1/32 Tamiya F-15I Ra’am

Gallery Article by David Porter on Jan 23 2015

 

      

Chuck Yeager's favourite aircraft is the F-15. Mine too and I built this Tamiya kit many times now. This time I wanted a strike variant with some exotic ordnance, not just a standard 'Light Grey'. The downside is that the USAF Strike Eagle is a monotone gunship grey. What to do? 

In the end I chose to go with the Ra'am version with the giant bird head on the tail as it looked the most interesting. What took me quite some time was to choose the weapons. The AGM-130 looked really beasty but I soon discovered that the IAF doesn't use it, but they do use the GBU-15 so I went with that. During construction though I determined that if I wanted to carry Pythons and AIM-120s then the fins on those missiles get in the way of the GBUs. So then I went to GBU-24s and had the same issue, fins interfere, which is why you ultimately only seem them carrying AIM-9s with these weapons or have the should stations free. One thing I did notice though was that the JDAMs and GBU-10s are commonly seen on Ra'ams with AMRAAMS and Pythons - not quite what I was after but I had to compromise somewhere.

 

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Having built the F-15E kit a number of times now I have become familiar with its quirks so the build went reasonably well. Still these big jets can be exhausting and it takes a lot of effort before you start to see whether you can achieve the results that you are looking for. Part of the big challenge is precisely that you don't get a lot of feedback as to whether it is going well until the decals go on. Only then does it roughly start to resemble what you hoped it looked like in your mind.

Colours where my favoured Mr Color range for the most part, however the green was Tamiya Sky, and the brown was Xtracrylix Vietnam Tan. The Israeli F-15I’s have all black cockpits but I used a combination of German Grey and NATO black for this to give it some subtle shading rather than pure black that would have drowned everything out. Decals are the Sky’s Decals ones and are excellent. They went down very thin and without silvering. They received a little bit of Mr Mark Softer.

Most of the weapons came from the Academy Sufa kit as these are well detailed and the Tamiya kit only provides the training round versions of the AIM-120s. In the end I am happy with the result and I can scratch the F-15I off the bucket list. On to the next one - a 1/32 F-15DJ. 

If you want more pictures then you can find them at
www.porterblemodels.com

Parts Used:

  • Aerobonus QAB320012 Remove Before Flight Tags – IDF – White Lettering

  • Aires 2101 1/32 F-15K Slam Eagle Exhaust Nozzles for Tamiya Kit

  • Avionix BLC32020 1/32 F-15E Strike Eagle Cockpit Set

  • Eduard ED32596 1:32 McDonnell F-15E Strike Eagle interior

  • Quickboost QB32031 McDonnell F-15E Eagle ejection seats with safety belts Seats 1:32 Scale

  • Rhinomodels RM32007 1/32 F-15C/D/E/J Seamless Intakes

  • Sky’s Decals 32025 Israeli Air Force F-15I “Raam”

  • Tamiya 60312 Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle w/Bunker Buster 1:32 Scale 

  • Tamiya 60307 McDonnell Douglas F-15J Eagle Japan Self Defence Force 1:32 Scale

  • Wolfpack WP32022 F-15I IDF “Ra’am” Conversion Set for Tamiya 1/32

Bibliography 

  • Weiss, R. (2006). F-15I Ra'am in IAF Service. Bat-Hefer: IsraDecal Publications.

  • Weiss, R., & Koren, A. (2006). McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 Baz. Bat-Hefer: IsraDecal Publications.

David Porter

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Photos and text © by David Porter