F15E Strike Eagle Aircraft

The entire plane is meant to be a darker grey than the molded plastic grey. In fact the listed paint is Gunship Gray FS 36118 (= Model Master 1723 Gunship Gray). Very hard to paint the entire plane, if only Revell molded this kit in the proper gunship gray ......... The main joint between fuselage front and the fuselage top/bottom is well hidden between the intakes, a nice touch, you can get by without sanding the joint (this is a common problem with many kits). The fit of parts is about average for Revell. Had to dig up bombs from spare parts to fill up the empty bomb pylons, why Revell?

I'd have given this kit 5 stars if only it came with some stores for the racks. It only comes with four AIM-9 Sidewinders for the underwing rails and nothing for the bomb racks. A nicely detailed kit with an assembly was fairly simple and straightforward. Simple except for one area - the exhaust nozzles. The exhaust is very detailed, but to get that detail be prepared to spend a lot of time with tweezers and glue for mounting the actuator arms for the afterburner nozzles. That was the only really tedious part of the assembly, besides the massive amounts of maintainence stencils that every F-15 kit comes with. You'll need to take some minor care when you attach the CFTs because they tend to move around just a bit while gluing them in place. I always build my kits with the gear doors closed and these doors went into place very easily, especially compared to some kits I've built. The main problem with this kit, again, is the lack of stores which I fixed by buying a Hosegawa weapons set. After replacing the included LANTIRN pods with the more detailed LANTIRN Navigation pod and a Sniper XR pod from the Hosegawa sets I added two GBU-12s, three GBU-38 JDAMs, a GBU-31 JDAM on the centerline, and two AIM-120 AMRAAMs on the outer missile rails with AIM-9 Sidewinders on the inner rails and ended up with an extremely nice Mud Hen that looks great, especially with the other F-15s on the shelf (there's just something about how the Eagle looks in that gunship gray paint scheme with those rounded CFTs on the sides).

Its a great model all around. Like other have said, biggest complain is lack of bombs for a strike fighter. It only comes with 4 Aim-9 missiles and I don't have any spare bombs. Could easily be fixed by buying separately but why? Fit is good, I had to putty and sand a few seems but it makes for good practice. My decals may have been old or maybe had some environmental issues as they wouldn't release from the backing very well, but I worked through it. Great kit to build with my son who is learning the hobby.