Short History

The History of the Eagle is as described by Great Wall Hobby: The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 aerial combat victories. Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design in 1967 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. The Multi-Stage Improvement Program (MSIP) is a joint program carried out by Boeing and the USAF's Warner Robins Logistics Center in Georgia. Under MSIP, upgrades were progressively incorporated onto the production line and then retrofitted to earlier production aircraft.

MSIP II is that portion of the program which handles the F-15C/D. The major part of MSIP II is to fit the APG-70 radar and the AIM-120 AMRAAM. The first aircraft to incorporate the MSIP II update was an F-15C tail number 84-001

What’s in the Box?

The kit has 29 sprues molded in light grey plastic with light but crisp engraved panel lines and excellent rivet detail, 2 clear sprues with 4 parts to bring the total count to 192 pieces. There is one small sheet of photoetch for the gunsight frame and engine detail, 1 small acetate fil and a two sheets of decals. The plastic is well formed with no flash and the AIM-120A/C and AIM-9X are molded as completely built missiles with no assemble required and are beautifully recreated and extremely well protected in bubbly molded plastic and a cardboard box of their own.

The marking options are as follows:

• F-15C MSIP II, 131st Fighter Wing, Missouri Air National Guard, Lambert International Airport
• F-15C MSIP II, 104th Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard, Westfield Airbase

The Build

This is a relatively simple build so don’t let the parts count scare you. The aircraft's fuselage is split into two pieces, the chassis and the body. The chassis is an easy build. The Cockpit and forward fuselage assembly is very straight-forward and completed in 4 steps, and keep in mind this is a very detailed cockpit - I was extremely pleased with it, and you honestly don’t need to invest any money in additional detail. Once the cockpit is assembled you can join the forward fuselage halves together. If your eagle will not have the nose cone open, you will have some nice additions to the spares box. Next step will include assembly of the front intakes and exhausts, and you will also need to drill holes in for the wing pylons. Once you have made up your mind on if you’re going to do the canopy open or closed, it's time to flip her over. The wheel and strut assemblies were pleasant to work with, but honestly I believe a SAC (Scale Aircraft Conversions) set would be a nice upgrade, because the kit struts are kind of flimsy and flex a little, so I don’t know how much punishment they could take over the years and being moved repeatedly. The wheels can be painted and detailed separate from the gear (which made life a lot easier for me). The final stage of assembly is the pylons and ordnance, and boy does she come with some beautifully crafted missiles and drop tanks.

Finishing

I chose to stick to the very basic light grey with blue camo. I used mostly Model Master enamels with the only exception being Tamiya X-2 white and X-1 black. I used Alclad lacquer for the first time for the exhaust …..BEAUTIFUL Stuff! After the paint had dried after 48 hours I used Testors Dullcote to seal the Eagle and prep for Decaling which was a joy and between Micro-Sol and Micro-Set. I only had to use Walthers Solvaset on a couple of decals, but hey no biggie.

It’s great to see Great Wall hobby take their customers considerations into play and correct the minor deficiencies found in this kit, however the only sore spot for me was still the mold seam that went down the center of the canopy. I will for sure say this kit beats out the mighty Revell kit, and was a pure joy to build.

My thanks to IPMS and the patience that was shown to me as I battled some health problems that made this take longer than anticipated, Stevens International and Lions Roar/ Great Wall Hobby for giving me the opportunity to review this kit.