F35A Lightning II (Italeri) | Build Log
Ejection seat parts
Ejection seat assembled
Assembled and painted, with a wash
F18 pilot (the only figure I had remotely close to the jet age)
Painted figure
With a wash
Photoetch seatbelts
Adding PE foot pedals
Finished dashboard
Pilot in the seat. The seatbelts are loose since they didn't quite fit
Cockpit before assembly
Cockpit with dashboard installed
The pilot had to go under reconstructive leg surgery because his legs were too long. I had to cut each leg off and then shorten it at the knee, then reattach it.
Cockpit mated into the fuselage
Weapons bay parts
Weapons bay assembled
Pre shading weapons bay
Weapons bay painted and with a wash
Weapons bay installed into fuselage
Air intake parts
Assembled air intake
Turbofan parts
Assembled F135 engine
Landing gear bay parts
Landing gear parts
Assembled and painted landing gears
Landing gears mated to the fuselage
Nose gear bay and parts
Assembled nose gear
Nose gear mated to fuselage
Top and bottom of fuselage mated
Nose added to fuselage
Control surface parts
Control surfaces assembled
Ailerons added to wings
Wings and elevons mated to fuselage
Some gap filling for the wings
Ladder access hatch closed
Vertical stabilizer parts
Vertical stabilizers assembled
Vertical stabilizers attached to fuselage
Ready for main body paint job (other subassemblies will be painted and attached separately to make things cleaner in the end)
Masking off pre-painted areas
Coated with Vallejo black primer. Ready for some pre-shading
Pre-shading done! Ready to move on to the real paint job
Started painting with the light grey tone that is used for the radar tape and nose. Next to mask that off and go over the whole aircraft with it's darker grey fuselage color
I wish I was exaggerating when I say that it took me 18 hours to mask off all the light grey areas. The kit comes with some sticker masks but those account for less than 25% of what needed to be masked for this kit. You can see the sticker masks that came with the kit in white, whereas the rest of my tape here is green and yellow
It's finally starting to take shape after the main coat! Peeling off all that tape was very satisfying. The contrast between the 2 greys is a bit too stark for my liking, so after cleaning up a few small areas, I'll apply a thin coat of grey over the whole thing to help blend the colors together a bit
Softened up the contrast a great deal by adding a few thin coats of a different grey shade.
Disaster struck today as I tried to darken the whole plane today. I tried to add a thin layer of a black-ish color to darken the whole thing. It ended up being patchy and I kept adding layers to try to even put the coat. I'm really unhappy with how it looks now, so I'll be promptly stripping all the paint off the fuselage and starting over. I've ordered some new paint which matches the exact colors of the F35, so no more guesswork trying to mix paints. Not looking forward to another 18 hours of masking, but you love and you learn.
Spent a few hours stripping all the paint off, then re-primed the whole thing with a light ghost grey. This is, according to the US Navy, the exact color these are painted (in the trim sections). It looks a bit light to me but we'll see how it looks once the main fuselage color is on.
Finally repainted after that catastrophe! Took another 30 hours to get back to this point. I'm ready to move on with the build.
Starting on weapon bay and landing gear doors
All doors painted and ready to attach to the airframe. I'll probably save this for the last step because it looks like a rather fragile addition and I don't want to risk snapping one of the doors off while I paint up the rest of the plane
Exhaust can and cover parts
Exhaust cover painted
Exhaust can painted
Installed the bottom of the exhaust cover
Installed the exhaust can and the top of the exhaust cover
Decals applied to the main airframe, just need to attach wheels, canopy, and armaments next
Wing pylon part
More wing pylon parts
Assembled pylons
Assembled and painted pylons
Sidewinder mount parts
Assembled sidewinder mounts
Painted sidewinder mounts
AIM-120 parts
Assembled AIM-120s
Painted AIM-120, ready to be mounted into the airframe
JDAM parts
Assembled JDAMs
Painted JDAM, ready to be mounted to the wing pylon
Sidewinder parts
Assembled sidewinders
Landing light parts
Assembled and painted landing lights
Painted gear bay supports and AIM-120 gear bay mount
Added the gear bay supports to the bay door
Added all the armaments to the wings! We're almost done with the build now. Just need to add the canopy, wheels, and some other small parts
Nose radar section parts
Radar assembled and attached
Wheel parts
Wheels assembled
Wheels painted
Wheels attached!
Added a tiny bit of weathering over the top of the airframe, in a copper-ish burnt umber tone to simulate heat rash that I've seen on some F35s
Beacon light parts
Painted the underside of the clear parts with acrylic ink to preserve some transparency. Came out pretty good I think
Installed the beacon lights
Got the canopy and the pilot tubes installed. It was a struggle getting the canopy on there, the fit is absolutely terrible. You can see that it didn't fit perfectly but fixing that is above my current skill level as a modeler
She's finally done! This aircraft was an absolute tape queen. I am pretty happy with how it came out, it's not perfect but I think it's my best work so far. Now to make the base before calling this project done.
I found this wood plaque at Michaels that looks like it'll be the perfect size for the base.
Going to use cork as the actual material that gets painted up to look like concrete. Cut the cork to size here
Painted up the base to look like a parking spot. Added some tire streaking too
The plane on the base. More pics to come!
Kommentit
47 20 January, 04:10
Michael Schubert
How'd I miss this build so far!? Looks awesome..we can tell you have put the hours in to making it as good as it is! 👍
How'd I miss this build so far!? Looks awesome..we can tell you have put the hours in to making it as good as it is! 👍
24 February, 00:51
Jennifer Franklin
This is looking very good. That masking must have been painful to do.
This is looking very good. That masking must have been painful to do.
24 February, 14:57
Alex Dovzhanyn
Thanks Jennifer! Yeah it was quite a pain. I wish the sticker masks that came with the kit lined up better with the actual panel lines in some areas, as now I have to go and touch those areas up before moving on
Thanks Jennifer! Yeah it was quite a pain. I wish the sticker masks that came with the kit lined up better with the actual panel lines in some areas, as now I have to go and touch those areas up before moving on
25 February, 06:50