bar is taking shape!