Wings unlevel Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Ten years ago, almost to the day, on 24 July 2014, I was fortunate to witness the rollout of the RAAF's first F-35A in a ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant (back when I worked in the media). Given that small connection, that jet, known to the program as AU-1, and to the RAAF as A35-001 (and wearing 2OCU tail markings), will be the subject of my first/main/only* build for this GB. Which I will build using Tamiya's state-of-the-art 1/48 kit. Just look at that beautiful styrene goodness. Like the F-35 program itself mine will have a little bit of Australian industry involvement, thanks to decals... ... and masks from Ronin Graphics. Plus (not pictured) I plan to try SMS paint's Have Glass grey (PL59) for the main FS36170 grey (perhaps in a mix with something to give it the metallic effect). I also have 3D decals for the instrument panel and seats from Reskit. Incidentally I still have some merch - a cap and two challenge coins - from the rollout event. So I should be able to put together some sort of cool display with the finished model and the challenge coins in particular. Here's just hoping for an on-time and on-budget build! Thanks for looking in, Gerard (*TBC - I would love to build one each of an F-35A, B and C in this GB, but my build rate of late suggests otherwise!) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 10 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Here's just hoping for an on-time and on-budget build! You know this is an F-35, right? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celestialsphere Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 On 29/07/2024 at 01:48, Enzo the Magnificent said: You know this is an F-35, right? Perhaps then this should be a ten-year long Group Build... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted August 10 Author Share Posted August 10 Low rate initial production has begun! I did some ceremonial cutting of plastic today, but not much more. For the next few weeks at least I’ll be juggling this build and trying to finish my USN GB F-4B, so progress will be slow. But I wanted to make a start on the GB start date, and now I have lots of Tamiya goodness on the bench! And it’s a cluttered bench - as @Chrisj2003 noted, the F-35 is actually quite a big beast! More when it comes to hand… 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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