Tamiya Lockheed Martın F35A Lightning II - 1/48 – RAAF 3 Squadron

Hello all and welcome to my latest build. The Tamiya F35A Lightning II, dressed up in RAAF No. 3 Squadron colours. The version depicted in this kit is serial number A35-009, flown by Wing Commander Darren "Clarey" Clare, who was the first RAAF F-35 pilot.

This has been in the making since July this year making this my longest project so far. The build is 99.9% OOB. I used a set of Metallic Details cockpit seat belts upgrade, as the kit version was just a little underwhelming for my taste. My greatest achievement with this kit (and the greatest challenge) was the use of magnets for the weapons load!

The kit calls out for 3 weapons options:

1. Stealth mode (only internal weapons displayed in the bays - AIM-120C AMRAAM and GBU-31 JDAM)
2. Air to air mode (AIM-9X Sidewinders on the wings and AIM-120C AMRAAM in the internal bay)
3. Beast Mode (all of the above plus wing mounted GBU-12 Paveway II)

I didn't like the idea of having to choose an option and then glue that choice in forever! So along came the Magnets. For this I used N52 1mm X 1mm (www.guysmagnets.com). They were a bit of a challenge but thankfully, it all worked out in the end. So now I can pose the model in any of the 3 weapons load out options.

The kit also allows the following options which are also interchangeable:

1. Canopy closed.
2. Canopy open.
3. Wing flaps up.
4. Wing flaps down.
5. Instruments On.
6. Instruments Off.

So this kit is very versatile.

Paints used were the standard kit Tamiya lacquer paint call-outs. If you would like a list of what these were, just drop me a message in the comments below and I will let you know.

Anyway, this kit was a joy to build even if a long project compared to what I have been used to.

Thank you for stopping by and please, take a look at my end result and let me know what you like and what you don't like.

Enjoy!

24 additional images. Click to enlarge.