F-35A Lightning II

1
January 3, 2023
The start
2
January 3, 2023
Joining fuselage
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January 4, 2023
Masking
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January 4, 2023
I painted mine, first coat of the Z13 version with the Tamiya mix LP15 : 5 to LP59 : 1 mix it looks pretty good but I have the AK-RC245 on order. I am doing the build a little out of order. I used the closed gear and weapons bay doors to paint it but my build will be with the gear down. I also used the Tamiya LP14 : 7 LP59 : 1 mix on the intakes and leading edges. LP36 : 5 LP59 : 1 mix on the nose cone. Probably the most masking on any model I have done. I missed the X-do not glue on the flap install (41) page 17. not sure why that is but you could probably swap flaps up and down as it was a tight fit but mine are glued on now. It actually looks quite a bit darker than this photo.

1st coat
5
January 5, 2023
AK245 Have Gloss paint
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January 5, 2023
7
January 6, 2023
Day 3 of applying decals
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January 6, 2023
Decals on the tail, I spent about 6 hours today just on decals, 2 hours of that was just locating them. Used a magnifier quite a bit.

Gary Norton
The decals show up better on the AK RC245 paint. But I'm sure most will have issues with the decals, the larger ones are quite difficult to position especially on the verticle tail outer edge in hindsight I should have applied them before attaching them to the fuselage but that would have made painting more difficult. I'm just into this build but for someone who doesn't do a lot of this on a regular basis, I'm happy so far on the build.

5 January 2023, 21:36