Italeri F-35A RNethAF

[artoor_k]

Finally someone is doing a WIP of this one.

 

2 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Looks great! Someone did do an F-35 exhaust, PE IIRC, but I just dont remember who exactly.

 

Tomkit

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1125985-tomkit-32001-f-35a-photoetched-exhaust-nozzle

[mgbooyv8]

Thanks guys, it's appreciated!!!

 

The main wheel- and weapon bays were glued into the lower fuselage half:

 

Good clamping and an extra bead of glue was required here to ensure a good bond. You don't want them to come loose after the fuselage halves have been joined!

I used MEK and Revell Contacta Professional (the bottle with the needle) to make a solid plastic joint.

Do'nt forget to scrape away the paint!

The fit of the bays into the fuselage was good.

 

The nose wheel bay was fitted using the same approach:

 

The fit here was also OK.

 

There was a gap at the outer edge of the main gear bays, which had to be closed with some plastic strip.

Otherwise, there is possibly a see-thru effect from the adjacent air scoops:

 

 

The sides of the refuelling receptacle on the spine were also closed with some plastic strip:

 

The fit of the part was also OK here.

 

The seams in wings and tailplanes were filled with Vallejo acryl  putty.

It can be wiped away with a finger or a damp cotton bud, without any sanding:

 

The way Italeri wants you to attach the wings to the fuselage can lead to trouble,

as there is no way to clamp the wings satisfactorily after the fuselage halves have been joined.

And the fit of the wings is OK but with fairly large tolerances.

 

Because the join on the top side has to be invisible, I decided to attach the wings to the upper half of the fuselage first, before joining it with the lower half.

This way I could clamp the generous gluing surfaces to obtain a good join:

 

To be continued...

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[Mark M]

im going to follow this with interest, i only wish they would bring out a B model

[GMK]

That looks great, Peter. Looks like a build that rewards planning & care. 

[mgbooyv8]

Thanks guys!

Indeed, this build rewards planning and care.

 

The seams between the wings and the upper half of the fuselage was filled with stretched sprue (plenty in the kit! ), like this:

 

This way there will be no shrinkage of filler and while sanding it is easier to obtain a smooth surface,

because the material in the seam is the same as the material around it.

 

Fitting the lower half of the fuselage, it became clear that the area's behind the flap- and slats had a gap, which compromised strength and fit of the lower half of the wings.

This crappy picture showed the area behind the flap:

 

And here the area behind the slat:

 

Some plastic strip was added at the offending places:

 

Job done!

 

Ofcourse, in the engine intakes the colour demarcation between the interior and the exterior colour did not correspond with the join in the kit.

The interior had to be masked before the engine intakes were being installed in the fuselage:

 

Test fitting of the intakes showed that is was better to glue the forward edges to the bottom fuselage first,

before joining both sides together at the engine compressor face.

This way, the seams at the forward edge are minimized.

 

Here the forward edge of the port engine intake is glued into the fuselage:

 

To be continued.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by mgbooyv8
submit button pressed too early

[CruZz]

Good luck! Working on mine over 1 year. This kit is really bad. I made resin Tail set and flaps set. 

Link

Edited December 31, 2018 by CruZz

[mgbooyv8]

Hi CruZz,

 

Your bays look very good!

I don't think it is a very bad kit, although engineering could be better in places, like the wing-fuselage joint.

Also, don't forget that many things about the F-35 are still classified, also for kit manufacturers.

Within the limitations, Italeri did a creditable job to make this kit.

For now it is the most accurate F-35 in this scale!

Although by no means perfect, It looks the part,  and for me, for this subject, that is enough.

 

Anyone interested in the accuracy of the shapes and possible corrections, have a look on the website of my modelling friend Meindert:

https://designer.home.xs4all.nl/models/f35-32/f35-32-1.htm

 

Where were we...ah, yes, the engine intakes.

After both intakes were glued at their forward edge in the lower fuselage half, the rear edges had a gap between each other.

A clamp was needed to force them together while the glue hardened (make sure the bonds at the forward edges have been hardenend completely!) :

 

The join will not be seen from the outside. Even the compressor face cannot be seen from the outside!

 By the way, a compressor face is a big radar reflector, so it must be hidden from outside. Important in a stealth aircraft.

 

Then it was time to install the engine.

First, the engine was placed in bulkhead and the glue got time to harden.

 

During dryfitting, it looked like the engine bulkhead did not fit into the lower fuselage half. This was the result of some flex in the latter.

A clamp was needed to  fix the bulkhead in place.

To aid with alignment, the front of the engine was taped to the air intakes:

 

This way, the exhaust side of the engine also fitted snugly into the rear of the fuselage and liquid glue coud be run into the join.

 

After the glue had hardened out, engine and air intakes were joined together.

A generous amount of tape was needed to provide sufficient force during hardening of the glue:

 

The separate plates next to the engine exhaust were also installed.

 

There was no visible seam between engine and air intakes:

 

The internals of the lower fuselage were now complete!

 

To be continued.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[CruZz]

good job Peter and thank you.

 

Ok, maybe I´m a little bit pessimist. But the molding skill of Italeri is still like from 80´s... 

Check your RAM panels on sides of fuselage, on bottom of the engine...  

 

I hope my kit will be done in end of january. Will send some photos then...

 

GL to rest of the build :-)

 

[otis252]

Looks like it's going together pretty well. I just wish an aftermarket company would address the most glaring weakness of the kit in my mind. The woefully undersized afterburner nozzle replaced with a larger one would change the look of the kit a lot to my eye. Thanks,

Chuck

[mgbooyv8]

Hi guys,

Thanks!

 

CruZz, I look forward to your finished kit.

What I'm describing now has happended in the past, so any changes to the RAM panels will not be incorporated anymore.

Thanks for the warning, maybe someone else can benefit.

 

Hi Otis, with respect to the undersized afterburner nozzle  - if I understand correct, it is the exhaust part that you mean.

Any correction will also involve significant modification of the rear end of the fuselage, maybe that's why there is not (yet ) a bigger aftermarket solution for it.

 

With the parts in  the lower fuselage sorted, it was time to give attention to the parts in the upper fuselage,

starting with the cockpit.

 

When I started the kit, there was not yet an Eduard set, so, I used the kit parts only.

They are effective in recreating the rather bare cockpit of the original.

 

Usually, on a parked aircraft, the systems are switched off, so the displays will be the familiar dark grey colour of any flat screen.

However, I could not resist using the decal for the main display. Call it artistic licence.

The decal was slightly too large and had to be trimmed at its lower- and side edges:

 

Also the provided transparent film covering the decal had to be trimmed slightly to fit in the recess of the main display (no picture).

 

The rudder pedals are etched metal:

 

A side view of the tub:

 

And here it is installed in the upper fuselage half. The fit was excellent:

 

The hinges for the canopy in open position were installed in the openings forward of the coaming.

They had to be glued on the inside of the fuselage.

Warned by a friend that these parts can come loose if not careful, I secured them with a piece of plastic sheet:

The plastic sheet was later firmly attached to the sides with additional scrap plastic.

 

Based on pictures, I interpreted the small transparent parts behind the cockit as some kind of lights, so I added some aluminium foil behind them.

This also prevents a see-through effect which is not there:

 

And then it was time to close-up the fuselage!

 

The best approach was to glue in sections, letting dry in between. I started at the rear side:

 

Working my way to the front:

 

The big clamps on the wings had pushed the fuselage side of the lower surface a little bit too deep.

I needed some strip to make good the surface again.

To ease sanding, I sacrificed the adjacent moulded features and made new ones from thin plastic sheet (after having measured the originals first!):

 

And the other side:

 

The air intakes needed a few pieces of plastic strip and some putty to fair them in into the edges. A fiddly little job (no pictures I'm afraid  ).

By the way, no nose weight is needed!

The maximum of 10 pictures per post has been reached, so the story will continue in the next post.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

[mgbooyv8]

The forward main gear doors are closed on the ground.

The previously installed hinge was cut off to make the door fit:

 

After priming with my favourite Revell 75 enamel mixed with thinner and white spirit.

and after checking all the seams,

and after masking the cockpit, wheelbays and weapon bays,

finally the first colour could be sprayed on.

 

For the light colour of the RAM panels, I used a 60:40 ratio of FS 36275 and FS 36170. The latter is available as an enamel from Colourcoats.

For the first colour I used Humbrol 127.

This was the result:

 

 

Then, after 6 months on the SOD, I started masking.

This is where I was at the beginningof the thread:

 

 

Some more pictures of the work involved:

 

 

 

And ofcourse, spraying FS 36170 took considerable less time!

 

 

 

The big reveal after removing the masking will be in the next post.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[mgbooyv8]

...And here is the F-35 with all its masking removed:

 

 

I'm now in the process of gloss coats, polishing, another gloss coat etc.

For gloss coat, I use alclad Aqua Gloss.

For the Have Glass effect, I will use MRP Have Glass matt laquer. But being matt, that will have to be applied after decalling.

 

To be continued!

However, that will take some time, because I will be on a business trip the next couple of weeks.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[TorbenD]

Lovely stuff - that masking marathon worth every single minute of time.

 

Torben

[mgbooyv8]

Thanks Torben!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[Marcel111]

That is looking very good!