The Lockheed-Martin-BAe F-35D Thunder

[PR19_Kit]

But there aren't any decals for the RAM panels in the kit. How the devil you'd paint just those panels defeats me, some are VERY small and very strangely shaped.

One thing I've found while assembling this kit is that it's not designed to be built with all the doors and hatches closed. In order to do that you have to chop off a number of brackets, hinges and other extraneous bits and pieces or else the aforementioned doors and hatches won't fit. I want to make mine with the hatches closed on one side and open on the other, so I've been doing a lot of chopping and filing. Having done that the hatches and doors don't actually fit too well, so they needed MORE work so that they did.

When they've dried it'll be back on filing off the RAM stuff on the underside, ho hum........................

[zenrat]

Easier for the manufacturer to make the kit have open doors as they then don't have to ensure they fit well.

[PR19_Kit]

So very true!

Mine do now, after mucho filing and fettling, but those saw-tooth edges on the F-35's bits and pieces take some careful filing!

[PR19_Kit]

It was difficult to see if I'd managed to get rid of all the RAM tile outlines, so I gave both upper and lower halves of the airframe a quick coat of grey primer. The upper half looks pretty good now, only one very small area near the lift fan intake needs some more sanding, but the lower half needs LOTS more done to it, and it's pretty difficult too. There are so many curvy indents in the underside that it needs very narrow sanding sticks to get in there and I'm fast running out of them. I've tried the folded up piece of 320 grit wet-and-dry but it's not as good as the sticks I've found.

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And at long last I've found out what those long bulges on the inner weapons bay doors are for too. The inner doors are the actual pylons for the AIM-120 Slammers and they sit on the inside of the doors, and need the bulge to ensure they don't get in the way of the JDAMs carried on the other side of the bay. 

[NARSES2]

Kit re the need for narrow sanding sticks. I've made my own by using some double sided sticky tape that I got in £1 store, some cocktail sticks, coffee stirrers and emery paper. You can make any width you want from 10mm down to 1mm or so, and any grade of emery. I've got a whole stack of them I made earlier 

The tape comes in a pack with a roll of it and individual pads and is quite thick with a "soft" interior. Very useful for lots of things as the soft interior gives it some give. The tape and pads are a couple of mm thick. I also use it for holding small parts to clothes pegs, coffee stirrers etc for painting.

[PR19_Kit]

Ooooh, that's a good idea, thanks Chris, I'll get on and sort some like that out.

Having dug into it via Google Images, the F-35C really DOES have overlapping tailplanes and wings!

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But with some 10 & 20 thou styrene I reckon I can sort that. The -C wing has the same flaps as a B, but has extra ailerons, which the -B doesn't seem to have. Maybe the -B uses 'tailerons'?

And as far as I can see the RAF -Bs don't have a gun at all, does anyone know that for sure, one way or another?

[PR19_Kit]

Hmm, the phrase 'biting off more than you can chew' comes to mind. 

Not only does the F-35C have longer and wider wings than the -A and -B versions, it also has larger tailplanes and larger fins too! Presumably all in the interests of controllability while doing critical carrier approaches, but it makes life difficult for the modeller. Luckily I bought a LOT of styrene.....

[NARSES2]

A picture speaks a thousand words

Here's some of the sanding sticks I made Kit.

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[PR19_Kit]

All the colours in all the sizes. 

[scooter]

And as far as I can see the RAF -Bs don't have a gun at all, does anyone know that for sure, one way or another?

The F-35A is the only one with an internal gun.  Bs and Cs can mount a gun pod...just like Ye Auld Days of the F-4 (excluding the Air Force variants).

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for that Scoot, I can't find anything about the RAF -Bs even having scope for a gun anywhere. At least I can forget about scabbing one on somewhere now.

The scope of the wing change gets worse and worse, the -Cs never seem to fly without a small amount of flap, every single pic I've found shows a distinct difference in the height between the TE of the wing and the LE of the tailplane. There's also differences in the span of the flaps for each version, and so on and so on.

I've started cutting plastic for it anyway, but as a first step I had to groove and snap off the flaperons, which I'd already glued in place. No matter really as they're wrongly shaped for a -C anyway.

Here's the -C wing-tail drawing compared to the plastic of the -B. The red lines show the actual shape of the flaps, but either the drawing is wrong, or that shape is hidden below the LE of the fin.

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[kerick]

People in general and in most of the media think the A, B and C are the same aircraft. It's more like it's three aircraft that share certain components.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm starting to think that too.

McNamara will be laughing in his grave!

[PR19_Kit]

Despite not having finished filing and sanding all the RAM panelling off the underside, I went ahead and glued the engine-lift fan assembly in place after painting it. I didn't paint the engine itself because you can't see even a tiny part of it when the fuselage is closed up, but all the visible bits were done.

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The kit's panting instructions, what there is of them, differ markedly from the colours I've found doing Google Image searches of the F-35B, and I've gone with the RW colours.


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This is the mind bogglingly complex swivelling exhaust nozzle , and some reviewers have added miles of pipe on the outside of this bit. Not me, this is an F-35D and they simplified it greatly for that version. 

[Kit's 2nd Rule applies....}

[Wardukw]

  
Love rule number 2