Loaded for Bear - F-35B in Beast Mode

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June 3, 2024
Landing gears are the bane of my existence - fiddling with the struts, praying they end up right and trying to glue them after they are painted only to have the paint strip off is a pain - so I pre-assembled the gears prior to painting. This way, the struts are perfectly aligned and positioned for final assembly into their respective slots.
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June 3, 2024
The Hasegawa nozzle is well engineered to twist for whatever flight mode you want. Tip for making the parts move smoothly is to use the airbrush needle lubricant.
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June 3, 2024
As I noted earlier, the kit is almost Bandai-level idiot proof…
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June 3, 2024
Lift fan
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June 3, 2024
Cockpit in place
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June 3, 2024
I tested out five combinations of Have Glass paint to get this one right. The AK Real Colors was a waste of $$ - too brown. In the end, I settled for the Gunze C37 + AK Extreme Metals Polished Aluminum blend
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June 3, 2024
Priming
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June 3, 2024
I wanted to give this kit a bit of a pre-shade, but most of this was covered up when I had to fine tune the color.
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
C37 + AK Xtreme Aluminum in a 3:1 ratio is what worked best for me. Mr Leveler was added to the mix @ 50-50 ratio
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June 3, 2024
no F-35 is complete without masking
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
One downside to the kit was the lack of details on the GBU decals - so you will need to print or buy a set to make it more realistic
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
The newer color on the left was more realistic than the original F-35A using MMP
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June 3, 2024
MMP would have been excellent - had it not been for the pronounced purple tint
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June 3, 2024
Final comparison
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
the canopy was tinted with a mix of X-19 and X-24 using a 5:1 ratio. This was thinned to 50% with X20A thinner. I think a 4:1 may be better given the golden tint on the actual F-35s.
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
Wheel cables and heat staining on the nozzle flaps
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June 3, 2024
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June 3, 2024
This was a really enjoyable kit for the 1:72 scale. Availability of this kit in the US is a bit scarce, but definitely worth it.
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June 3, 2024

Kommentarer

56 3 June, 03:18

Harald Besold
Great models - very well done!

3 June, 05:01

Giannis Kaltapanidis
Great work. Did you use smoke on the canopy?

3 June, 06:54

CaptGPF
Thank you everyone for your likes. 😀

Harald. I put the two side by side to show the differences in the paint. It was an eye opener to see how there was so much variation on such a color!

Giannis, I used X-19 + X-24 using a 5:1 ratio. Perhaps a 4:1 would have worked better. I'll note this in the pictures for reference.

RichardL from this forum deserves the credit for the Have Glass mixture I based the new build off of - arcforums.com/forums..70-who-got-it-right/

3 June, 15:49