Kitty Hawk 1/48 Lockheed F-35B Lightning II - Work in progress

1
May 3, 2023
I knew I was going on a very bumpy ride with this kit. Plastic is very soft and a little brittle, full of ejection-pin marks and some weird panel lines. A lot to clean and fix, just what we need for this already complicated plane in itself.
2
May 3, 2023
Black dog add-ons really are stunning. The kitty hawk bays are not that great in detail, but this is going to be hell to paint.
3
May 3, 2023
Eduard photo-etch sets are a must to improve the cockpit, even the Tamiya (seatbelts as decals? what are they thinking?)
4
May 3, 2023
the resin parts have different holes for the door hinges, I have to cover some holes and open new ones. Great.
5
May 3, 2023
side by side comparison on what holes should be moved
6
May 3, 2023
Fixed, now let's wait further in the build so the doors don't fit or something.
7
May 3, 2023
Resin fitting is not great at all. Trimming is needed, but at least it fits with the engine and ducts.
8
May 3, 2023
First of many layers of white. This plane is very white, a lot of pieces need it.
9
May 3, 2023
cockpit with Eduard parts, the most enjoyable part so far
10
May 3, 2023
Taking Eduard colored piece as a reference to match a similar grey. some blue and red to give the violet hue.
11
May 3, 2023
The wings and the fuselage have both female pins to match. Brilliant engineering.
12
May 3, 2023
Wing and fuselage sit on female pins. I guess I will just remove them and see if I can come up with a decent alignment.
13
May 3, 2023
Wing fit, lesbian style
14
May 3, 2023
For ladder access, I have to remove the door. The ladder in photo-etch is nice, but looks like an after-thought, because I would be much better engineered if the ladder access was already open, then let the user close it if he wants by cementing the door.
15
May 4, 2023
Ladder was easier than thought, the brass is actually quite resistant and folds nicely. At least that sprue is of good quality.
16
May 4, 2023
Adding dozens of photo-etch parts into all pieces before another white paint round
17
May 4, 2023
The cockpit is starting to look good, but dashboard fit was not trivial.
18
May 4, 2023
The canopy is very basic, requires a lot of etch parts. This is a nightmare to work with, a lot of pieces and bad fits. Hasegawa has a way better system, where you assemble everything in plastic, then cement the transparent part. It's not that complicated to engineer.
19
May 4, 2023
Eduard seatbelts look great. Painted with Tamiya rubber black, as it gives a matt colour I like a lot, more than pure black.
20
May 4, 2023
Dashboard was badly fit, dry fitting didn't work, so I had to remove it and trim down the dashboard so it fits closer to the seat.
21
May 4, 2023
Landing gear with Eduard PE parts, the wires are a nice addition.
22
May 4, 2023
using perfect plastic putty to erase a little the awful seams from all control surfaces. Can't eliminate fully the seam, or I will lose RAM panel detail.
23
May 4, 2023
Spacing out temperature probes
24
May 5, 2023
Adding stretched sprues for that spiked look
25
May 5, 2023
this was 1h30m, just put some glue, stick a bunch of sprues, cut, repeat
26
May 5, 2023
Stratch building to improve the nozzle, reusing some leftovers from sprues that I am not using
27
May 5, 2023
Wiring comes from lead wire. Different photos have different components and wiring is confusing, so I am just going along with whatever I feel like
28
May 5, 2023
Adding plastic putty to fill out gaps
29
May 5, 2023
Titanium color from AK looks exactly like the colour I was looking for the fans, engine, ladder, exhausts and landing gear
30
May 5, 2023
Adding panel liner, but the detail makes it very hard to clean it. I had to spray white again to dim the effect.
31
May 6, 2023
Wiring painted red, yellow and aluminium. This does the work. At least much better than the original plain one.
32
May 6, 2023
It was a very tight fit, with high probability of not fitting in the end. I thinned a little the tube, but it just too hard to work with, specially with the nozzle petals breaking while you move.
33
May 6, 2023
To put the petals again, I just glue them to a vinyl mask and glue them back. Not perfect but it does the work. The nozzle is far from immaculate, but I got what I paid for - a bumpy ride.
34
May 6, 2023
Technique is: have a brush with paint, and a brush with the thinner to erase the mistake. There will be a lot, but just do a round of black / white / other until you are fed up, or you are just destroying more than fixing. I went with tubes as black, wires as copper, braces as yellow.
35
May 6, 2023
the black dog resin is too thick, and doesn't fit. I had to dismantle and remove material from it (filing, with a mask, and outside - it is recommended to not breathe resin dust, same as sawdust, it irritates your lungs)
36
May 6, 2023
Fitting is getting better, but I had to remove material until it was just barely in there. At least I do not have to worry about the wheel bay popping out of its place
37
May 7, 2023
Adding the ducts, and checking what will go wrong. The shaft is too short, and doesn't fit the fan. Some basic trimming and extending with more spruce did the trick.
38
May 7, 2023
The lift fan looks great in PE part and AK xtreme metal titanium. So far the best part of the build, along with cockpit.
39
May 7, 2023
Starting with the nose, and closing carefully. A lot of dry fit, to prevent surprises
40
May 7, 2023
Surprises just came, but not Kitty Hawk's fault. Resin parts for bay doors are in the way, had do use a dremel to make way.
41
May 7, 2023
While closing the nose, now the fan grid doesn't fit. The solution was to shorten the lift fan so the grid fits. My dremel was an unexpected life saver
42
May 7, 2023
going slowly edge by edge to close the frame, as my trust in good fits is very low now
43
May 7, 2023
Engine didn't fit properly, but all I had to do was to enlarge the alignment holes so I can have the nozzle properly aligned. It will be stuck on vtol mode anyway.
44
May 7, 2023
Getting crazy with masking, decided it would be better to paintbrush the RAM panels close to the doors, then I will airbrush a new layer and avoid the doors.
45
May 11, 2023
46
May 11, 2023
47
May 11, 2023
48
May 13, 2023
The TopNotch masks are going to be a great help. I couldn't imagine myself doing this kit without them...
49
May 13, 2023
...but they are not that good. Sometimes thicker, in some cases with the wrong shape, I believe it wouldn't hurt for them to use them on a real kit and do adjustments to the print cutter file.
50
May 13, 2023
Now this is really bad, as the shape of the masks dents is completely different from the piece dents. At this point, I just do not have energy to fix every mask bit.
51
May 13, 2023
In these situations, better cut with a tiny scissor and overlap the edges
52
May 13, 2023
Finished. We all love masking, right? right? The masking vinyl made it to almost 5 hours. Can't imagine how much time I needed with masking tape. Yet, the masks do not fit great, so do expect lines outside the reliefs, a lot.
53
May 15, 2023
Base color is XF-20, adding X-1 to get the main color: 5:1 ratio is too dark, went for a 11:1 ratio (50 drops of XF-20, 5 drops of X-1), and got a nice neutral medium grey.
54
May 15, 2023
Masks are incomplete, so you have to do your own in several places. I thought Tamiya was insane on having RAM panels as decals, but now I kind of embrace the idea.
55
May 15, 2023
Making the cockpit sensors that are missing from the decal sheets.
56
May 15, 2023
Adding a lead wire to make the bay door hinge.
57
May 17, 2023
All the leftover pieces for the final assembly, with decals and a varnish coat
58
May 17, 2023
Canopy went through a lot: glue marks, bad paint job and PE part glue, a lot of filing and sanding to hide the mistakes. Botched jobv that is partially saved by canopy clear coat. Nozzle doesn't look very metal-ish on the picture, could have a better metal shine.
59
May 17, 2023
I saved pitots for last, as I know I would just knock them out. Added a sprue and a hole to make the connection tighter.

Komentáře

24 3 May 2023, 07:49

Guy Rump
Following. 👍

3 May 2023, 08:18

Robert Podkoński
Subassembly on the photo #2 looks like some Star Wars movie creation 😉

3 May 2023, 08:44

Never a Pro
@robert that's just black dog resin parts + my masochism

3 May 2023, 11:40

bughunter
I like pic 16 - big puzzle 👍

4 May 2023, 08:10

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

4 May 2023, 18:53

Gary Victory
Really nice work on only what i can say is a pig of a kit.
I have the version 2.0 kit, I set the fuselage 3 times and im still convinced that mine has some sort of twist going on and a short shot around the tail area has the two half's didn't match in length on one side....!!??? Currently its a shelve queen gathering dust. So my main advice is just test fit test fit test fit.

Good luck with the rest of your build. 👍

5 May 2023, 06:48

Never a Pro
yes @gary, this is all nice and cute until I will try to close it shut with the engine, lift fan, shaft, air intakes, and 4 add-on resin parts. I am close to that painful time, so all luck wishes are welcome.

5 May 2023, 08:54

Villiers de Vos
nice details in the wheel wells.

7 May 2023, 04:14

bughunter
You said below a pic: " checking what will go wrong." So the question here is not whether something doesn't fit, but where is it stuck? Respect for so much perseverance! 👍

8 May 2023, 05:38

Never a Pro
@bughunter I refuse to be defeated by plastic

8 May 2023, 13:57

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

11 May 2023, 13:38

Never a Pro
Build is finished. Final pictures in Lockheed F-35B Lightning II | Album by NeverAPro (1:48)

18 May 2023, 08:44

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work.

18 May 2023, 17:47