F-35B HMS QNLZ/PWLS

[gengriz]

Hi all, haven't posted anything here for a very long time! 

Hopefully this one will not be a WHIF for much longer, but sadly the RN-specific markings are wishful thinking! 

Its the 1/72 Fujimi F-35B (itsalf a WHIF) with some home-printed inkjet decals:









... and with its predecessor, the X-35B:



FredT

[DogfighterZen]

Nice one, looks very good! 
I like that darker grey tone, what paint did you use? Also, what do you have to say about the kit, is it a good build?

[gengriz]

The dark grey is HUmbrol 164, dark sea grey.
The kit is really very good, but it has some snap-fit elements that are a bit of a nuisance. It has one major shortfall in that the auxiliary air intake doors are moulded shut. I hacked mine open and made up some doors to fit, as well as an inlet duct to fit inside the fuselage.

FredT

[DogfighterZen]

The dark grey is HUmbrol 164, dark sea grey.
The kit is really very good, but it has some snap-fit elements that are a bit of a nuisance. It has one major shortfall in that the auxiliary air intake doors are moulded shut. I hacked mine open and made up some doors to fit, as well as an inlet duct to fit inside the fuselage.

FredT

Thanks for the feedback, it's the only variant missing in my stash and i've been thinking of adding it to my to-buy list. I normally only use Tamiya acrylics so i'll have to check Paint4models.com for an equivalent.

[kitnut617]

Very nice, 

I did a RN F-35B Sidetrack using the same kit, unfortunately all the photos of it in the thread I had going are now t!ts-up because of PhotoBucket.

But you can see it here if you want.  I think they would go together quite well -- I can imagine them on the deck ----
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=4301.msg73253#msg73253

[Thorvic]

Nice work Fred and I like the markings.

It is rather frustrating that the only 72nd F-35B is the Fujimi one which came out about 2010/11 so its a little toy ish and somewhat dated. Annoying because we got a raft of F-35A's but no more B's and only the 1 F-35C which is a hard to find kit by OrangeHobby.

[DogfighterZen]

Nice work Fred and I like the markings.

It is rather frustrating that the only 72nd F-35B is the Fujimi one which came out about 2010/11 so its a little toy ish and somewhat dated. Annoying because we got a raft of F-35A's but no more B's and only the 1 F-35C which is a hard to find kit by OrangeHobby.

Yup, i totally agree, there are 3 1/72 F-35A models on the market, Academy, Hasegawa and Italeri but i guess that, as it is the simplest of the 3 variants, the model companies didn't want to risk it...
I have the OH F-35C, it's my favorite version of this plane. I'd been looking for it since i saw the different wings on the carrier version, i'd always thought that the A/B wing was too small, the C was much more appealing to me so i spent quite a while looking for a C kit. As soon as i found out about the OH kit, i kept looking for it on ebay and online stores till it was available. This is where i got mine from:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OrangeHobby-1-72-001-Lockheed-Martin-F-35-F-35C-Lightning-II-/252837822044?hash=item3ade4efe5c:g:OzAAAOSwB4NWweVc
Not too expensive for such a good kit, IMHO, that is...
KittyHawk announced all 3 variants in 1/72 to be released in 2016 but i guess they changed their plans...
https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION%5B%5D=All&q=Kitty+Hawk+Lockheed+F-35+Lightning+II*

[Thorvic]

Hasegawa and Dragon announced doing the F-35 family as far back as 2009/10 which may have deterred others at the time, all three of the current F-35A kit are different shapes and styles, the Academy one is probably the best without raised details and open bays but you do need decals to do the panels or a masking set. The Orangehobby F-35C is a nice kit buts its let down by copying Italeri by physically raising the panels lines when the airframe itself is quite flush

[Crackingjob]

Unfortunatly RNAS Culdrose new F35 replicas for the dummy deck are at the moment plain grey.....made by Gateguards UK in Cornwall link for pictures attached
http://www.gateguardsuk.com/gta/4961546

Gateguards are on the aerohub / RAF S Mawgan side of Newquay airport next door to the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre well worth a visit for classic jets....early days though but very friendly and realistic
http://www.cornwallaviationhc.co.uk/

[Rheged]

Hopefully this one will not be a WHIF for much longer, but sadly the RN-specific markings are wishful thinking! 

I'm giving it about 25 seconds after the first one lands on, the deck handlers will have a Royal Navy tag on it!.......unless they decide to really annoy certain people and use a Royal Naval Air Service tag.

[DogfighterZen]

Hasegawa and Dragon announced doing the F-35 family as far back as 2009/10 which may have deterred others at the time, all three of the current F-35A kit are different shapes and styles, the Academy one is probably the best without raised details and open bays but you do need decals to do the panels or a masking set. The Orangehobby F-35C is a nice kit buts its let down by copying Italeri by physically raising the panels lines when the airframe itself is quite flush

Yup, i agree with you on the Academy kit being the best 1/72 option, but the Hasegawa kit, although it doesn't have the option for open bays, it also have has no raised detail and they do provide the decals for the RAM panel line seals on the fuselage. Probably the best kit for an "in-flight" depiction as it includes a stand in the box.. unless you want to show it firing a missile or dropping a bomb, that is. Orange Hobby provide an AM mask set for their kit.
I guess they probably copied from the Kittyhawk 1/48 kits and Hasegawa's 1/48 F-22 Raptor, which came out even earlier than the Kittyhawk kits and was the first kit with that type of raised panel lines. The new 1/48 Meng kit also has raised detail and something that confused me is the fact that on Hyperscale's review, Brett Green says that on the real jet, the panel lines are raised... In some pics, it does seem that there's a slight difference but others show a flush and smooth fuselage... 
http://www.hyperscale.com/2017/reviews/kits/mengls007reviewbg_1.htm
Then the recent Italeri 1/32 kit also has the raised detail...

Edit: typo

[kitnut617]

Having stood about 25-30 feet away from one of the F-35B's at USMC Yuma a couple of years ago (and have a load of photos of it), I can assure everyone there's no raised panel lines anywhere, the fuselage is very smooth. What you do see is the sealing tape for all the panels but it is very thin. Scale wise even a decal of these tapes would be oversize in thickness. However, on the 'operational' aircraft that are being deployed now, you don't even see this tape either, it gets painted over.

[DogfighterZen]

Having stood about 25-30 feet away from one of the F-35B's at USMC Yuma a couple of years ago (and have a load of photos of it), I can assure everyone there's no raised panel lines anywhere, the fuselage is very smooth. What you do see is the sealing tape for all the panels but it is very thin. Scale wise even a decal of these tapes would be oversize in thickness. However, on the 'operational' aircraft that are being deployed now, you don't even see this tape either, it gets painted over.

Thanks for the confirmation, i've never seen it live but it never seemed to me that they were raised.
I've also recently read something about the painting method, looks like LM engineers have developed a simpler and much less expensive way to apply the RAM paint on it, but i can't remember more details or where i read that...

[kitnut617]

Having stood about 25-30 feet away from one of the F-35B's at USMC Yuma a couple of years ago (and have a load of photos of it), I can assure everyone there's no raised panel lines anywhere, the fuselage is very smooth. What you do see is the sealing tape for all the panels but it is very thin. Scale wise even a decal of these tapes would be oversize in thickness. However, on the 'operational' aircraft that are being deployed now, you don't even see this tape either, it gets painted over.

Thanks for the confirmation, i've never seen it live but it never seemed to me that they were raised.
I've also recently read something about the painting method, looks like LM engineers have developed a simpler and much less expensive way to apply the RAM paint on it, but i can't remember more details or where i read that...

If you PM me an email address I'll send you some of the photos if you like.

[DogfighterZen]

If you PM me an email address I'll send you some of the photos if you like.

PM inboud, kind sir!!