Hi all,

I was lucky enough to come home and find my better half had bought me the Academy 1/48 F-15I Ra'am kit. Its been many years since I've build an Eagle of any type, so I'm quite excited about getting into this.

My question is, is there anything I should know about before I start? I have struggled to find much info on this kit at all - I believe there is an Aires cockpit set for the F-15I available but I'm having trouble finding one.

I've used the search function in this forum and other but am turning up nothing. If anyone can point me in the right direction on how to tackle this kit I'd be much obliged!

Any thing you could possibly need can be found here
http://store.spruebrothers.com/categories.aspx?Keyword=f-15i

sorry I have not built this one so I cant speculate on any problem spots

Hope it helps

That's a great start - thank you!

I answered this on a previous Academy F-15E inquiry. I think it’s a page or two back, but here it is again:

The following applies to the original Academy F-15E and recent reissue F-15K, F-15I, F-15E, & F-15 MSIP kits, as the more serious fit problem parts still remain like the fuselage and intakes.

The newer issue Academy F-15s have added and updated parts like; wheels, weapons, pods, and cockpit details; neither of which really affect the main build process. Understand the Academy 48th Eagle kits have some major shape errors as well. The engine bulges are quite exaggerated, but even worse is the raised area around the speedbrake, which is quite erroneous. The canopy is a bit too wide and for the 2 seat version; so is the spine just aft of the canopy.

The Academy F-15s are not easy builds, though careful attention to alignment coupled with lots of filling and sanding will yield good results. Here is the build approach I developed from my Academy F-15 building experiences:
- The first thing you’ll want to do is fill in all the sink trenches/lines on the base of the stabs, vertical tails, wings, under wingtips, fuselage sides, ailerons and flaps.
- Mate the “upper wing halves” to the upper fuselage before joining the upper and lower fuselage halves. The wing fit is bad enough as it is, but this method will help eliminate unnecessary filling and sanding. Just be sure to mate the surfaces as clean as possible.
- The intake ducts are an absolute nightmare. First off, they have excess structure in form of the upper forward extended rails. Remove these rails. Next, shave down the sides of the forward lower lip extension until it fits snugly into the lower fuselage intake walls. Fill and/or remove the punch marks from the intake halves. Now assemble the upper and lower intake duct halves, making sure to take care of the seam work left behind. Install the left & right intake ducts into the lower fuselage, making sure to align the lower lip extension in between the lower fuselage LE intake sidewalls. Blend the intake ducts into the LE intake walls.
- Once the fuselage haves (& upper wing) are joined, add alignment tabs to the inside of the forward fuselage, where the forward fuselage mates. I made 6 tabs; 4 on the lower and 2 on the upper joint, using 20 thou plastic card stock. The tabs are critical for making a solid fore to main fuselage joint. Typically, when the forward fuselage is built up, the aft sides are angled in too far. The tabs will spread and help align the forward fuselage sides to the main fuselage.

This covers the main building issues with the Academy F-15, as the rest should be gravy compared.

Mike V