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Italeri F-35A RNethAF


mgbooyv8

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Thanks guys!

 

Has it really been more than 3 months ago?

Time's flying fast!

I did some work on the F-35 but did not get around posting it, life got in the way etc.

 

Started making a post, uploaded new pictures to Flickr only to find out that the forum software did not allow the Flickr URL to be inserted into the post.

Apparently something has changed. Maybe something within Flickr?

Hmm, I have to sort this out first before I can continue. :hmmm:

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

 

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Sorted!

 

Anyway, where were we... ah, yes!

After making the canopy frame, I attached the hinges to almost all the doors and gave their interiors an additional layer of white:

48274446226_bddd755877_b.jpg

 

The small doors were put into the outer weapon and the main gear legs were painted :48274544152_aff6e8e77a_b.jpgbay doors

 

Deviating from the instructions, I installed the large inner weapon bay doors first:

48274541327_c0043eef17_b.jpg

 

48274542622_cbef3a1680_b.jpg

 

Followed by the small inner weapon bay doors:

48274539897_0267796747_b.jpg

 

This way, they were much easier to install than toe other way around, as suggested by the instructions.:)

 

Adding the pylons for the AMRAAMs was very fiddly. what I should have done was putting their mounting plates to the hinges of the small inner doors, before mounting them to the fuselage. This acually WAS suggested by the instructions!:blush:

Now I had to remove small alignment pins in order to make them fit.

Here are the results:

48274538307_1b70233888_b.jpg

 

48274455361_88a5b363ee_b.jpg

 

The outer weapon bay doors were easier to install, but nevertheless fiddly due to the large amount of hinges:

48274486171_6482a490d5_b.jpg

On the picture, the main landing gear is already installed.

To be continued in the next post...

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

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As mentioned in the previous post, the main landing gear was installed.

Remember that the instructions wanted you to put in the main gear in an early stage.

 

Putting it in later could be troublesome.

Well, indeed, withhout modification it would not be possible.

The trick was to enlarge the holes a little bit and make the top surface of the pin above the main gear strut angled instead of 90 degrees by filing it skewed.

I hope this makes sense, I forgot to take a picture of it.  :wacko:

This way you can swing the main gear leg into position by rotating it around the side stay in the vertical gear bay wall.

The gear legs will then click into position.

 

By adding the drag brace (the forward strut) and the retraction jack, the gear will be secured in place.

Here are the results:

48274484761_a2471f85ff_b.jpg

 

48274487751_7cea2a42d2_b.jpg

 

Then, work started on the stores: the GBU-31 JDAMs and the AIM120 AMRAAMs:

48274532617_320a928d7e_b.jpg

 

The photo-etch parts on the JDAM's was fiddly to bend.

In hindsight, I should have annealed these parts first.<_<

 

Painted and decalled, the weapons look like this:

The AMRAAMS:

48274497516_71e66e9db5_b.jpg

 

The JDAMs without pylons:

48274578897_dd81a43523_b.jpg

 

And here the JDAMs with pylons:

48274578157_f9b1869f19_b.jpg

 

And here are the weapons installed in the weapon bays:

48274494706_7742004be9_b.jpg

 

48274493141_461f8c1151_b.jpg

 

To be continued!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

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Thanks guys!

 

CruZz, you are right!

With the doors on masking and spraying is not an option anymore.

I think I'm going to spray some clear decal sheet in the lighter RAM colour and put decal strips on the inner edges of the doors.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

 

Ooh, already a month has passed! :o

Time flies, I have several "biggies" on the go now. Some of them will only get a  RFI. ;)

 

Anyway, some things have been done with the F-35.

I've sprayed some clear decal sheet with my light grey RAM paint mix:

48586747011_0f107315cb_b.jpg

 

It will be cut into strips to decorate the inner edges of weapon- and wheelbay doors.

 

The ejection seat got some attention.

As moulded by Italeri, it is appropriate for an early version of the F-35.

In the mean time, the box behind the headrest has been changed and that version is installed in the RNethAF F-35.

 

The kit seat was assembled and the headrest box was modified with card and strip:

48586734396_84618318e4_b.jpg

 

The etched metal seat belts were annealed first before thew were attached to the seat:

48586735401_522b45fbd0_b.jpg

 

The seat belts are pretty representative.

Note that the central locker should stand upright as it is fixed to a fairly rigid strap. This was altered after the picture was taken.

Also, when not in use, the shoulder belts are neatly hanged on a small hook at the side of the headrest.

I choose to ignore that. ;)

 

Fifty shades of gray paint later results in this:

48586748156_90b7e9858b_b.jpg

 

48586890242_b00fa440a4_b.jpg

 

Well, makro shots are always a little harsh for your work... :P

Anyway, it is now ready to be installed in the cockpit.

 

To be continued!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

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  • 2 months later...

Hi guys,

 

Oooh, more than two and a half months after the last update...:o

Well I had to build something for our IPMS NL region display, for the forthcoming Euro Scale Modelling on 23 November in Houten, The Netherlands.

It is Large Scale, but not a plane...or is it? All will be revealed in the Non-LSP Works section after the ESM. ;)

 

Anyway, back to the F-35. I added grey decal strips on the inside edges of the inner weapon bay doors:

49025622237_fb84221fdc_b.jpg

 

49025415271_4588e447e0_b.jpg

 

A very tedious job, so I decided to leave the other doors alone. The inner faces of the inner doors are most visible, so the effort was worthwhile.

 

The sensor under the nose was added. A little scraping on the edges was needed to make a drop fit and secure it with a little Kristal Kleer:49025624027_a3b4a16617_b.jpg

 

Its transparent cover is blurred in the background of the picture.

This cover followed, also glued with Kristal Kleer. Its mating edge was touched up with some paint.

I forgot to take a picture. :P

 

The boarding ladder and its door were next.

They were easy to put in with the model upside down. A picture follows later in this post.

 

Next it was time for the wheels.

They were painted according to the pictures from the walkaround on the IPMS NL website:

49025629142_85f4ca7699_b.jpg

 

And then it was time to mount them on their legs.

Ofcourse, there is always something with aftermarket. <_<

Spot the difference.

The kit wheel in place:

49025631027_98f87fdeff_b.jpg

 

The aftermarket wheel in place:

49025423616_6b6a1295ca_b.jpg

 

See? It is further away from the wheel strut. Not good.

The offending small bush was grinded away:

49024907673_00812ecff1_b.jpg

 

And all was well!:)

There is a wash to dirty-up the brakes, but apparently not visible on the picture. :P

 

The wheels were fitted with Araldite and the model turned over on its wheels to ensure that the flat spots are at the right position while the glue hardens.

The F-35 is on its feet!

49025628457_bb15248f65_b.jpg

 

And here is the promised crappy picture of the boarding ladder and its door:

49024905068_0c48c10b5f_b.jpg

 

That's all for now. To be continued.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

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Thanks guys, It's appreciated! :P

 

Work continued this weekend.

I had promised a picture of the transparent sensor cover under the nose.

Here it is:

49044362401_708015ae75_b.jpg

 

The pitot tubes had also been installed. This is a fiddly butt joint.

 

The navigation lights were installed next. It's basically 3 lights in a silver box under a transparent cover.

So I painted 3 dots and a silver rectangle on the base of the transparent parts.

There is distortion, but so be it. They were glued in with Kristal Kleer in the upper and lower wing tips.

Here's one on the left wing tip:

49044361631_c64bb8344c_b.jpg

 

Here are the wheels after the glue hardened overnight:

49043859008_14d3d546bf_b.jpg

 

That's the underside done.

 

Time to paint the exhaust.

The reference pictures show that the exhaust petals have a brown-grey coating, with grey metal rear edges.

I tried to match the color with this very scientific approach: ;)

49043865863_cec26f9aee_b.jpg

 

And finally settled on these paints:

49044366416_c8b46f37f3_b.jpg

 

The ratio was: 2x H186, 1x CC ACUS41, 2x R91.

 

This mixture was sprayed on, the edges painted H53 gunmetal, which is greyish.

Then it was covered in Alclad AquaGloss, followed with a wash of Tamiya smoke between the petals.

Finally, the ceramic white surface (R301) inside was touched up and the petals accentuated with pencil lines.

 

This is the result:

49044378971_6f8b9823d7_b.jpg

 

To be continued in the next post.

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Now it was time to finish the canopy.

 

I had pondered a long time how to give the raised shattering cord in the canopy a silver colour without ruining it.

Finally I used a silver gel pen. The gel ink barely holds on the clear plastic.

It was sealed with some Klear, applied with a small brush.

It's still fragile, but as long as you don't touch it...

Four cream colored rectangular decals had to be added.

That was done with Klear and Daco Red.

Here is the result:

49043881013_701a7cfe98_b.jpg

 

The separate inside frame that I made earlier was sprayed R9 Anthracite and slightly drybrushed with H125:

49043880313_703cfc4e99_b.jpg

 

To glue them together, I used the new Revell UV hardening glue (by the way another useful product fur us from the dentist world :)) .

A bit of gel was put on the forward side edges and on the rear edge.

You have time to position the parts  and when ready hold the small UV light next to it.

It works very well:

49044381851_893fe1e440_b.jpg

 

The gaps between the frame and the canopy were filled with Kristal Kleer and painted R9 Anthracite.

And that was the canopy finished:

49044591647_3090ef9aff_b.jpg

 

Both the ejection seat and the canopy were not glued in place, to facilitate transport of the model upside down on its foam support:

49044377901_cb82fc464e_b.jpg

 

And this means......The F-35 is finished!!!!!:yahoo:

 

Here are some crappy pictures of the finished model:

49044584287_5b7361afa7_b.jpg

 

49043873898_c2eac749ca_b.jpg

 

49044374926_57a3a0f404_b.jpg

 

49044374171_3e567a3e9d_b.jpg

 

When I have the time, I will make proper daylight pictures for RFI, hopefully next weekend.

 

That's all folks!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

Edited by mgbooyv8
typo's corrected
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