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I recently built a couple of supersonic "hotrods" flown by the Wisconsin Air National Guard. They were a Meng F-102 Delta Dagger, with markings circa 1972 after winning the William Tell competition, and a Hasegawa F-16C done up in markings commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Wisconsin ANG, in 1998: A quarter-century separates those two aircraft, and I realized that it will soon be another 25-years since the F-16 carried those anniversary markings. Then, I learned that in 2023 the Wisconsin ANG will transition to the F-35A Lightning II. I decided to round-out my little collection by adding Academy's F-35A in hypothetical markings of the "Badger Air Militia" My WIP can be found here: Enough talkie-talk. On with the pics! This was a fun build, and only took eleven days start-to-finish. Thanks for viewing!

I recently built a couple of supersonic "hotrods" flown by the Wisconsin Air National Guard. They were a Meng F-102 Delta Dagger, with markings circa 1972 after winning the William Tell competition, and a Hasegawa F-16C done up in markings commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Wisconsin ANG, in 1998: A quarter-century separates those two aircraft, and I realized that it will soon be another 25-years since the F-16 carried those anniversary markings. Then, I learned that in 2023 the Wisconsin ANG will transition to the F-35A Lightning II. I decided to round-out my little collection by adding a F-35 in hypothetical markings of the "Badger Air Militia" I will be building Academy's F-35A with a smattering of aftermarket: For decals, I will use kit items supplemented with decals from Furball Aero-Design's "F-35 Anthology" sheet: To make this uniquely a Wisconsin ANG bird, I decided to add tail markings as currently flown on the 115th Fighter Wing's F-16s: I actually printed up some decals with the above markings, but then I discovered this sheet from Wolfpack Decals: The above are better than what I could achieve, so I'll go with those and keep my homemade items as backup. Let's take a peek inside the box: Two main sprues in gray plastic: A white sprue with the weapons bay, landing gear bays, and air intakes, plus a black sprue for the cockpit, nozzle, and other items. The canopy is molded in a single piece in very clear plastic. There are also two identical sprues with a variety of weapons: The kit's decal sheet looks nice, but I've had mixed results with decals from recent Academy releases, so I'm glad I have other options available. The instruction manual appears to be excellent: Before starting work, I gave my bench a good cleanup. I've completed four builds recently with only minor housekeeping in between, so the work area was in great need of tidying-up. I skipped right over Steps 1 and 2, and began with the cockpit. I built up the kit ejection seat and prepped the cockpit tub for some Eduard PE. I gave both a base coat of dark gull gray using Hataka Orange-line lacquers. This is the first time I've used these paints, and they behaved very well in the airbrush. It should be an interesting build!