Tamiya F-15 1/32th Part II

5 the rear nozzle covers
The details for the rear nozzle covers are very good for, use 159# surface primer first, then use clear blue, clear red, clear yellow, smoke to create chromatic aberration. Simulate high temperature cauterization. For the golden parts I choose the gold color from HOBBY, spray on 184#, the outcomes are pretty good.

6 weaponry
because my kit are the early version of the 60302 F-15E, compare to the TAMIYA newly released 60312 upgrade version, the weaponry only have a few AIM9s,CBU-10s and CBU87s. So I borrowed some AIM120 missiles from REVELL’s 1/32 F-18, the plane barely made fully loaded. Paint is like before, the white color needed to mix with some gray, which makes the missile not too glare. There are some modification for the CBU-10, refer to the real thing, the warheads need to be point little downward. The white missiles made the polish work very difficult, I can’t see them clearly, have to face the sun to polish them.

7 Modification
Because the scale of this plane is huge, and the details are very good, the place for modification is limited. It is hard to find any modification parts in my city, and for finding any of the resin parts, the only way to say it is “mission impossible�.

8 Decals
TAMIYA’s decals are always thick, and of course this one is the same. Use the Mr. Color’s green cap mark softer and blue cap softer. Together with cotton sticks to roll till flat. Some place need to use some weapon decals from Hasegawa to enhance the details.

9 Painting
The standard color for F-15E is FS36118, and for Mr. Color is 305#. Some crafters like mix 305# with 301, but for myself I still like the 305# more. Because Mr. Color 305# is thin and comfortable to spray, also easy for an enamel wash later. The only bad thing about it is the smells are bad and toxicity, so I had to wear a M3 mask. The places which I already colored have to be taped and covered. First step is use surfacer on the whole plane, check small mistakes and flaws then use 1200# sand paper to polish, make sure the surface is shining and flat. I need to prepare 4 bottles of 305# which mixed with 30% white, and then use Cross Paint technique to spray. After it dried, spray on chromatic aberration. For CBU-10, use 30# as main color, and use copper to support, when painting the main color, need to go where I can have enough lights, because I don’t want lights to affect on the colors. After I done the whole body paint, it’s time to put on all the decals, combine with Mr. Color blue cap and green cap thinner, they made my job much easier. There are all kinds of decals, and it takes time and heart to paste every single one of them, one mistake can affect the whole plane. Then use TAMIYA’s XF1 mix with 1:10 thinner to brush the plane, wait till it dried, then use thinner to wash any extra XF1s. Now it’s the time to create some airstreams marks on the plane. After the wash use dust yellow, black, brown and white to enhance details and effects. For large scale plane like this, it is very hard to wash, so I suggest wash one part at a time.

Anaphase
After I done all the washes, it’s to deal with all those small accessories, like hydraulic pressure pipe, support arm, air speed pipe, many kinds of antennas, fold all the undercarriages, close the canopy, load missiles, paint small parts, put on those “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT� red stickers, and check for any small mistakes and colors