Eagle Designs Aircraft Accessories

By Michael Benolkin

A few months ago, I heard that someone had produced a resin conversion for the 1/48 F-14 Tomcat to reconfigure it into a FLIR-equipped Bombcat. The set was made by Eagle Designs, a company unfamiliar to me. When I finally laid hands on this conversion, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the castings, and that the FLIR pod, which is virtually identical to the LANTIRN system’s FLIR pod, was the most accurate made to date. In a comment on the newsgroup rec.models.scale, I had wished that someone would release a LANTIRN set to provide accurate pods for both the F-15E and the Block 40/42 F-16C. My wish came true!

I was fortunate enough to have the owner of Eagle Designs contact me and send a sampling of his extensive product line. He started off producing sets to convert 1/72 and 1/48 aircraft into configurations used by the Israeli Air Force. He has since broadened his focus to encompass modern US configurations as well. Let’s take a look:

For example, Israel has developed the Python series of air-to-air missiles. Incorporating the best features of the US AIM-9 and the French Magic missile technologies, and adding a few new features based on their extensive combat experience, Israel has produced the Python 3 and Python 4 missiles, carried aboard most Israeli combat aircraft. Eagle has produced the Python 3 and Python 4 as well, in 1/72 and 1/48 scales. The castings are clean and the fins are almost photo-etch in thickness.

As I said earlier, the FLIR pod that Eagle produced is the most accurate I’ve seen. A quick trip to the Air Force Museum and their LANTIRN display confirmed this. Eagle has developed a complete set of LANTIRN pods, complete with adapter pylons. In the F-16C carries its LANTIRN pods on opposite sides as the F-15E, Eagle Designs has released sets for both the F-15E and the F-16C, with the appropriate pylons included in each. What’s more, both of these sets are available in 1/72 and 1/48 scale.

Another significant release from Eagle is their F-16C Block 40 conversion in both 1/72 and 1/48. All of the current F-16 kits on the market have been produced with the narrow-mouth inlet used on the F-16s with the P&W F100 engine. This is still correct for the Block 42 and Block 52 aircraft as well. The Block 40 and Block 50 aircraft have wide-mouth inlets to feed the General Electric F110 engine. Interestingly enough, most F-16C kits provide the correct Pratt and GE exhaust nozzles. In all Block 40/42/50/52 aircraft, the maingear was modified with heftier main wheels, which resulted in bulging the maingear doors. None of the kits reflect this noticeable change. Eagle’s conversion provides the widemouth inlet as well as the corrected maingear doors and wheels.

Eagle has also released the Israeli-build Popeye missile. Developed as an anti-shipping missile, the Popeye was carried by IAF F-4E Phantom II aircraft. The USAF realizing that it needed to have an anti-shipping capability, imported the Popeye, designating it the AGM-142, and modified the B-52 fleet to carry it (talk about your long-range patrol aircraft!). Eagle has produced the Popeye in 1/72 and 1/48, so you can arm your birds a little differently than the other aircraft on your shelf (or at the local contest for that matter).

You can see the full line-up of Eagle Designs at their website http://members.tripod.com/~sommo/home and you can reach them at eagledesigns@hotmail.com. Eagle Designs is carried in the US currently by Victory Models [www.victorymodels.com]. My thanks to Eagle Designs for these review samples! You’ll be seeing some of these sets at work in upcoming articles.