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Meng F-35A - Hill AFB


RJ-WobblyHands

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The choice for this GB was either the Tamiya 1/48 F-16C/N or the Meng 1/48 F-35 - I fancy another masking challenge so its the the F-35 !!

 

The usual box / Sprue shots - all still nicely wrapped up, I will be adding the Eduard cockpit set to brighten up the plain cockpit - these fancy modern jets with everything on the TV screen or in helmet HUD

 

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and she will be marked up as a Hill AFB bird - the first place I saw an F-35 flying :) 

 

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After reading the 20 page instruction guide, it was time to make a start , the kit is nicely split up into a series of sub assemblies that are all joined together when the top and bottom fuselage parts are joined , so we have to assemble ,cockpit tub , nose wheel bay , port and starboard wheel bays - undercarriage struts and wheels can be added later in the build, port and starboard internal weapon bays and finally the air intake ducts.

 

So as not to break tradition .. step 1 is the cockpit tub and ejection seat . The seat looks a pretty good representation of the MB Mk16 used , one detail missing is the green O2 bottle at the back of the seat ( I will have a go at scratch building one ) . With all the systems being displayed either on the in Helmet HUD or the widescreen LCD  the cockpit is very plain and not many chances to add extra detail. ( The Eduard PE Set will take care of that). Looking at pictures of cockpits on the internet they are either static display models or early test aircraft so I cannot decide how accurate the area just behind the seat is ,nothing on the shelf or several boxes with exposed cabling, I am inclined to think it should be clean, since the test aircraft would have extra sensors /data recorders added.

 

Anyhow waffle over,  seat and tub before priming after removing some detail ready for the PE to be added after painting.

 

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Main Wheel wells are a little uninspiring, I will do a little research and add some more detail - after removing the ejection marks - grrrr

 

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but the nose bay looks reasonable and there is some PE to add , again I will add wiring if applicable

 

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Edited by RJ-WobblyHands
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Lunchtime gave me the opportunity to play with plastic !

 I started looking at the cockpit additions I am going to make, so far an O2 bottle for the seat and dry fitting some plasticard on the ledge behind the seat to simulate electronics boxes, i will add some 'wiring' after I have bonded the pieces to the cockpit

 

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though not much will be visible when everything is assembled

 

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Edited by RJ-WobblyHands
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Some more cockpit work, and test assembly, next steps Cockpit PE (Yay - fat fingers and small parts a great mix) , and maybe some more dry brushing  - less is more or does it need a bit more :) , Also pondering on whether to spray the seat cushions a different shade of black

 

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Edited by RJ-WobblyHands
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Moving onto the weapons bays, there is some cable pipe detail in here, but it still does not look 'busy enough'  when looking at the real thing. Since I plan to  be building her  - wheels down landed, bays open  with an air to air stealth load out  plenty of the weapons bay will be visible, therefore I am going to add some cabling using  stripped down ethernet cable the twisted pair wire is multi-strand so  I can make various thicknesses of cabling . The main conduit running through the weapons bay looks like it is padded /lagged so I cut strips of Tamiya tape and wrapped it round

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got some time to play with the Weapons Bay and have come up with this , most of the added cabling follows the moulded cables and I used a little imagination as well, time to prime and then my not favourite part - spraying white !!!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After a week away on the Normandy beaches, its back to work and back to playing with plastic :) 

 

I have done some work on the Weapons Bays and painted the intakes 

 

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yes I missed filling a moulding but as shown in the picture below it is soo deep in the intake it is not visible (Thankfully) Dry fit of intakes

 

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Edited by RJ-WobblyHands
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Really scratch my head why moulds always seem to end up with the ejector pin marks on the facing side of the part. I missed one in the intakes of the Kitty Hawk version as well 😩

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress is being made on the slow production line :)

 

Weapons Bays, Wheel Wells and intakes have been added

 

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I added a piece of plasticard to strengthen the butt joint, it made it easier to ensure the 2 parts lined up and a good fit 

 

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Side on view - base colour of the intake part is Vallejo's Camouflage Grey FS36170 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

To the nice clicking sounds as plastic interlocks with plastic the fuselage is all connected together and the main wings sections added

 

The tail pipe , this is a one piece moulding - I cut it so that I was able to paint the fan blades separately from the exhaust pipe. 

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The fit is tight there were no issues joining the lower and upper parts of the fuselage together

 

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Funny this modelling lark you spend hours working with funny shapes of plastic that look nothing like an aircraft , ship , tank.....  then dry fit 8 /10 bits together and bingo it looks like it is supposed to do ! 

 

OOH an F-35A starts to appear

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The Meng F-35a has an incorrect RAM Panel on the wings , I have not seen a Hill AFB aircraft with these so I gently removed them as can be seen below. A little Mr Surfacer 1000 and the  wing fuselage joints will be complete, then I will glue on flaps, and elevators , the twin tails are such a good fit I will not add them until everything is painted and sealed.

Then the 1st nightmare begins masking off the Weapons Bay. I will think about the RAM panels later 

   

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