Israeli Air Force F-15I Ra’am

G.W.H., 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Evans

G.W.H.s 1/48 scale F-15I will be available online from Squadron.com

The Israeli Air Force was the first foreign buyer of the F-15 fighter series. 

In the 1980s the Israeli Air Force realised its lack of capability in long range anti-ground attack missions.  The gap was filled by acquiring the F-15 Fighters with its large weapons load and long range.

The F-15s were modified to carry precision guided weapons such as the GBU-15 and conformal fuel tanks (CFT) were added which were still under testing at the time. On October 1 1985 in response to a terrorist attack, the Israeli Air Force carried out operation “Wooden Leg”. The strike involved the bombing of the PLO headquarters in Tunis by F-15 Eagles. This was the longest combat mission ever undertaken by the Israeli Air Force, a stretch of 2,300 kilometres which involved in-flight refuelling. As a result the PLO Headquarters and barracks were either destroyed or damaged. This action promoted the USAFs project of the F-15E Strike Eagle. In the next year it beat the General Dynamics F-16XL and in 1988 the F-15E came into service.

As a dual-role long range fighter for attack and interception was urgently needed, the Israeli Air Force ordered the F-15E in the 1984.  The F-15I which is arguably the best of its type in the Middle Eastern arena – entered service in January 1998, and became the Israeli Air Force’s leading aircraft.

The F-15I is a special version of the F-15E Strike Eagle that was designed specifically for the Israeli Air Force by McDonald Douglas (now Boeing).  It utilises many special instruments designed by the Israeli Air Force themselves.

Its tremendous payload capacity, combined with its advanced systems, enable it to carry out attacks with a large weapons load at long ranges and low altitude, 24 hours a day and in any weather conditions.

Due to its high price (more than $1 billion US each) only 25 aircraft were purchased.  24 aircraft entered service with the 69 “Hammers” Squadron which is the combat unit with the longest history in the Israeli Air Force.  The remaining aircraft (No 201) was provided to 601 Squadron (Flight Test Centre) in Tel Nof airbase (Air Force Base 8) for weapon loading tests. 

On January 1 1999 F-15Is in the 69 Sqn “Hammers” Squadron completed training and the first combat missions were flown in Lebanon on 11 January 1999.  They attacked terrorist targets in Lebanon with laser-guided bombs on targets designated by AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRNAN navigation pods.

This release from Great Wall Hobby is a follow on from the 2013 release of their F-15B/D Eagle kit.  The content of this new kit shares a number of sprues with Great Wall Hobby’s earlier release of the F-15B/D, plus new sprues with the new weapons and fitout that are particular for the F-15I version. 

The kit contains approximately 300 light grey plastic parts that have excellent detail and sharply engraved panel lines.  Approximately 65 parts are not used in this kit.  There are 5 clear plastic parts and 10 etched metal parts to complete the detail.

The cockpit makes up from 22 parts packed with detail. 

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Thumbnail panels:

The Aces II Ejection seats are quite nice with nice moulded on detail.

The APG-70I radar is provided and can be displayed in the open (swung to the side) position and the front nose avionics panels on both sides of the nose can be positioned in the open position to display the moulded avionics bay detail.

Full intake ducting is also provided all the way to the engine compressor face along with alternate intake ramps that can be positioned in the raised or drooped position.  Full versions of the Pratt and Whitney F100-PW-229 engines along with highly detailed turkey feather exhausts are also provided. 

Photo-etched deatil parts are also included.

The engines are full length and unfortunately the extra weight of these contributes to the kit being a tail sitter, so make sure you compensate with extra weight in the nose area.

The extra bump that sits behind the canopy on aircraft 241 is also provided which I assume is a telemetry antenna.

The speed brake can be displayed in the open and closed position and has good detail for the bay area and inside of the speed brake door.

All the flight controls, flaps, ailerons, tailplanes and rudders can be positioned into any displaced position the modeller wants.

The wheel wells look superb and the much fatter main wheels are provided along with the bulged main doors.

The conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) are supplied along with the special bomb beams that hang off the CFTs.

Load and weapons fit provided in the kit include:

• 2 x 610 Gallon Fuel Tanks

• 1 x AXQ-14 data link pod

• 1 x AAQ-13 Lantirn Navigation Pod

• 1 x AAQ-14 Lantirn Targeting Pod

• 4 x GBU-12 Laser guided Paveway II 500lb bombs

• 3 x GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Mk 82

• 1 x GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Mk 84

• 1 X AGM-130 GPS 2000lb bomb

• 1 x AGM-142 Popeye bomb

• 2 x Python 4 Air to Air missiles

• 2 x AIM-120B AMRAAM Air to Air missiles

Markings

The decals are very nicely printed, have good colour saturation and are in register.  They look to be thin but have a slightly opaque carrier film. 

The two schemes provided by GWH for this kit as follows:

• Boeing F-15I number 201 of No 601 Squadron “Test and Evaluation Squadron” of the Israeli Air Force based at Tel Nof Air Force Base.  The aircraft is painted in the typical desert scheme of FS33531 Sand, FS 30219 Tan and FS34227 Light Green upper surfaces and FS 36375 Light Compass Grey.

• Boeing F-15I of No 69 “Hammers” Squadron of the Israeli Air Force.  The aircraft is painted in the typical desert scheme of FS33531 Sand, FS 30219 Tan and FS34227 Light Green upper surfaces and FS 36375 Light Compass Grey

The instruction sheet is produced as a very nice 25-page A4 colour booklet. The instructions are nicely illustrated, and include a couple of reference photos.

This is another excellent kit from Great Wall Hobby with plenty of detail included and the dedicated weapons loadout for the F-15I.  Having built the various versions of Hasegawa, Academy and Revell F-15s over the past few years I can easily say this looks to be the best F-15 on the current market.  At this stage I cannot comment on fit, but from reading previous reviews of the GWH F-15B/D and C it looks like it fits together quite well with no major issues.  There were some accuracy issues with the early release F-15B/D but GWH quickly corrected the issue in later releases.

Highly Recommended

Thanks to G.W.H. for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2016 by Mick Evans
Images Copyright © 2016 by Brett Green
Page Created 17 February, 2016
Last updated 18 February, 2016

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