F35A Lightning II (Italeri) | Build Log

Ejection seat parts 

Ejection seat assembled 

Assembled and painted, with a wash 

 

F18 pilot (the only figure I had remotely close to the jet age) 

Painted figure 

With a wash 

Photoetch seatbelts 

Adding PE foot pedals 

 

Finished dashboard 

Pilot in the seat. The seatbelts are loose since they didn't quite fit 

Cockpit before assembly 

Cockpit with dashboard installed 

 

The pilot had to go under reconstructive leg surgery because his legs were too long. I had to cut each leg off and then shorten it at the knee, then reattach it. 

 

Cockpit mated into the fuselage 

 

Weapons bay parts 

Weapons bay assembled 

Pre shading weapons bay 

Weapons bay painted and with a wash 

Weapons bay installed into fuselage 

Air intake parts 

Assembled air intake 

Turbofan parts 

Assembled F135 engine 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landing gear bay parts 

Landing gear parts 

Assembled and painted landing gears 

Landing gears mated to the fuselage 

Nose gear bay and parts 

Assembled nose gear 

Nose gear mated to fuselage 

Top and bottom of fuselage mated 

Nose added to fuselage 

Control surface parts 

Control surfaces assembled 

Ailerons added to wings 

Wings and elevons mated to fuselage 

 

 

Some gap filling for the wings 

 

Ladder access hatch closed 

 

 

 

 

 

Vertical stabilizer parts 

Vertical stabilizers assembled 

Vertical stabilizers attached to fuselage 

 

 

 

 

Ready for main body paint job (other subassemblies will be painted and attached separately to make things cleaner in the end) 

Masking off pre-painted areas 

 

Coated with Vallejo black primer. Ready for some pre-shading 

Pre-shading done! Ready to move on to the real paint job 

 

Started painting with the light grey tone that is used for the radar tape and nose. Next to mask that off and go over the whole aircraft with it's darker grey fuselage color 

 

I wish I was exaggerating when I say that it took me 18 hours to mask off all the light grey areas. The kit comes with some sticker masks but those account for less than 25% of what needed to be masked for this kit. You can see the sticker masks that came with the kit in white, whereas the rest of my tape here is green and yellow 

 

It's finally starting to take shape after the main coat! Peeling off all that tape was very satisfying. The contrast between the 2 greys is a bit too stark for my liking, so after cleaning up a few small areas, I'll apply a thin coat of grey over the whole thing to help blend the colors together a bit 

 

 

Softened up the contrast a great deal by adding a few thin coats of a different grey shade. 

 

 

Disaster struck today as I tried to darken the whole plane today. I tried to add a thin layer of a black-ish color to darken the whole thing. It ended up being patchy and I kept adding layers to try to even put the coat. I'm really unhappy with how it looks now, so I'll be promptly stripping all the paint off the fuselage and starting over. I've ordered some new paint which matches the exact colors of the F35, so no more guesswork trying to mix paints. Not looking forward to another 18 hours of masking, but you love and you learn. 

 

Spent a few hours stripping all the paint off, then re-primed the whole thing with a light ghost grey. This is, according to the US Navy, the exact color these are painted (in the trim sections). It looks a bit light to me but we'll see how it looks once the main fuselage color is on. 

 

Finally repainted after that catastrophe! Took another 30 hours to get back to this point. I'm ready to move on with the build. 

 

 

Starting on weapon bay and landing gear doors 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All doors painted and ready to attach to the airframe. I'll probably save this for the last step because it looks like a rather fragile addition and I don't want to risk snapping one of the doors off while I paint up the rest of the plane 

Exhaust can and cover parts 

Exhaust cover painted 

Exhaust can painted 

Installed the bottom of the exhaust cover 

Installed the exhaust can and the top of the exhaust cover 

Decals applied to the main airframe, just need to attach wheels, canopy, and armaments next