Tamiya F-15A

[Stuart]

It'll be interesting to see the kit when you get it. I have their A-10 in the stash.

Will do medic!

[Stuart]

The F-15A kit is kit # 61024. Kit # 61023 is their A-10 and was released in 1977. Kit # 61025 is their A6M3 and was released in 1982. I suspect that whoever gave Scalemates the 1988 release data had a later reissue. I distinctly recall a friend of mine building the 1/48 Tamiya F-15A before I left for the army in late 1983. Why do I remember that? Because I was impressed that he could afford that kit at that time. And we drifted our separate ways after I was on active duty.

For a number of years ago I got this huge "need" to actively update and add data into Scalemates. Some because of errors I found, wrong information even box-pictures were wrong. So I sat an updated and noticed that I could write anything, add almost any picture without "anyone" double-checking. I don't know how it is today, but I found it odd.
Not that I believe people in common would enter wrong data on purpose, typos are always a risk, so might very well be that the one who wrote 1988 perhaps meant 1977 ? Easy error, 7 and 8 are pretty close to eachoter on the keyboard...

@Stuart, just for the curiosity, do you find any year numbers in the instructions, sprues etc that could give us a clue ?

- Kari

Hi Kari,

Just got the box this lunch time - the only date I've found so far is on the decal sheet which state 1991. I'll let you know if I find anything earlier.

That's pretty cool that you used to enter into scalemates - although I agree that it does seem a bit weird that you can just enter anything with no checks in place.

[Stuart]

It'll be interesting to see the kit when you get it. I have their A-10 in the stash.

Ask and though shall receive. This is just the initial look see as I've only just got the kit and I'm at work. If you want some shots of the sprues let me know.

So this is the box - pretty beaten up but solid.



Here's whats under the lid - pretty damn nice from what I can see. I wonder if the tool for this kit has been reworked at some point as a lot of the detail parts have raised detail, but the fuselage, wings and tail are all nicely recessed.
From what I've seen the cockpit and wheel bays are not too bad - lacking in detail maybe.

The fuselage is blooming massive!



The Sidewinders don't look too bad Carlos. They should be OK under some paint.



The decals are knackard though, which is a bit annoying as they have the IP and side panels on them (and the weapons). There are/where two decals schemes - one for a service aircraft and one for the 'Streak Eagle' which I assume is an aircraft that broke some time to climb records.



So over all first impressions aren't bad - I'll take some more detailed shots of the sprues I think, I might as well give you guys as much info as I can.

So I'm going to need... New decals and maybe a PE set for the cockpit. I think I'll keep the rest OOB
I think this might end on the build pile soon.

Cheers!

[Medicman71]

Interesting. Those Sidewinders need more detail though.

[Stuart]

Possibly - I might paint one up to see how it looks. If it looks crap I'll try and get some AM ones.

[Medicman71]

Either that or get some PE for them.

[Stuart]

Can you do that?

Thanks Medic I'll take a look at what I can find.

[Medicman71]

Yep! Here's one from the A-10 with PE on the back fins and around the missile behind the front fins.

[Stikpusher]

Either that or get some PE for them.

Can you do that?

Thanks Medic I'll take a look at what I can find.

There is PE out there for Sidewinders. But the cost is about the same as replacements. Meng and Hasegawa both make good US Air to Air Missile Sets in 1/48.

Yes that overall does look pretty good.

When you do get some detail photos of the sprues, I do hope that you can find a year stamp on there for the original molds. Or perhaps inside the fuselage The F-15 is indeed a large aircraft.

[Stuart]

That looks great Medic!

I will indeed look for that date Stik. Sorry I didn't get a chance yesterday but my son's having issues and took up most of my evening. I'll get to it over the weekend.

I'll see what I can find in regards to PE or replacements. I'd live with that in 1/72 but perhaps in this scale it'd be good to replace. The Sparrows look pretty good actually, as do the ECM pods.