Hasegawa 1:72 F-35A Post-Build Review

Hasegawa 1:72 F-35 Review

By: Tomcat Model Kits

Introduction

The F-35 is one of the few aircraft part of what is known as the 5th generation of jet fighters. Characteristics of these aircraft include supermaneuverability, advanced avionics, multirole capabilities and most notably stealth which is the ability to fly without being detected by Radar.

Visit these websites for more information:

https://www.f35.com

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II

What you Get

The box consists of an instruction manual, decal sheet, five sprues of light grey polystyrene plastic and one sprue for the clear parts. Like most Hasegawa kits, the moulding is very fine with almost no flash, the plastic is also very smooth and you may have to sand it with fine grade sandpaper so that paint would adhere to it better.

Building.

Unlike most kits, you start with the engine intakes. I brush painted the inside of the intakes with Tamiya Acrylic XF-2 Flat White before moving onto the fan and turbines which I painted XF-1 Flat Black, I didn't drybrush it or add any detail as the fan won't be seen on the finished model. While the paint dried, I started painting the cockpit with XF-1 flat black, the detail was very good and the cockpit is moulded into the nose which I like because it won't get misaligned. Once the paint on the engine and intakes dried, I assembled them using Mr Cement S, they went together really well with no sanding or putty needed. The engine assembly was then glued into the fuselage. After attaching the instrument panel, I slid on the decal for the panoramic cockpit display, I like that it was a decal because painting it would've been very difficult. I cut out the fuselage halves from the sprues using nail trimmers and glued the wings together using Tamiya CA Cement Strong, while the glue dried I applied Mr Cement S to all of the joints which cemented the fuselage together. While the glue dried I attached the vertical stabilisers, again with Mr Cement S. Putty was used to fill in a small gap in the leading edge of one of the wings and a few gaps in the stabilators. The pilot looked very good but he had a small mould seam around him, and a teeny amount of flash on the oxygen hose which I removed with my knife. I assembled him and put him into the cockpit using PVA glue.

Painting

Once the putty dried, I used a file to remove any excess. Then, I sanded the entire model with 1500 grit sandpaper so the paint would stick more easily. After that, I primed the surface with a single coat of Tamiya Acrylic XF-2 thinned 10 drops thinner to 10 drops paint with a wide paintbrush to ensure the surface was as smooth as possible. After letting it dry for a few days, I painted the underside with Tamiya Acrylic XF-24, thinned 10 drops thinner to ten drops paint. After applying four coats, I repeated the process on the upper side. Decals are provided for most of the RAM surfaces, some of them have to be painted. I used XF-20 Medium Grey on the nose, engine intake, stabilators, vertical stabilisers and on the rudders. This however was the wrong colour so I had to re-do it after applying the decals.