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1/72 - Lockheed- Martin F-35B Lightning II by Academy - released


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Well the good news is that the Catalogue on the link shows that Academy put the original source for the kit if a rebox and the listing for the F-35B shows new Tooling so that does look like a stablemate for their excellent F-35A. A shame that its previous mention in the newsletter indicated that it was just a USMC scheme, so going by F-35A we may get an international boxing in a year or two by which time the South Koreans and may Japan might have joined the UK and Italy in getting the B.

Should be a nice kit going off the A, with fine details, no silly raised RAM panels, open weapon bays and wing pylons for a full load out

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4 minutes ago, Geoff_B said:

Well the good news is that the Catalogue on the link shows that Academy put the original source for the kit if a rebox and the listing for the F-35B shows new Tooling so that does look like a stablemate for their excellent F-35A. A shame that its previous mention in the newsletter indicated that it was just a USMC scheme, so going by F-35A we may get an international boxing in a year or two by which time the South Koreans and may Japan might have joined the UK and Italy in getting the B.

Should be a nice kit going off the A, with fine details, no silly raised RAM panels, open weapon bays and wing pylons for a full load out

Please excuse the ignorance, will this model be of the F-35 as flown now off the new UK carriers?

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1 hour ago, Whofan said:

Please excuse the ignorance, will this model be of the F-35 as flown now off the new UK carriers?

Yes, the F-35B is the one that will be used on the new carriers. However I suspect that the Academy kit will come with USMC decals initially so you may need to source aftermarket UK decals.

 

Oh how I long for Hasegawa to make an F-35C in 1/72.

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1 hour ago, Nigel Bunker said:

Yes, the F-35B is the one that will be used on the new carriers. However I suspect that the Academy kit will come with USMC decals initially so you may need to source aftermarket UK decals.

 

Oh how I long for Hasegawa to make an F-35C in 1/72.

Thanks for this.

 

I’m sure that the aftermarket will produce UK markings pretty quickly!

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/11/2020 at 9:45 AM, Geoff_B said:

Well the good news is that the Catalogue on the link shows that Academy put the original source for the kit if a rebox and the listing for the F-35B shows new Tooling so that does look like a stablemate for their excellent F-35A. A shame that its previous mention in the newsletter indicated that it was just a USMC scheme, so going by F-35A we may get an international boxing in a year or two by which time the South Koreans and may Japan might have joined the UK and Italy in getting the B.

Should be a nice kit going off the A, with fine details, no silly raised RAM panels, open weapon bays and wing pylons for a full load out

The Academy F-35A actually has slightly raised RAM panels though not nearly as obnoxious as Italeri and Orange Hobby. Overall it is far superior to the Hasegawa version and I suspect this one will be too

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It all looks very nice until you see those atrocious RAM panels again.....👎 In 1/72nd purely the thickness of the decal should be sufficent.....Maybe it'll be 3rd time lucky with the Kittyhawk one..... 

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On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 1:10 PM, Phantome said:

The Academy F-35A actually has slightly raised RAM panels though not nearly as obnoxious as Italeri and Orange Hobby. Overall it is far superior to the Hasegawa version and I suspect this one will be too

In what regard do you consider the Academy far superior to the Hasegawa kit? The only pro for the Academy I can think of is that it can be build with weapons bays open and underwing stores. If you do not want that, and some people don't, then the Hasegawa kit is a much easier build and cheaper too. Also the RAM engraving on the Hasegawa kit is much more scale appropriate than the raised panelling on the Academy. That's not such an issue for the first batches of planes where the RAM tape is very visible but on the newer batches most of them blend in with the rest of the plane and the raised representation will look very much out of proportion.

 

To be clear, I think it's great we can choose between two decent kits of this plane, one with open bays, the other closed. Each will have their audience. But I do think the raised RAM representation is an issue which will make all kits that have it outdated very soon as it will become obvious they are nowhere near that prominent anymore on operational aircraft.

Edited by sroubos
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16 hours ago, sroubos said:

In what regard do you consider the Academy far superior to the Hasegawa kit? The only pro for the Academy I can think of is that it can be build with weapons bays open and underwing stores. If you do not want that, and some people don't, then the Hasegawa kit is a much easier build and cheaper too. Also the RAM engraving on the Hasegawa kit is much more scale appropriate than the raised panelling on the Academy. That's not such an issue for the first batches of planes where the RAM tape is very visible but on the newer batches most of them blend in with the rest of the plane and the raised representation will look very much out of proportion.

 

To be clear, I think it's great we can choose between two decent kits of this plane, one with open bays, the other closed. Each will have their audience. But I do think the raised RAM representation is an issue which will make all kits that have it outdated very soon as it will become obvious they are nowhere near that prominent anymore on operational aircraft.

The Academy has many pros over the Hasegawa (which I have built)

 

1) As you mentioned, the open bomb bays and weapons. This is... pretty important if you ask me.

2) Superior cockpit detail (though Hase's is not bad)

3) Hasegawa's A version has a very noticeable join in the inner middle of the fins which is not a panel line that exists in real life. It is incredibly tricky to sand off because the fins have curvature. Not sure if the B version has this flaw.

4) The Academy is about £2-3 cheaper from the Asian sellers.

5) An advantage that the Hase had was that it included the RAM panels as decals. The original Academy boxing didn't but it's newer boxing ("7 nations") does. And they're Cartograf.

 

Finally, the raised RAM detailing is incredibly subtle (photos tend to over-enhance it) and I don't think it looks particularly inferior to Hasegawa's panel lines RAM detailing which one can argue is also unrealistic. I will give this to Hase though, and it's its only advantage IMHO.

Edited by Phantome
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Well, let’s agree to disagree.

 

I never build kits with open weapons bays, it spoils the look for me and having to close them usually requires additional work if you can even do it in an acceptable way. 

 

The panel line is easy to get rid. I filled it and it’s no more difficult than any other panel line. 

 

Cockpit is easy to adjust if you want. Not an issue for me. 

 

I prefer the look of the Hasegawa panelling. And its more scale accurate. Also more future proof. As stated the Academy representation is not an issue I think if you use the ‘old’ RAM taping as in the build you link to.  On more recent planes, they will stand out horribly because they are the same color as the rest of the fuselage. The raised aspect will then really detract I think. 

 

In summary I wouldn’t say its far superior, just different. The only real pro is the weapons bays and as stated, it’s not even a pro for some. 

 

Edited by sroubos
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  • 9 months later...

Announced as new tooling in the Academy 2021 catalogue ???

- ref. 12569-24000 - Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II - VMFA-121 "Green Knights"

Source:  https://academypm.cafe24.com/09_site/2021_academy_catalog.pdf

Box art

 

F35B.png

 

V.P.

Edited by Homebee
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