August 2023
F-35B Lightning II
F-35A Lightning II
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Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II
617 Squadron “The Dambusters”, Royal Air Force
RAF Marham / HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH / HMS PRINCE OF WALES, 2023.
Airfix 1/72 with Academy Pylons & Eduard Brassin ASRAAMs
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The F-35B Lightning II is operated by the UK within a joint Royal Navy / Royal Air
Force structure. 617 Squadron, the famous RAF “Dambusters” is the first (and so
far only) operational front line squadron, serving ashore and also at sea onboard
the Royal Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. 17 Sqn, based at Edwards
AF Base in the USA are the UK’s operational test and evaluation squadron, taking
deliver of new F-35Bs as they become available, whilst 207 Sqn RAF stood up in 2019
at RAF Marham as the joint RN/RAF Operational Conversion Unit (OCU). 809 Naval Air
Squadron is expected to become the first Fleet Air Arm squadron, once sufficient
aircraft and pilots are available.
During 2021, the aircraft of 617 Sqn embarked in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH for the Carrier
Strike Group 21 global deployment. Although somewhat curtailed by the COVID pandemic,
the ship and its aircraft successfully demonstrated the reach of the UK’s Carrier
Strike capability around the world, including participation in combat operations
against IS over Syria and live interceptions of Russian aircraft that were a potential
threat to the NATO Carrier force.
Building the Airfix F-35B Kit:
The announcement of a new Airfix 1/72 F-35B kit for release this year came as a pleasant
surprise, although my excitement was slightly tempered by the news that it would
be a simplified kit to enable the less experienced builder to complete it without
too many problems. Not quite a "starter" kit, but not "fully leaded" either !
So what do you get with the Airfix F-35 kit? Well, it does look good in the box
and has some finely depicted detail. It is also available at a much lower cost than
the Fujimi / Hasegawa / Italeri offerings and fortunately it has avoided the massively
overscale "stealth joint" effect that many other kit manufacturers have fallen for.
Not only does the F-35 not have massive walls on its smooth stealthy surfaces, but
more recently the aircraft have appeared in what is effectively a single overall
colour too, with the joints more evenly matched to the overall colour. Well done
Airfix!
Of course, this simplification has not come without consequences and some of the
more noticeable shortfalls don’t seem to me to have any reason. In particular, the
jet tail nozzle is disappointingly plain and parallel in shape (and in fact this
is the major shortfall for me), whilst the open auxiliary inlet doors on the upper
fuselage only have some basic detail inside (but at least they are there - more
than can be said for Fujimi!). Another obvious shortfall is the large gap between
the tailplanes and the fuselage; this gap exists on the real thing but is so small
that it shouldn’t be obvious in 1/72 scale. Indeed the tailplanes look a little small
to me, both in width and length.
The kit can be built in either flying/stowed configuration with all doors closed,
or with its lift fan open and the tail nozzle pointing down. Parts breakdown follows
that of most F-35 kits with a horizontal fuselage split (which went together perfectly)
and separate lower nose section. There is no weapons bay and the undercarriage bays
are pre-moulded into place. The undercarriage is very much simplified (basically,
leg and wheel), but will go together easily. Although it has nothing more than a
basic ejector seat, the cockpit is sufficient for the basic modeller with raised
controls that respond well to dry brushing. If you use the supplied pilot figure
(a little small, but seems to have the distinctive F-35 helmet mounted display) it
will look perfectly functional although once more (becoming a pet hate for me, especially
after the disaster tinting my F-35) the canopy is perfectly clear and not tinted.
Nevertheless, a nice touch for the less experienced is that the canopy clicks into
place, reducing the risk of a messy glue spill and mark. If you tidy it up well before
fixing it, then there should be little or no gap.
I had intended to build this kit fully closed up and on the deck, not least because
I was seriously underwhelmed by the jet nozzle moulding. However, for goodness sake,
it's an F-35B and it seemed to be a real waste of the kit not to have the lift fan
barn doors open and jet nozzle vectored down (in which position the lack of taper
is slightly more credible). The engine intakes are very short and end in a flat
blank, but the F-35's stealthy shape means that this is not really visible from most
directions (except perhaps straight ahead).
A special shout out for the coloured instructions that are superbly laid out and
leave little or nothing for the less experienced to guess at. I particularly like
the yellow markings showing where to apply the glue - if only the likes of Academy
would do this on some of their more mysterious kit structures. Decals represent one
of the aircraft that embarked in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH for the 2021 Carrier Strike
Group deployment to the Far East (and I checked, it's not the aircraft that ditched!).
Like all things F-35 they are a little plain, but accurate and apply well, although
please note that the numbers on the placement sheet bear no resemblance to those
on the actual decal sheet. It should be relatively obvious what goes where, but
given the target market, this is a disappointing quality control slip.
Since they were left over from my F-35A kit, I added the wing pylons, creating some
new outer pylons from plastic card. The Paveway IV GPS/Laser/Inertia guided bomb
comes from the Italeri kit (which has 4, posing as Paveway II enhanced - the two
types are very similar in shape) whilst the ASRAAM air to air missiles were made
from sprue, using Eduard Brassin ASRAAMs as a master (The resin ones will go on my
next 2 kits!).
This kit is an interesting new direction for Airfix. It is certainly an easy build,
and has been simplified by omitting some normal F-35 kit details, such as the internal
bomb bay and I guess that these shortfalls are likely to drive off the experienced
modeller or obsessive detailer. Nevertheless, its shape looks good and the nice surface
detail is a bonus. I think the majority of casual (or even intermediate) modellers
are likely to be quite pleased after building one of these. My extra detail (pylons
weapons etc) does help to busy it up and I reckon it would have been a good candidate
for lowering the flaps (a fairly simple structure on the F-35 and the kit breakdown
would help in doing this), which would have made it look even busier. I guess that
cloning a new jet nozzle from one of the other kits would have been well within my
ability too and would have made a very big improvement. It will be interesting to
see if any after market ones appear, or if the cottage industry will shun this kit
as too toy-like.
At present, the kit only comes in “gift packs” with paint (yeeuch - bin it!), glue
and (barely usable nylon) brushes. These sets aren’t particularly good value if
you don’t actually need the paint, glue or brushes, but if my e-bay sales are anything
to go by, does help to attract a lot of casual modellers, so I guess Airfix know
what they are about. I chose the "Then and Now” pack as the included Spitfire Vc
(also simplified, but looks very good in the box) can join my Malta project in due
course. For paint I used Humbrol 164 enamel overall. This is what Airfix recommend
and although its not entirely right, it is good enough. I highlighted some areas
in a darkened mix to reflect the aircraft in their CSG-21 state (which looks a lot
different from the Norwegian F-35A).
Given that I approached this kit with limited expectations, based on what Airfix
themselves had stated about its target market, I'm have to admit that I am pleased
with the result and it can stand happily alongside my Fujimi F-35Bs. Sure, if you
really want an accurate and detailed F-35B and you have some modelling skills, then
Italeri seems to be the best way to go at present (notwithstanding the erroneous
over done surface detail), but I enjoyed this Aifix kit as a quick build and it is
a really good option for the less experienced or less detail obsessed.
Background Picture - Copyright UK MOD - used under OGL