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New F-15E in quarter scale! Great Wall Hobby
One of the jets that changed the history of aerial warfare is the Eagle. F-15 is not only a perfect battle station but also one of the fastest jets ever built, very agile and still undefeated in its fighter versions. As a combat aircraft it altered the perception of the term “fighter jet”. After little more than a decade of service, McDonell Douglas took its dual seater and turned it into a whole different animal – the strike multirole fighter platform, also known as F-15E. They named it Strike Eagle and painted it very dark grey. It made it a mean, scary looking killing machine. Additional tanks were added, enhanced cockpit, new HUD, only dual-seating option and superb characteristics. A completely different animal compared to its siblings F-15A/B/C/D. Something that was ahead of its time back in 1988 and something that Sukhoi imitated with their Su-30. Later it inspired the Israeli F-16I Sufa too.
Although F-15E were lost on more than one occasion, the plane is still very effective and 30 years after being born it still brings heat in the enemy lines. It is a success in every aspect: design, capabilities, ideas implemented. And for this fabulous piece of metal, we had no new scaled down plastic copies for quite some time. The most used and respected ones were Revell’s 48th scale one and of course – Tamiya’s 32nd scale version. They were both explored and pretty much exhausted by modelers. But it is 2018 and we need something new, better and up to date.
Great Wall Hobby gave us wonderful 72nd scale option. It is new, up to today’s standards and pretty much the same quality /if not better/ as Revell’s 48th scale kit. The same company /GWH/ had other F-15 versions in quarter scale, so Strike Eagle was a matter of time. And fortunately, the time has come!
Just yesterday, it was announced, that a new, up to date, well detailed and modern option of F-15E will be available on the market soon. In the perfect scale for that jet! 72nd is OK, but not ideal, while 32nd is way too big for the regular modelers. But 48th for the Strike Eagle is just where it should be. More or less it is comparable in size with 32nd scale F-16! And that is not small by any means.
So next thing we’re about to see is how aftermarket companies will compete with each other, providing various resin and photo-etch options for upgrading the new probable game-changer. And as far as I am familiar with Great Wall Hobby kits, their Strike Eagle will be mos’ def’ one such thing! The details on their F-15 versions in quarter scale are amazing. The kit has potential exceeding Tamiya’s 32nd kit, and that says enough.
The price of GWH’s F-15 in 48th scale is a bit bitter though. The kits had issues that the company quickly fixed and Kudos for that. But still, the prices are 21st century ones by any means and we should not expect anything different with the upcoming Strike Eagle. Good thing in this case is, that GWH are worth the price. They might not be cheap, but they are far from mediocre too, and everything with decent qualities has a decent price. So I hope that I brought some smiles with this article, because for me, the news are great!
F-15E Strike Eagle is one of a kind and deserves respect. Now we can transfer ours into a scaled down copy with superb qualities and modern and highly accurate tooling. Thank you GWH!
