1/72 Hasegawa/Isradecal 

Boeing F-15I Ra'am

by Jean-Charles Goddet

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I tried to do my best to transform a 1/72 Hasegawa KT1 USAF F-15E in Israeli Air Force F-15I Ra'am (Thunder) with resin parts and decals from IsraDecal.  I decided to do the plane number 234 from Hammers squadron based at Hatzerim in the Neguev desert in 2004.  Not all the planes from this squadron show the eye catching eagle's head on the vertical stabilators, only half a dozen of the planes of the 25 in service (numbers 212,220,234,246,252,271).  I used Isradecal stencils IAF-45 which is very accurate and complete. The resin parts in the Isracast conversion kit 72001 enhance this model with two CFT with pylons for armament, two engines Pratt & Whitney F100-PW229, GPS antenna, countermeasures antennas, flares dispensers, doors for principal landing gear.

The 3 colors Israeli upper camouflage is standard for the F-15I which is an attack plane:

FS30219 Gunze acrylic Brown H310, FS33531 Gunze acrylic Desert H313, FS34424 Humbrol Green 90+31 (90%/10%)

The lower camouflage is FS36375 Grey MrColor H308.

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I done a model in laser guided bomb training mission profil with standard LANTIRN pods (AN/AAQ-13 navigation at right and AN/AAQ-14 targeting at left) from Hasegawa kit. I added one 2000lb GBU-10 in centerline station, and 6 500lb GBU-12 attached on CFT and two external tanks under wings with no air-air missiles, but it has a 20mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon for dogfight. Nowdays this plane is able to use JDAM GPS bombs, plus air-air missile AIM9L Sidewinder, Israeli Python 4 IR, AIM7M Sparrow, AIM120 AMRAAM.

It was a pleasure for me to do this model. It is a great plane probably one of the best for the israelis for years before the hypothetic arrival of the JSF F35, it gone to fight in Lebanon and probably recently in Syria to attack a nuclear facility. It was not easy to find pictures of the real plane to help me, I used internet of course and Osprey book "Israeli F-15 Eagle units in combats" to find ideas. F15I left only twice time Israel to go in England to an airshow and in USA for a redflag campaign at Nellis AFB.

Jean-Charles

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Photos and text © by Jean-Charles Goddet