Academy 1/72 F-15K Slam Eagle Quick Build Review

By Michael Benolkin

Background

For a look at this kit as it appears out of the box, check out our Academy 1/72 F-15K Slam Eagle first-look here.

The Build

So I'm in the middle of building two tanks for progressive builds we're featuring here, but after assembling four runs of individual track links (two per tank), I needed break! Here's Academy's recent F-15K Slam Eagle which is the F-15E Strike Eagle with avionics changes to suit the Republic of Korea Air Force (RoKAF). We've done a few quick-builds of other Academy releases, and this kit is also a snap-together model (more or less) that features multi-colored plastic so that painting is minimal.

As always, I'm building this kit straight out of the box with no fillers or painting so you can see how this kit builds up. One thing to note, the fit of this model is very precise, so any sprue stub remnants or mold flash will interfere with that fit. I spent time with each part to clean all of the mating surfaces using a micro file for the sprue stubs and a few ejector pin marks, and my trusty Alec R-Boko to remove mold lines, especially on rounded surfaces.

Even with all of the time cleaning up parts, the total time spent on this project was just a couple of hours. The fit of the model is exquisite, though you may find a few spots where it seems the model doesn't want to come together, but careful manipulation of the parts will get that satisfying 'snap' as everything comes together.

The real clean-up effort was with the external stores. The GBU-38 JDAMs, AIM-120 AMRAAMs, AIM-9X Sidewinders, and 600 gallon drop tanks all had mold lines. Given that the tanks had to be snapped together, I glued the halves together so I could clean up the seams, which I did with the R-Boko. The R-Boko also made quick work of the bombs and missiles as well.

Take a closer look at the images. The kit has silver inserts for the dorsal and ventral engine areas which look great. The photos make the external stores look like they are blue, but they are indeed a light gray. I used the GE F110 engine nozzles and compressor faces in my build since the F100 featherless nozzles are not very convincing in this kit (though there are aftermarket options available).

This was a fun project, and of all of the multi-colored plastic projects that Academy has released, this one is the most convincing model yet.

Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to MRC for this review sample!