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Hasegawa 1/48 F-15C Aggressor

By Gary Meinert

Introduction

The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15C Eagle (and F-15D two-seater) entered service in 1979. Although overshadowed in the media by newer fifth generation fighters, the F-15C is still highly capable in the air-to-air mission. This aircraft has been frequently upgraded over the years with improved avionics, weaponry, and engines. Despite airframe aging issues, the USAF plans to keep some F-15Cs operational until 2030.

The newest role for the F-15C is in the aggressor community at Nellis AFB. To meet the continuing need to train fighter pilots in adversary tactics, a second aggressor squadron, the 65th AGRS, was reactivated in 2005 with F-15C and D aircraft. The F-15s at Nellis wear either a Flanker Blue or a Desert Brown paint scheme. (A new splinter pattern scheme is also beginning to show up on the flight line).

Kit Overview

Hasegawa's 1/48 F-15 kits were launched in the 1980s and have been reissued many times with different box art and decals. Some kits contain minor variations in parts. My kit (No. 09449) was actually an F-15J with decals and parts for a Japanese Aggressor Eagle, but contained all necessary parts for the USAF F-15C.

I had to chuckle a few weeks ago when I saw on another web site an in-the-box review of Hasegawa's latest F-15 release. The author gave the kit a 5-star rating in every category, including engineering and ease of assembly. The fact is that the kit, while accurate and well detailed, is difficult to build.

Construction Issues

From one end to the other, there are numerous fit problems. Among the worst:

--air intake halves (parts B5&6, B11&12) and how they join to the fuselage

--forward fuselage section to main fuselage

--speed brake (D3) in the down position

--both sides of the rear fuselage

--wing to fuselage joints

--sway brace parts (C4) to pylons

It was not necessary to assemble and install the air intake tunnels, because they would not be visible when I attached my exterior intake covers. The headache of filling those seams was therefore avoided.

Construction Sequence

I deviated from the instructions by not attaching the air intake assemblies until after I had joined the forward fuselage section to the main fuselage section and completed all the filling, sanding, and priming work there. This gave me unimpeded working space on the fuselage.

Another deviation was not to mate the vertical tails to the fuselage until after I had completed all work on them.  It was much easier to handle the tails, mask them, paint them, and apply the decals first. After attaching the vertical tails, I had to do some minor filling and careful touch-up painting.

These are good examples of how a modeler must sometimes use his own judgment and not always follow the sequence in the kit instructions.

Aftermarket Parts

I employed the following resin aftermarket parts:

--Quickboost ejection seat. Much better than the kit seat.

--Aires exhaust nozzles. Again, much better than the kit parts, although I felt it necessary to scratch build the control rods from styrene strips.

--LAU-128 missile rails & adapters by Shull 24. These parts are essential for a modern F-15C, as the kit provides only the old rails.

I was very pleased with the above aftermarket parts. They were easy to use and greatly enhance the model.

There were also two non-kit plastic parts that I sourced for this project: the AIM-9 Sidewinder from Hasegawa's Weapons Set C, and the ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation) pod from a Tamiya F-16 kit.

Other Improvements

I made several other simple improvements:

--scratch-built blade antennae

--modified the instrument panel by making a new multi-purpose display for the left side (the kit panel still has the original dials in this area)

--scrounged temperature probes from my spares box and added them to lower front fuselage (these items omitted from kit)

--made and attached the tiny round satellite antenna to the fuselage top

--added electrical wires (made from lead wool) to the nose gear for the taxi lights

I also used the canopy hooks and mirrors from the kit's PE set.

One additional improvement I considered was to cut away the tail hook fairing because modern F-15Cs do not have this feature. The surgery would have also required a new tail hook. I couldn't figure out a way to make this area look right, so I discarded the whole idea.

Intake Covers

The intake covers were made from drafting tape. Each cover consists of a main piece and a small top piece, which were pre-painted light gray. After attaching the covers with white glue, I had to fill and sand some areas with Mr. Surfacer and do some touch-up painting.

I used Aeroclub clear rigging line for the retaining cords. This is a stretchable product similar to E-Z Line.  The lines were colored with a white Sharpie marker.

Painting

The model was airbrushed mostly with Testors Model Master enamels. I used Humbrol enamel for a few parts. After the painting stage, the recessed surface detail was accented by my usual colored pencil technique. Polly Scale clear gloss and clear flat was used before and after the decal application, respectively.

My magazine reference photos fortunately showed the exact camouflage pattern for my aircraft, Blue 18. There are small variations in the pattern from one aircraft to another.

The bare metal rear fuselage region was sprayed with Testors Metalizer. I mixed a color consisting of half Buffing Steel and half Buffing Aluminum Plate. The recessed line detail was accented with tempera paint. For the jet exhaust nozzles, I chose Buffing Titanium. None of the metal parts were actually buffed--I simply coated them with Metalizer Sealer.

Since I wanted a clean jet recently out of the paint barn, I did no weathering on the airframe. I did, however, apply weathering powder to make appropriate stains at two locations on the bottom rear fuselage: the jet fuel starter vent and the heat exchanger exhaust ducts. I also used powder inside the exhaust nozzles.

Decals

Afterburner Decals Sheet 48-007 was essential for this project. Afterburner's decals are comprehensive, accurate, and are designed specifically for the Hasegawa kit. They responded well to my Solvaset decal setting solution.

I do have three small criticisms, however.  The squadron, wing, and ACC badges are two-part decals and they contain red areas that are too dark. Also, there are not nearly enough of the large "No Step" with hexagons stencils. I had to search through my decal dungeon to find others.

Conclusion

Although long in the tooth, Hasegawa's F-15 kit is still the basis for an excellent model. The downside, of course, is the incredible amount of basic construction work the modeler must slog through to get to the finished product. Because of the kit's numerous fit difficulties and challenging construction sequence, I would not recommend it to beginners.

References

--Air Force Magazine Jan. 2007
--Air Combat Magazine Oct. 2008 and Dec. 2009
--Superbase 10, Bitburg by Chris Bennett
--Walkaround F-15 Eagle by Lou Drendel
--F-15 In Detail and Scale by Bert Kinzey