1/48 Academy F-15C Eagle

Gallery Article by Ken Middleton on Mar 10 2010

 

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.

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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

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Photos and text © by Ken Middleton