Tamiya F-35A-WIP

Got the weapons bay mostly done...just a couple of tiny pieces left to put on that go on from the opposite side.

It builds up from 22 separate parts, and Tamiya's painting instructions for everything are excellent.  A little daunting at first, because each step is FLOODED with paint numbers and arrows pointing at various parts of the weapons bay, but its very easy to follow.

Got a little more work done on some of the pieces of the main aircraft assembly.  I'll be building it with the boarding ladder deployed.

And we have a winner!

Did a little more experimentation with getting a good, smooth, metallic appearance to the Have Glass grey.  I have settled on these steps, just in case anybody else wants to try it.

1. MRP280 Have Glass Grey

2. Rub with powdered graphite

3. MRP125 Semi-Gloss Clear to seal the graphite onto the paint

4. Decals, MicroSet, and MicroSol

5. MRP126 Semi-Matt Clear to lock it all down

Nice metallic sheen with no little sparklies.  Looks pretty close to photos taken of USAF F-35As in the last couple of years.

The canopy mask thing is why I'm waiting for the Eduard set to be released.  The F-35 has the masks in the kit, but you have to cut them yourself.  Doing that for the canopy is one thing, but the F-35 has all kinds of intricately-shaped sensor windows which they have masks for...but I can't imagine being able to cut those exactly right.  The width of the line drawn on the masking sheet is enough to throw things off by enough when you cut it that it will leave noticeable underlap or overlap when the paint goes on.  Weird how inconsistent they are about that.  The Tamiya F-14A I built in 2016 had pre-cut masks included with it, and they worked beautifully.  From what I understand, when Tamiya re-released the same kit a year or two later, along with their F-14D...both suddenly had masks you had to cut yourself.  I used the Eduard masks on my F-16CJ and on the F-4B, and they were absolutely flawless...especially the ones for the F-4B, since they now have that T-Face series that has masks for the inside and outside of the canopy.  It will definitely be worth the wait for that kind of quality and ease of use.

Its so odd Tamiya get the decals so wrong.  They are recognized for superior models in fit and engineering but fail miserably with the decals.  Another odd thing is the consistency of the adhesive mask across kit genres.  When I built their 1/32 Corsair the kit included a canopy mask that you had to cut out.  When I built one of their endurance race cars, a far less expensive kit, the wind shield mask were cut out for you.  I always buy aftermarket decals or paint mask when building Tamiya.  
Looking forward to seeing more of the F35 and F-4B.

Thanks Paul!  The F-4B sprue is here, so I have been working on that as well.  I may end up having to pause the F-35 after I have gotten it as far as I can, pending a Quinta cockpit set and Eduard wheels and masking kit (none of which have been released yet of course).  Not sure how long it will be until those come out...hopefully soon.  Just can't deal with the kit cockpit stuff.  Its got really good base detail, but the main details in it are done with Tamiya decals, and the ones they make for the interior stuff all kinda have a comic book appearance to them.  If they'd advance their decal technology to the level of Furball Aero, they will have achieved perfection in their kits...they're so close, but the decals are still kind of a letdown.

Looking good Eagle.  When the F-4B sprue shows up will you shelf the F35?  

Thanks for stopping by Chad and Brandon!

I hear ya on the antennas and pitot tubes, Brandon.  The little machined metal ones from Master Model have saved me from myself more than once, and so far I have managed to not end up with one of those embedded in my fingers.

Did some spoon tests of different techniques for the Have Glass finish this afternoon, and I was almost ready to decide on doing the MRP280 base coat, with MRP278 clearcoat, followed by the decal, and MRP126 semi-matt clearcoat to seal the decal, but I wasn't crazy about the sparkly appearance of the MRP278.  I know the real thing might have that appearance, but I think these sparklies magnified by 48 times would end up looking like a metal flake paintjob on the full size aircraft.  I tried a spur-of-the-moment idea on the upper half of the left spoon, and I really like how it looks.  I tried rubbing it with some powdered graphite, and it gets the paint underneath a darker shade (which is good), and it has a metallic sheen to it now that isn't sparkly.  Just a matter of playing with different clearcoat techniques at this point.

Too bad they can't do that for antenna and pitot tubes. I snap those of all the time.

BK

Tamiya engineering at its best!

That is a neat feature

Welcome to the build log, Mongoose!

Got the nose gear assembly done.  Tamiya designed the nose gear with a little retaining mechanism to keep the gear retracted until later in the assembly process where they have you cut that retaining mechanism to let it swing down.  Kinda cool feature that keeps it stowed during construction handling so you don't accidentally snap it off.   Heh...but...I broke the retaining mechanism so the gear swings freely right now.  I'll probably just use a little blob of silly putty to temporarily lock it in the retracted position.  No point in "repairing" something that is meant to be cut later anyway. 

Edit:  This one is the first gotcha I ran into on this build.  So don't make this same mistake.  [There is no lens for the landing light in the kit that I could see, so I used some Bondic to make one.]  See my later posts for details on this.

Looking good! I to am hoping to start a new Tamiya F 35 after the first of the year. Will follow along for inspiration 

Engine exhaust sub-assembly is done.  From all of the pics I have been able to find of the F135 engine, it looks like its a pretty clean-burning engine, so just used a little grey and a little grime Flory to streak the exhaust tube.  The streaks help the seams blend in with the rest of the structure.

I went with the liquid mask method on everything, and I still can't say I'd recommend it for much, as there still wasn't a sharp, clean edge.  That being said, with the angles and the way the intake tunnels on the F-35 twist and turn, the small imperfections aren't even visible when everything is put together.  The seams are also hidden by the twists and turns, so Tamiya did a great job with how they designed this to go together.  Here is the completed intake sub-assembly:

Little bit of a bumpy start,hopefully it smooths out.

Thanks for stopping by, Greg.

The liquid mask produced a satisfactory result on my test shot, so I'm going to move forward on the other 3 pieces.  I know I say it a lot, but this MRP paint is awesome.  So nice to only have to wait an hour for it to cure.

Did the Alclad painting of the burner.  Really messed up by picking the wrong color to begin with, and then my airbrush started having tip dry issues (had my pressure set too high).  But, I couldn't be happier with how it looked in the end.  Sometimes accidents lead to good things.  Exhaust tube clearcoated with matt clearcoat.  Now I just have to streak it to make it look like there has been a fire in there.

Looking forward to watching this one.

Welcome, Frank!  Thanks for following along.  You did a fantastic job on your F-35!  As I'm finding out, the paint work on these is quite complicated.  Heh...I was pulling my hair out, trying to find a good painting guide for the post-2017 Z-13 scheme for it.  Finally thought to look at the back of the painting poster for the early F-35 in the kit, and...there it was! [smacks forehead]  Heh...even says (Z-13 overcoat) right at the top in big, bold letters.  Having a little trouble masking the insides of the intakes.  Even my trusty Tamiya masking sticker sheet stuff is not wanting to settle down into the sharp bends.  Normally I don't use liquid maskers much because of the lack of a sharp, clean edge.  But, I think that might actually do the trick here, since the two different-colored areas inside the intakes have a nice, engraved line between them.  Got the grey color wrong for the Z-13 scheme, so I'll try the liquid mask and paint over that grey with the right color.  Only tried one intake tunnel half, so the rest are still a pristine white all the way through.  As long as the messed up one ends up looking like the others, I'll go with it.  Don't want to have to strip and re-paint that one again.  

I will be following this build with great interest, Eaglecash. I built the Hasegawa 1/72 scale F-35A a couple of years ago in memory of my youngest brother Gerry, Buzz to the family. Buzz was a systems engineer on the F-35 program at Ft. Worth until he passed after suffering a stroke at age 52. I plan on adding this Tamiya kit to my stash sometime after the first of the year and I hope to have it built by the end of 2023 to honor Buzz's memory. Thanks for posting your W.I.P.

Base colors on engine exhaust parts:

Thanks, Tojo.  Gonna try my best not to let this one turn into a glacier. 

Didn't see this,good start.