F-15J Peace Eagle "Shiro Ruyu"

This is a Tamiya kit with some updating to the intakes and exhausts. I used some vacuform intake trunking that my dad gave me a long time ago for a Monogram kit to carry the intakes behind the main wheel wells. I also modified the Monogram exhaust cans (w/o the turkey feathers) to fit the Tamiya kit and used them. I cut some quilting pins to length for the actuator rods on the exhausts to give them a better look that the flat surfaces on the Monogram parts.

The kit went together well with some minor fit issues in the main wing halves and the intakes to the fuselage. The cockpit was a bit sparse with a flat instrument panel and consoles and little detail in the avionics compartment behind the seat. I decided to use the stock cockpit with the canopy closed since the instrument panel and console decals were decent and I wouldn't have to worry about the avionics compartment.

I originally wanted to make an Israeli F-15, but the available markings were so expensive, so I decided to do this beautiful Japanese Air Self Defense Force show bird with markings provided by Two Bobs Decals. The decals were excellent for their size, but there was one significant problem with the size of the large white dragon - it was too big. I had to cut down and overlap the three pieces quite a bit to get them to fit on the wings. I'm not sure if Two Bobs or Tamiya got the size wrong but I think things turned out OK in the end.

This was a fun kit to work on and if one does not want to update the intakes or exhausts, the kit can go together rather quickly. However, if you do want to do some heavy detailing, it is a good platform to do so.