1/48 Academy F-15B BAZ

Gallery Article by Gidi Vitkon on Apr 26 2012

  Israel Independence Day 

 

 

The original story of the BAZ in the IAF starts in 1971 when Egyptian Mig 25’s flew over Israel with no real answer by the IAF. After the yom-kippor war A decision was made to get the best airplane out there. 

It was so important to stop the Mig flights that Israel took 4 prototype airframes to save the time until the production airframe was ready.

The first MiG 21 kill was on June 27, 1979 and on February 13, 1981 the Baz “killed” his first MIG 25.

During 1983 a few airframes were converted for reconnaissance flight.

During the 90's most of the Baz airframes were upgraded to BAZ 2000 that made them compatible with today standards. 

 

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When I was a commissioned to build a BAZ, no 404 was my option being close to my heart.  I think I opened every panel available on this plane during the 90’s and only ones I was lucky to fly back seat in it and yes it was the ride of my life…. 

For the model I was given the old Academy F-15E kit to convert it to an IAF F-15. 

Baz NO 404 is an F-15B that was upgraded to BAZ 2000 standards.

I detailed the cockpit walls and borrowed from a Hasegawa kit the front and rear main instrument panels; the rear panel received extra CRT screen according to reference in Isradecal book on the Baz. The seats came from True Details. The Baz has the same harmonic blasts on the top of both tails and most of the time fatherless engines. I added GPS antenna on the spine and a small antenna in front of the wind shield. The gun was removed from this airframe so the gun opening was closed. I wanted a full loaded Baz and used Two Isradecal “Python 3 AA Missiles for Baz kit no 48-032. The Isradecal kit has the correct pylon attachment for the large fin missiles.

The BAZ was painted with Humbrol paints in the standard US two tone gray scheme, the silver is TAMIYA Titanium.

Decals came from Isradecal Baz no IAF-79 and weathering was done using Promodeller black and some pastels for small leaks simulation and inside the afterburners. 

Thanks for looking and happy modeling

Gidi Vitkon

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Photos and text © by Gidi Vitkon