The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters. This fifth-generation combat aircraft is designed to perform
ground attack and air defense missions
For my build of the 1:48 Meng F-35A kit I wanted to portray a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-35A which meant that I would need to source decals from outside
the box. Having served in the RAAF for 9 years back in the 1980's when we received our first F/A-18A's I am following along with interest as this new strike fighter
enters Australian service.
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The F-35A Lightning II will provide for Australia's future air combat and strike needs. Australia has committed to 72 F-35A aircraft for three operational squadrons
at RAAF Base Williamtown (3Sqn & 77Sqn) and RAAF Base Tindal (75Sqn), and a training squadron at RAAF Base Williamtown (2OCU). In the future, a fourth operational squadron
will be considered for RAAF Base Amberley, for a total of 100 F-35A aircraft. The first F-35A aircraft is scheduled to be accepted into Australian service
in 2018 and the first squadron, Number 3 Squadron, will be operational in 2021. All 72 aircraft are expected to be fully operational by 2023.
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GENERAL THOUGHTS - Meng F-35A Lightning II (LS-007)
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Meng are not the first to release an F-35A in 1:48 with Kittyhawk having released their entire family (A, B and C) of F-35's several years ago. At the time that
KH released their kits I jumped straight in to build a USMC B model. Suffice to say that I still have not finished that model as the KH kit was one of their
first releases and had some 'issues'. So it was with some anticipation (having just finished the excellent Meng 1:48 P-51D) that I awaited the Meng F-35A release.
Once I had the kit in my hot little hands I did a
quick box review and concluded that Meng had pretty much nailed it once again.
Of course no kit is perfect (do people even still expect kits to be perfect?) and during my build I have added some detail, sourced some aftermarket decals
and picked up some aftermarket goodies to make my build that much more enjoyable.
At the time of writing there were also a number of other aftermarket sets either available or planned for the Meng kit. I won't be using any of these sets as I plan
to build my model in flight (yes another pole sitter) but include them here for completeness:
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When most people think about the new F-35 they seem to focus on its 'stealth' characteristics and many of the scale models I have seen built (in all three scales) tend to show the aircraft
in a totally clean 'stealthy' configuration. Always looking for something a bit different in my modeling projects I was attracted to building an F-35 in a Air Superiority
configuration or what has been called Beast Mode
In such a configuration the aircraft essentially becomes a bomb truck with little on no concern for low observability or 'stealth'. Meng provides all the appropriate external
pylons for each wing (3 per side) onto which ordinance can be fitted. You can of course also model the main weapons bay open which allows for a lot of missiles and
bombs to be carried in total. According to the specs around 22,000 lbs whilst still allowing for a combat radius of 1,390 kms.
Cleverly released at the same time as the first boxing of their F-35A kit, Meng has provided us with three (3) new sets of 1/48 modern aircraft weapons, many of which
are planned to be fitted to the F-35 in the confined space of the internal weapons bay. I will be using several of the weapons from these sets in my build, so we will get
a close up look at them later.
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The other challenge that will be faced by anyone building an F-35 is matching the exterior paint colors. You might think this sounds easy, after all several model
paint manufacturers have already released colours in their range which are meant to match the new Camouflage Grey (FS36170) designated in FS-595 as the F-35 paint.
In my testing of those 'out of the bottle' F-35 paints I have not found one that matches to my satisfaction the photos of real F-35's in the wild. Of course having said
that the pesky 'Have Glass' finish applied to the F-35 also means that the perceived color of the paint can change dramatically as the lighting and camera angle
changes. All in all this makes getting a realistic paint match to a real world F-35 very challenging indeed and as with most modeling tasks we will almost certainly
have to be satisfied with a compromise.
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BUILDING - Meng F-35A Lightning II (LS-007)
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My plan is to have my model displayed in flight in a very sharp turn, meaning that the bottom of the aircraft will be easily seen. With this in mind I absolutely
wanted to have the main weapons bay open. I was a bit underwhelmed by the level of interior detail provided by Meng and decided to add some of my own based on what reference
I could find. One thing to note is that the two bays are not symmetrical. To this end you should omit part F1 from the starboard bay as it looked to me to only be present in the port
bay.
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A quick comparison of the real thing with the Meng molded on weapons bay detail made up my mind on what would come next. When it comes to adding detail in areas like this I never
try and match 'wire for wire' but rather try to add enough to the model to make it look 'busy' or 'full'. I also kept reminding myself that once the weapons were added much of
the underlying detail would not be seen.
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With electrical copper wire (of assorted gauges) in hand I started making looms or bundles to represent electrical cables which weave their way through and within the weapons bay.
Thicker wire was employed for the hydraulic piping and strips of Tamiya tape used to simulate the insulation on the thickest pipes. As I mentioned before I like to
use reference photos to give me a general sense of where cabling and piping run and then just used my imagination. I could have always added
more, but decided that I had enough for my original objective of busying up the bays.
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With the detailing work complete it was time for a coat of grey primer (Tamiya) to seal the metal parts and see how it looked. Next came a base coat of black
(Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black) over which I then painted the final white coat (Mr Paint). These days whenever I paint white I always use a Black base coat as I find it just gives
the white more depth.
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An hour or so of detail hand painting the cable and pipes and the weapon bays are 90% complete. I like to use Vallejo acrylics for hand painting and for
metallic brush painting I have yet to find a better option than Citadel 'Games Workshop' paints.
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With construction all but complete it's time to get serious about painting and markings. At the start of this build I had planned to use markings for one of the
very first F-35A's delivered to the RAAF. A35-001 and A35-002 have been assigned to No 2OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) and I obtained the decals for these aircraft from
Ronin Graphics, one of our excellent local decal manufacturers here in Australia. These decals are
hand silk screen printed, meticulously researched and include all the stenciling. Before I got to the actual painting stage, the RAAF took
delivery of our 3rd and 4th aircraft (A35-003 and A35-004) which have been assigned to No 3 Squadron, the first of our actual operational squadrons to be equipped.
Ronin Graphics were again super quick off the mark and had the new decals ready within weeks.
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There is not really a lot of differences between the paint schemes of F-35's, regardless of what country you end up depicting. One thing that has been noticed
recently is that newer aircraft coming off the production line have RAM paneling that is far more subdued where the RAM color almost matches the rest of the
airframe. The newer RAAF aircraft (003 & 004) seem to be like this and to be honest I find it a little boring in that they are pretty much one color
all over. The RAM paneling does help to add visual interest to the model and so I decided to stick with the 2OCU scheme I had originally planned on.
One other thing worth mentioning for those planning to build an RAAF aircraft, the Kangaroos on our roundels ALWAYS face forward.
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Moving now to prepare for masking and paint I used primer to check my construction and seam work. My primer of choice is Tamiya Fine Grey Primer which comes in a
rattle can. I decant this using a straw into a bottle and then apply with my airbrush, giving me far more control. This paint is lacquer based and works well
as a primer as the lacquer seems to lightly etch itself into the plastic resulting a super smooth and resilient base coat.
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As I approached the masking stage I had some idea of how much work the RAM paneling was going to be. My initial plan was to mask all the RAM paneling myself, but
as I read a few other builds online I realised that I had grossly underestimated the work involved and was therefore pleased to find a pre-cut mask set
for the Meng kit made by
Galaxy Models (D48003).
A quick eBay search located these for sale for around US$18 in China with free postage.
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The Galaxy Models (D48003) mask set provides
precision laser cut masks made from Washi (aka Kabuki) paper tape (the same stuff used by Tamiya for their tape). Much like Tamiya tape its very flexible and forgiving
so you can remove and reposition several times to get the alignment just right. The set includes masks for canopy, wheels and of course the main attraction the RAM panels.
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With the masking complete all I had to do was select the right colors and start spraying, sounds easy right? Well it turned out to be anything but easy. The more
photos of F-35's I looked at the more I became convinced it was a Lockheed Martin conspiracy to paint these things in a grey that was almost impossible to duplicate
with any consistency. Of course photos of aircraft at different times of day and at different angles to the camera all resulted in the paint looking anything from a
very warm grey to a cold blue grey. If you google for F-35 paint you will end up finding that they are all painted in a standard color, FS36170 Camouflage Grey.
At the time of writing there are several model paint manufacturers that make FS36170 out of the bottle, including Mission Models, Mr Paint, Hataka etc. Many of the kit
manufacturers will have you using FS36118 Gunship Grey and its the reason I included the reference photo below to sway you away from that idea.
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As I had some good quality publicity photos of the RAAF aircraft, taken in what seemed like good lighting conditions I decided to settle on this grey
as the basis for my paint matching. Perfect solution, no, best option I could find given I did not have physical access to my very own F-35 in the back yard, yes.
With this is mind I did a bunch of test spraying using the pre-tinted FS36170 and found none of them to my liking (some were too dark, some too warm etc).
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It just so happened that around this time I got my hands on some of the new Tamiya Lacquer range and while I was mucking around test spraying these I noticed that one of
new greys in this range LP-13 IJN gray (Sasebo Arsenal) actually looked like a pretty close match (at least to my eyes) to what I was after. Needing to make a
decision I bit the bullet and covered the Meng airframe in this color. End result, I was pretty happy with how it looked.
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With the base coat down, next came the masking and then more masking and finally more masking. After I applied half of the masks to the bottom of the model
I found myself wondering how I ever thought I would do this manually. If you have this kit to build, do yourself a favour and order that Galaxy Models mask set now.
Stop reading this and order it, seriously :) The weapon bays were masked with some large chunks of soft foam (quick and easy). The areas in-between the pre-cut masks
were filled with small sections on Tamiya tape to cater for overspray.
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The next color I had to decide on was for the RAM panels themselves. Initially I settled on Dark Gull Gray FS36231 but after a couple of tests decided it needed to be
a bit warmer and liked the effect I got when mixing it 50/50 with FS36170 Camouflage Grey. I happened to have both these colors in the Mr Paint range but you could mix something
similar from most any paint manufacturer.
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One thing to note is that the pre-cut masks do not give you everything you need to mask the whole model. In particular much of the wing leading slats and
wing tip need to be masked by hand using reference photos. Likewise the tail (vertical and horizontal) needs to manually masked. I have included a bunch of close up photos
below to show how I did it to save you some time.
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My RAM panel mix was again applied to the upper surface and the wonderful Galaxy Models masks removed (did I tell you to order those masks yet?). The pace was starting
to pick up now and I was keen to get to decaling. Three light coats of Future gave me a deep solid gloss clear to protect the paint below and give the Ronin Graphics
decals something to adhere to. Note how the gloss clear has considerably darkened the grey. This is normal and will lighten up once I apply the final semi-gloss Have Glass V finish.
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I took the liberty of painting a couple of the wing and tail panels in the very distinctive epoxy primer color. This was just to simulate some replacement
panels on the aircraft (and break up all that grey). Mr Paint has this odd color in their range as
MRP-191 US NON CHROMATE EPOXY PRIMER.
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The hand silk screen printed decal sheet from Ronin is physically quite small, even though you are provided with enough serial codes to do any of the RAAF's first 12
aircraft (eventually we will get 72 with an option for more). The decals are very finely printed with even the smallest stenciling being readable under sufficient magnification.
Even though it might not look it here on the blue backing paper the decals colors are accurate once removed from the sheet and applied to the model.
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Speaking to Steve from Ronin about the best way to apply his decals, he recommends to not use commercial setting solutions rather plain water with a few drops of
mild washing detergent to act as a wetting agent. I gave this a go and it worked but I'm a long time Microscale Set and Sol user and found myself reaching
for these bottles after a while just because it made me comfortable :) The decals performed perfectly, being super thin and they nestled down into the finest of
detail all by themselves.
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I applied the major decals first and allowed to dry overnight. I then systematically worked my way around the airframe and applied all the stencils and safety markings.
I regularly checked reference photos but could not find any markings that Ronin had missed, a testament to their attention to detail. When all decals were dry I sealed them
with a final coat of gloss clear (Future in my case).
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The last stage of the painting was the clear coat. It was now I had to decide if I was going to attempt to tackle the Have Glass V finish seen on the F-35. From what I can
tell the Have Glass system involves the addition of metallic particles to the paint to reduce the radar signature of the aircraft. When seen in photos it has that shiny, almost
slimey look to it from certain angles. Several paint manufacturers have now released Have Glass clear paints and I tested the Mr Paint option but was not happy with the
finish it gave. To my eye it was too matt and the suspended metallic particles too large which made them obvious when sprayed over the dark grey.
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In the end (after much experimentation) I opted for a custom mix of my own using Mr Color lacquer paints. A 10:1 mix ratio of Mr Color C181 Semi Gloss clear and C8 Silver
was used and heavily thinned with Mr Color Leveling Thinner. This was lightly misted onto the entire model (over the paint, RAM panels and decals). I found that
about 3 coats gave a reasonable effect without becoming too noticeable.
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If you have ever used Mr Color Semi Gloss clear you will know that it is anything but 'semi-gloss'. It's very glossy and so it was necessary to tone it down with
some Mr Color C182 Flat Clear until I got the level of sheen I wanted. The inclusion of the Silver paint in the clear also had the expected effect of visibly lightening
the grey paints it was applied over. After a bit of tweaking and adjusting I was eventually able to get a finish I was satisfied with.
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With the main airframe now complete my attention returned to the addons such as weapons, pylons and of course the exhaust nozzle. It seemed I had been mixing and blending
just about every color on this model so far, why stop with the nozzle. I used Mr Color C10 Copper as the base and added Red, Orange and White until I got close
to the effect I wanted. Once the paint was dry I sealed it with Clear Gloss and then used a dark wash to separate the petals and highlight the details. The Galaxy Model
mask set had pre-cut segments to help mask the serrated tips of the nozzle.
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As noted previously in my write up, I wanted to display my model in Beast Mode with all the external pylons fitted and fully loaded. I had already prepared
the weapons from various sources and now I had to paint, weather and decal them. Working with modern ordinance like LGB and JDAM bombs means a lot of tricky masking
as the weapon has several components that are different in color. It means the bombs look way more interesting, it also means way more work.
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The body of the bombs were first painted XF62 Olive Drab and them some weathering applied with a light oversrpay of XF60 Dark Yellow which made the Olive Drab look
a tad faded. This was all then masked off and the Mr Color C308 FS36375 Light Ghost Grey components sprayed. I also opted to spray the tail unit
on one of the GBU-12s in FS34095 Medium Field Green to mix things up a bit.
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For the stenciling on the weapons I used a combination of those provided in the Meng weapon sets and the excellent (now out of print)
Afterburner USAF Armament Decal Set Part 2
for the JDAMs and GBU-12 LGBs. After decaling and final washes I applied a generous Flat Coat to tone everything down a bit. In the end I think they look
good and add that bit of interest to the otherwise monotone F-35.
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FINAL THOUGHTS - Meng F-35A Lightning II (LS-007)
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Overall I think that Meng have another winner here. As a follow up to their very nice
P-51D in 1/48 I think they have improved. The way they have
engineered this kit makes the build super simple, the fit of the parts is excellent and the accuracy (as best I can tell based on reference photos) is
spot on. Even though it took me forever to sort out my paint choices and Have Glass solution that was no fault of the kit itself, just me being an
old fuddy duddy (more than usual).
I went back and looked at my initial impression in the Box Review and having now built and painted
the model I believe that the RAM paneling is actually just about right for this scale.
With two Meng aircraft under my belt now I really like what they have been doing. I'm hoping they continue to work on new aircraft and that soon we
hear of upcoming releases.
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To finish off let me leave you with some photos of the finished model displayed in a tight bank to better show off all that extra work underneath.
I'm happy with how it turned out and of course should I ever build another one there are things I would do differently, wouldn't we all.
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