1/48 GWH F-15C Eagle MSIP II

[doogsatx]

Took advantage of a short bench session last night to get the next build off the ground - Great Wall's fancy new 1/48 F-15C MSIP II



The kit contains some truly impressive elements, including single-piece AIM-9X and AIM-120 missiles that pack enough detail to embarrass other injection-molded missiles and rival the best resin options around:



But I'm a ways from touching the armaments yet. Last night was mostly about getting the cockpit spun up. Detail in the front office is exquisite - on part with Hobby Boss' A-6 kits. The seat would be better as a resin replacement, but the way the ejection rails work, I'm more comfortable using the kit plastic. I will, however, be snagging an Eduard PE set to replace the chintzy molded-on buckles (which, for some reason, the kit only includes the shoulder portions of) and snazz up the rest of the seat a bit.



Fit so far is decent, but not as amazing as I'd hoped. Hopefully this is not indicative of the rest of the kit. It's not a BAD fit, it's more that there's a lot of very minor flash that has to be cleaned off just so.

More to come, probably slowly as my focus remains on the Corsair.

[thug626]

Count me in on this!
Dave

[JimD]

I'll be following closely as well. Hopefully it goes together well. It's certainly a nice looking kit in the box.

[wetsellery]

Nice to see a fellow modeller building an Eagle.

Could you be so kind and post a picture of the rails that are on the backside of the seat ? I've bought some Quickboost seats for my projects, but these don't have those rails.

[doogsatx]

Last night was all about clear coats on the Corsair, but that wrapped early so I managed to get a bit of work in on the Eagle.

First up - testing the fit of the forward access panels. I'm generally not a huge fan of cracking open all the panels on an aircraft, especially one with lines as good as an F-15, so I want to do these closed. Fortunately, Great Wall makes this easy with panels that actually fit extremely well. Trumpeter, Eduard, Kitty Hawk and others would do well to follow this example!



Also, more work on the cockpit. Got the seat rails glued in (I'll post a separate pic when I yank the seat for painting) and started adding detail to the aft bay. The kit plastic is really rather impressive, but this sprue for some reason has some minor flash around the parts and really takes some careful cleanup given the extremely tight fight tolerances.

[JimD]

Yes...please...other guys need to take note of that panel fit. Superb.

That cockpit looks great out of the box too.

[John Everett]

It's a great looking cockpit right from the sprue. It will be too bad to hide most of it once you get the halves glued together.

[doogsatx]

Oct 27, 2014 10:13:25 GMT -5 John Everett said:

It's a great looking cockpit right from the sprue. It will be too bad to hide most of it once you get the halves glued together.

Not only the halves, but the canopy decking as well!

[venom1]

Huzzah, he's started!

This looks like a beautiful kit, and the office detail looks superb. Have you decided on markings yet Doogs?

Cheers,

Sam

[doogsatx]

I'm leaning toward the Massachusetts ANG markings in the box, but I may yet go aftermarket.

[wetsellery]

WOW, that's a beautiful cockpit.

Thanks for the pics