1:48 F-35B w goodies

[Bigasshammm]

Started my yearly commission build yesterday. My friend I think has me build the most complicated models he can find. Two years ago it was the kinetic E-2C last year the Zoole Muira (sp?) 1/32 P-51D and now this year it's the Kittyhawk 1/48 F-35B. Included will be the KASL cockpit set which is utterly gorgeous I must say. SAC landing gear. And finally a pe sheet by JasmineModel??

So I cleaned the SAC gear and all the resin. Then I started adding some little bits to the cockpit and cleaning things up prior to paint.

I also busted out my hold n fold for the first time and bent up the crew ladder compartment. Cut the corresponding door out of the kit piece and cleaned it up.

Also assembled the gear bays which go together quite simply. I'm going to paint all the interior bays white. Looks to be from my eye and have confirmation from people in the know. Not sure how ill paint the exterior yet or what ill do with all the damn ram panels.

[Bigasshammm]

First question for anyone who may have built this.

Where or how do these pipes go in the weapons bays? There's two tabs but only one hole on the part so part of the pipe is flush and the rest floats? There's no finished pics and the instructions as a whole are quite bad.

Thanks.

[jwest21]

Can't answer your question but speaking of Kasl, did you see this?

http://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/8ec9z0xb0nid73zszrgf.html

[Wolf_el_Real]

First question for anyone who may have built this.

Where or how do these pipes go in the weapons bays? There's two tabs but only one hole on the part so part of the pipe is flush and the rest floats? There's no finished pics and the instructions as a whole are quite bad.

Thanks.

Hi

You have to glue that pipes on the sides, check (i had the same trouble with the instructions) :

Regards

[SR10user]

Looks really great. Can't wait to see this one built up. I have the F-35A that I am thinking of starting soon. I would love to build mine with the ladder extended, so I may have to resort to scratchbuilding. Any chance you can post up some pics of the ladder bay and accessories? Not sure if you've seen this, but it seems to be a pretty comprehensive buildup (with suggestions) on the B model.

HTH,

Dave

[Bigasshammm]

Hi

You have to glue that pipes on the sides, check (i had the same trouble with the instructions) :

Regards

Awesome thanks ill play around with it some. These instructions are less than desirable. I've already noticed that part numbers are wrong and switched on things and some of the part designs don't match the pictures. So far the fit has been good though so we'll take that I guess.

Ill have to check out that buil and see what tips it has thanks.

Ill post as good of pics as I can of the ladder bay when it gets some paint on it. Too reflective now. I think I may build the ladder out of square stock or something. They want you to build the ladder out of about 8 different pe pieces which doesn't look fun at all to me.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Bigasshammm

[dylan]

I'm looking forward to this one. great start so far

[POMPEO]

watching

[Marcel111]

Look forward to seeing this build!

Cheers,

Marcel

[Bigasshammm]

You guys give me too much credit.

Anyway wow this kit. I'm kind of sad I didn't buy everything because I can't put it away and forge about it. Sheesh.

Anyway lets continue.

So last night after a few of these...

I thought it would be a good idea to work up the pe exhaust can. Forgetting of course that pe parts make me their *****.

So it started like this.

Ended up like this

And today finally it looks like this

I guess it's better than the thick plastic piece but man is it fragile. I've already lost one of the leading edges since they're held on by hairs it seems.

[Bigasshammm]

Continuing.

What new hell have I stumbled into? Look at these seams that need sanded. Who engineers a kit like this?

I have most of the sub assemblies built. Which mostly consist of a million engine parts you will never see. So I've been dry fitting and working out a plan. I just shot some white and some silver on a few parts. Will take a few coats of white probably due to the dark plastic.

Instead of putting all the engine pieces together I think I'm going to do it in pieces and glue each piece to where it's visible. So mostly to the top fuselage instead of bottom.

Thanks for following along.

[Wolf_el_Real]

Hi

Please heads up on the main wings with fuselage joints, they are wrong designed, you will see "holes to holes" on the parts, so stay alert.

Best regards

[Bigasshammm]

Hi

Please heads up on the main wings with fuselage joints, they are wrong designed, you will see "holes to holes" on the parts, so stay alert.

Best regards

Yes I've read and seen that first hand already. Will have to sand them off and work on a nice fit.

Thanks.

[Bigasshammm]

Been a long time since I updated. I have been working but slowly. I joined the wings to the upper fuselage to make sure of a nice join. I installed the gear bays and boarding ladder bay. Forgot to wash the boarding ladder bay so will have to do that still. Following pics show that progress.

Last night I went and joined the fuselage halves with all the engine parts. I left the bulk engine unglued. It slips into 5 different pegs top and bottom. I put the lift fan in upper fuselage first. Then intake ramps that join to engine with driveshaft. Then I just worked the fuselage around until I got a nice fit and glued it slowly. Fit is good. Some slight gaps where the intakes for the fuselages but I'm ok with that.

I also shot some paint at the cockpit pieces. Used neutral grey for base coat of the cockpit and black for the ip shroud and seat. No real good pictures out there so I'm guessing on what's what when I paint it.

Pics next time.

I don't look forward to masking the open bays and suck for painting. Ugh.

[SR10user]

Looking great! I saw KASL posted some pics on their Facebbok page of a 1/48 F-35B someone there is working on. Might be worth a look if you're on FB.

KASL FB Page

Sincerely,

Dave

[Sven Harjacek]

Looking very good, but IMO the Kittyhawk kit is a little over-engineered

[Bigasshammm]

Got the cockpit done yesterday. Extremely detailed and beautifully cast. Not much in the way of color though.

Excuse the pics it's very hard for me to take good detail pics with my phone.

Used the flash just to bring out the detail a bit more.

The fit into the kit is absolutely perfect as well.

[Hero Ma]

Great work! Keep it up.

Sorry if i hijecked this wonderful thread. One question on the kit itself though, what is everyone's take on the "AFV like" panels?

[paulsbrown]

And when is someone going to come out with a decal sheet for the all these panels that will otherwise take hours just to mask?

I've sanded mine down and it looks much better, the rivets and seams in each panel area still came through.

[Devilleader501]

Kris it is looking superb. I have a bunch of complaints but none have to do with your work. They all revolve around the shape and construction of this model from the factory. After seeing the painted figure you have put here I don't think I will be buying this model. It looks fantastic shape wise but scale wise it is way out of proportion on the raised panels. I'm not even sure how I would go about reshaping things because I do not have one sitting in front of me but everything about the raised panels looks off to me. I am still trying to look into getting some good reference pictures of one of these things but I can tell you first hand the panels are way off. they are too thick and too sharp of an angle when looking at the surface detail.

They need to be more like very small humps instead of canyons. Overall I think you have progressed very well on this model with your abilities because it looks outstanding. But like I said there are some very prominent inaccuracies with this model that should get addressed. I hope this doesn't discourage you from building this thing because it looks beautiful, I just thought I would bring this inaccuracy to peoples attention.

[Devilleader501]

look at this photo and you will understand. You can click on it and it will take you to my original on my photobucket. From there you can resize to a bigger picture hope this helps.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Devilleader501

[Bigasshammm]

Yeah I know but it's not mine so it's gonna get built. It's been on hole for a while though.

Josh weren't you supposed to send me some smaller jdams? Been waiting on those. Wink wink nudge nudge.

[Bigasshammm]

Been a long time since I've done any work to this. Got the stabs and tails on. Also pin glued the canopy in place for painting. I have to get the weapons pylons on and then do a significant amount of masking the open areas before I can paint. Not looking forward to that.

[Bigasshammm]

It lives!

Kinda

Got the first layer of paint on.

My paint plan is overall gunship grey. Then I will tediously hand paint all the ram tape with a color MM call F-15 grey I think (it's not near me now). Then finally mis Alclad airframe aluminum overall to give it the sheen. I did a test on a set of the doors and it looked pretty good.

Will take a long time though for the ram tape.

[Devilleader501]

Just curious what color you are using for the overall scheme. Maybe its the picture but to my eyes it looks very close. Wondering if your ram panel color will make things pop. Will you post a pic of the ram color before painting just so I can make sure its close enough. Wanna make sure you get it right and do this justice. It looks absolutely bitchin right now.

I use MM paint and from what I can tell the RAF Medium Gray is a very close match for the RAM panels. Not sure if you ever got my message about the JDAM's or not but they are the same ones you have. If you have any questions let me know. Looking great and cant wait for it to be finished. What decals are you going with.

The F-35 doesn't have the sheen the F-22 has so you probably don't want to mist it. The color they are resemble the new F-16 paint scheme. Just a dark gray like the rest of the air force birds.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Devilleader501