F-35A Lightning II (Academy 1/72) RAAF A35-001

 

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II (Academy 1/72)

Royal Australian Air Force A35-001

77th Squadron, Williamtown Airbase - March 2018

Kit:  Academy #12561

Scale: 1/72

Aftermarket:  No aftermarket used, built out of the box with a few scratch built details.

Scale: N/A

The kit is very well detailed as out of the box, however the ejection seat doesn’t come with seat belts which I did scratch built.

US16E Ejection Seat

Another improvement I did was to tint the canopy since it comes in clear plastic without the characteristic yellowish colour of the the real aircraft. I did it by airbrushing the canopy with a mix of Gunze H-91 Clear yellow + Tamiya X-19 Smoke.

The canopy tinting colour

85% H91 + 15% X-19

I also had to scratch built the tyres threads since it is very soft represented on the kit and completely lost after sanding the part.

Talking about the landing gear I also have scratch built the landing light on the nose gear.

Exhaust painting was done as per the photo below with the characteristic off-white colour inside the exhaust.

Model Photos:

Extra Reference Photos:

All photos below by Paulo Castro taken during 2019 Airshow at Edinburgh Airbase, South Australia.

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The End!