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USAF F-35A - New Photos


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Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II

 

421st Fighter Squadron ‘Black Widows’, 388th Fighter Wing

Hill AFB, Utah, present day

 

 

ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS SOME MONTHS AGO BUT JUST MADE USE OF THE SPRING SUNSHINE AND GOT SOME BETTER PHOTOS

(Doesn't make it a better looking aircraft though, and you still can't see the Have Glass glitter, but it's there - honest)

Brown tone = new photo. Blue tone = old photo. Don't ask  me why!

 

IMG_3843

 

Like many other people, I regarded the F-35 as being too ugly to model. But things change! I was tempted to buy a 1/72 Academy kit at a reasonable price (£20 I think it was) at Yeovilton Air Day this year, and it just went in the stash. Meanwhile out of interest I did a bit of research on what shade of grey to use, etc, and at the same time a friend of mine sent some photos of a 421st FS aircraft at an airshow in Greece.  One of the major things that removed my barrier to building one of these was the fact that production aircraft no longer have those RAM panels painted in a lighter grey, so none of that awkward masking, though there are still some subtle shades of grey on various panels. I also then discovered Mr Paints acrylic lacquer airbrush paints, and found that they do FS 36170 ‘Camouflage Grey’ and ‘Have Glass’ special matt varnish to give that metallic sparkle, so the fire was lit and off I went to build one of these:

 

F-35A 1

 

F-35 2

 

A pleasurable wander through Wolfpack Decals resulted in me buying sheet 72-125 which includes a 421st F-35A (it also includes a VFA-147 F-35C which got me looking forward to a 1/72 F-35C kit which surely can’t be too far away).

 

Building this model made me realise how different the F-35 is from any other modern jet (except perhaps the F-22) with those weapon bays, facetted construction, sensors everywhere, lack of HUD, strange paint, etc and it was a great pleasure in the end to build it.

 

IMG_3850

 

IMG_3849

 

IMG_3848

 

 

IMG_3847

 

IMG_3846

 

IMG_3641

 

IMG_3845

 

IMG_3638

 

IMG_3637

 

IMG_3635

 

IMG_3634

 

Edited by CT Modeller
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Nice. Thanks for the info regarding the Mr. Paints varnish. Where do you get yours?

 

Good to see some squadron markings creeping into the F-35 fleet. I'm holding out for some good Fleet Air Arm squadrons :winkgrin:

 

I am one of the few 'fans' of the F-35, looking to build a A, B and C version at some point. Probably use the 1/72 Hasegawa kit's though.

 

Cheers.

Edited by Smudge
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12 hours ago, Smudge said:

Nice. Thanks for the info regarding the Mr. Paints varnish. Where do you get yours?

 

Good to see some squadron markings creeping into the F-35 fleet. I'm holding out for some good Fleet Air Arm squadrons :winkgrin:

 

I am one of the few 'fans' of the F-35, looking to build a A, B and C version at some point. Probably use the 1/72 Hasegawa kit's though.

 

Cheers.

I bought my varnish direct from Mr Paints here: https://www.mrpaint.sk/

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6 hours ago, kapam said:

Must admit, I still find them jarring to look at, but that is a very nice model!

Well done!

:goodjob:

I  agree - they are jarring to look at. If you just look at the nose area from just behind the air intakes forward they look cool though!

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Nice job. I think the F-35 looks brilliant and infinitely interesting, but then I'm biased 😎

 

I built a 1/48 one earlier this year and although a fan of MRP I thought their FS36170 was too light in colour (went for Colourcoats enamel in the end) but I really like your finish with the contrasting panels 👍 

 

Alan

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