1/48 Academy F-15A

Gallery Article by K Diamond on July 24 2012

 

 

This is the Academy F-15E kit built as a What If USAF F-15A during the Vietnam era.  It's designated as an F-15A as opposed to a F-15B to depict the F-15 as a dual seat fighter only, like the F-4.

 

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The kit was built OOB with a few details made to fit the era.  The first Eagles came with Escapac seats, so I replaced the kit ACES II seats with True Detail Escapacs.  The kit AIM-7s had blunt nose cones, so I replaced them with ones from Hasegawa.  Instead of using the kit AIM-9s, I used some AIM-9Js from the Hasegawa weapons set.  The ECM pod was also from the Hasegawa weapons set.  The MER and Mk-82s were all from the Academy Strike Eagle kit.

The decals were from an Aeromaster F-105 sheet, with a few custom decals thrown in.  The custom decals included the name plate, the kill markings and the intake artwork.  Like my other What If F-15s, I had to have fun with the names, and had to include air to air kills.  At this moment of his career, Dexter Morgan only had 3 kills to his name.

K Diamond

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Photos and text © by K Diamond