F-42B Tempest *** Finished *** Photos on page 2

[DogfighterZen]

Yup, excellent work as always!

[jalles]

Slow and steady progress is being made.

Here are the DSI (Diverterless Supersonic Inlet) humps getting PSRed on to the bottom.



Once that's done the inlets can be glued on top.



And then it's a three of four more rounds of PSR to to get the inlets to blend in correctly. I think I'm finally there.



I've also been spending way too much time fiddling around with the exhaust. Many apoxie sculpt sessions later and I think I finally have it done.

Here's the bottom:



Here's the top:



Hopefully I can start with the weapons and landing gear bays this weekend.  I really want the weapons bay open, but I think it's going to distract from the lines of the engine nacelles.

[63cpe]

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH WOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW! 

This is amazing! 
Going to follow this!

Thanks for sharing!
David aka 63 cpe

[Steel Penguin]

zoinks!   that's looking smart 

[NARSES2]

zoinks!   that's looking smart 

Very

[zenrat]

zoinks!   that's looking smart 

Very

Indeed.

[jalles]

zoinks!   that's looking smart 

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH WOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW! 

This is amazing! 

Thanks guys!

[jalles]

I was hoping to get 12 AMRAAMs internally, but I don't think it's going to happen.  So 10 it is.

Laying out the wheel wells and weapons bays. I'm not sure what I'd do without my Silhouette Portrait craft cutter. It make things like this much easier.



Now with some holes cut in the bottom.



And finally, working on the gear and weapons bays.

[DogfighterZen]

I simply 

[jalles]

So I was going to use AMRAAMs for armament but I think Meteors make more sense. Unfortunately they're a bit bulky (wider fin span than an AIM-120C). If MBDA were going to optimize the Meteor for internal carriage, do you think they'd use folding fins or smaller fins (like they did with the AMRAAM)?

[AeroplaneDriver]

This is looking absolutely gorgeous!  A masterpiece in the making!   

[jalles]

This is looking absolutely gorgeous!  A masterpiece in the making!   

Thanks!  Although the way things are going, I'll be happy with "competently assembled".

So after making one Meteor with folding fins (I think it looked awful), I've decided to go with smaller fins.

[jalles]

Progress continues, although slowly. The top and bottom are glued together and after the usual PSR, it's finally looking pretty good. I've tried creating various sensors but none of them look better than leaving the airframe clean, so I think that's what I'll do. I have an extra EOTS from a 1/72 hasegawa F-35 that I'll probably use, but other than that I'll just say the sensors are conformal 

I started modifying the Meteors with clipped fins, and then I found an actual brochure from MBDA that shows how they'll shorten the fins in realty. Needless to say it's not how I did it  I have four modified. I'm trying to decide if I should modify four Meteors like my original four, or rework the ones I've modified (cut off the existing fins and make new ones like in the MBDA brochure) and modify my other four, untouched Meteors, as it shows in the brochure.

Here, you can see how MBDA will just clip the fins.



Here's the top so far, I think I'm close to scribing panel lines.



Here's the bottom.

[dwomby]

great design and brilliant execution.   Very, very impressive.

David

[jalles]

I wanted to write a backstory, but I thought I should get pictures posted before the deadline.

*** EDIT I finally came up a backstory ***

In 2021, the U.S. Air Force developed a requirement for a 6th generation air superiority fighter to replace the F-22 Raptor and F-15 Eagle under the Penetrating Counter Air banner (PCA). The request for proposals (RFP) was issued in July 2023 and two contractor teams, Lockheed Martin and Boeing/Northrop Grumman, were selected on the 31 October 2025 to undertake a 36-month demonstration phase, culminating in the flight test of two technology demonstrator prototypes, the YF-38 and the YF-42.

During this same time, Britain was trying to develop a 6th generation fighter under the Tempest program. Working with a modest defense budget, Britain looked to foreign partners to share in development costs. Saudi Arabia and Japan both showed interest in the program but ultimately the deal fell through.

After the flight test demonstration and validation of the PCA prototypes, on 23 April 2027, The Secretary of the USAF declared the YF-42 as the winner of the PCA competition.

In Britain, it was becoming obvious that developing an indigenous 6th generation fighter was going to be prohibitively expensive. Soon talks were underway for Britain to join the PCA program and BAE was awarded a considerable workshare developing the EW suite for the F-42.  In addition, many subcomponents would be produced in Britain and shipped to the United States for final assembly.

Britain ultimately purchased 60 F-42As and 42 F-42Bs. The F-42A was the single-seat all-weather air-superiority fighter version equipped with directed energy weapons and a sizeable weapons load. The F-42B, with its two-man crew, was optimized for leading unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), typically controlling a four-ship formation with the pilot concentrating on flying the plane and the weapons system operator (WSO) directing and allocating targets for the UCAVs.


I wish I had more work in process photos, but I was so pressed for time I didn't have a chance. So here it is: