F-15C
Eagle 104th
Fighter Wing Massachusetts
Air National Guard
This is my 1/48th
Academy F-15C built in the markings of the 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air
National Guard at Barnes Airport, MA, to commemorate their activation of the Air
Sovereignty Alert (ASA) mission on 15 February 2010. Serial 78-0545 is the
current commander's aircraft.
Due to the 2005 Base
Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC), the 104th FW would give up its A-10A
Warthogs, and acquire F-15C/D Eagles and the 24/7 ASA mission held by the 102nd
FW at Otis ANGB.
The kit is the
standard Academy F-15C Eagle with a few small changes - the swept blade antennae
under the forward fuselage, 2 bullet fairings on the tail booms (78-0545 has
them on both fairings) made from 72nd scale Maverick missiles, and small bump
antennae just aft of the radome on the top and bottom.
External stores
include 4 AIM-120s and 2 AIM-9Xs from my spares box, and 2 external fuel tanks
from Hasegawa. The pilot is from a Hasegawa F-16 kit.
Click on
images below to see larger images
For the unit
markings, I used Superscale's A-10 sheet for the 104th FW, and used the
red/black tail stripes and arrow-shaped pilot/crew name plates. I made the unit
badges, tail code and serial, "104th Fighter Wing" text, small ANG
minuteman and crew names on the computer, and printed on a laser printer. I used
a Two Bobs F-15 sheet for the stencil data.
The display base is my standard
2-foot blurred runway, made from a 4-foot stair step from Home Depot, cut in
half. I made the commemorative label on the computer, and printed on photo
paper, and used an acrylic frame for the final display.
The model display now resides in
the 104th FW headquarters building.
Thanks for looking,
Ken Middleton
Click on
images below to see larger images
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