F-35 Build (Part 3)

So, I have completed the F-35 some time ago, it has just been a very busy summer and I haven't gotten around to posting the blog. When I left off last time, I just had the flaps to drop, and the cockpit to finish before painting. Those were done rather quickly. To tint the canopy I sprayed a thin mixture of 3 parts Tamiya Clear Yellow and 1 part Tamiya Smoke. I think it made things look pretty good. Once the canopy was glued on and had dried I masked it off to prepare for the paint job.

 

The first thing I did after masking was prime the entire model with Alclad II black primer and then a coat of Alclad Gunmetal. This would darken the Gunship Grey color and add little more contrast to the grey panels later. After the Gunship Grey went on the fun part began. I painted the dielectric panels Model Master Navy Agressor Grey and then masked off all the panel lines and painted them FS36231.  Amazingly, I only had to touch up these areas a little bit. (Up to this point I pondered doing an F-35A and C version as well, but I've decided that I don't like masking that much.)

After the greys were on, there was a bit too much contrast and so I sprayed a very thin coat of Gunship Grey over the whole thing to blend the shades a bit. Then the usual high gloss coat, decals, a light wash and a light coat of flat finish because this is a brand new plane with brand new paint and little weathering.

Lastly, the landing gear, gear doors, engine exhaust hatches, and weapons were put in place and the model was finished. I set out to show that with a little bit of skill and ingnoring much of the instructions, this could be a very nice model, and I think I at least did that.