1/48th Tamiya F-35 - "Fifth Generation"

Aircraft Modern
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I’m waiting for the C variant as well. Keep yp the great work.

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Underside is almost done, just a few masks left. Then I’ll go around and tape up any topside/underside gaps on the edges and be off to painting the RAM coating.

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You’ve become a masking master.

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Eventful day today! I put the last of the masks on and painted the RAM coating. I still need to paint the canopy and the radome their respective colors, oh! and the panels by the intakes. Once that’s done I’ll post-shade the RAM as I did with the main body, and then the last few decals will go on before all of the masking can come off and I can start the weathering process.

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Is it weird I enjoyed masking this?

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I re-black based the RAM coating areas just so I had a uniform canvas.

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I mixed up about a 50/50 ratio of the FS36170 and FS36270 to make the RAM coating color, as FS36270 was too light by itself (and that’s the color for the radome and canopy as well, having the RAM being the same color wouldn’t work for differentiation now would it?). I tested this out on my original test spoon to be sure I’d be happy with the difference in colors and that it looked close to my references.

Cheers!

  • Nick
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Yes, not as bad as folks that like individual tracks or PE but you’re on the edge of the abyss. :upside_down_face:

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I’ll take indie tracks over that masking nightmare any day :thinking:

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I wouldnt call it a nightmare-it has numbered pieces like a puzzle.

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Thank’s for sharing the gorgeous masking work!

—mike

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I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut about liking indy workable tracks…oops! :rofl:

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Masked up the extra bits I needed to like the radome and the few areas around the engine as well as the panels by the intakes and got them painted in FS36270 and then went through and post-shaded one last time. Not pictured is the clear gloss coat before decals. Hoping to have the decals on and the masks off by Thursday. We’ll see!

Nearing the end on this one, I need to figure out what I want to do for weathering, but these tend to be pretty clean so there shouldn’t be too much there. Biggest headache towards completion will be doing the wingtip lights. I need to figure out how to mask those…OH! and of course the fire-y bit of the engine.

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It’s normal to like individual working track. Welcome to the loony bin. :crazy_face::upside_down_face:
I have made up two tanks worth this year and I haven’t even started working on one of those kits. Was kinda of thinking about starting another set. :man_shrugging:

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Matte clear coat on and the masks are off. It’s not perfect and there are a few areas I wish were better, but ah well. Much better than how I think it would’ve come out if I had gone the decal route.

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There’s a few more decals to do - just the ones that cross the color boundaries. Then I’ll pull the canopy masks off and she’ll stand on her own for the first time. Then all that’s left are a few odds and ends and the business end of the engine!

Cheers!

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Whew! I finally got around my anxiety of making the nozzle absolutely perfect and just went for it. I’m glad I did as I’m quite pleased with the result - especially for only my third (fourth maybe?) jet exhaust. I also remade the landing gear that I blew to smithereens (don’t just reach for the cutting dykes when a solid stainless rod is too long, the brittle resin will lose) and got all the landing gear installed and she can now stand on her own. Pitot tubes, landing gear bay doors, and the wingtip marker lights were finished and put in place as well.

Oh, and I also sequestered myself away to build this in the span of two weeks (yeah sure! I can meet that deadline…).

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Alright, enough of me yapping and back to the main attraction:

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Time to get this weathered all around, which shouldn’t take too long considering these are kept pretty clean. I’ve thankfully found enough photos to at least keep it interesting weathering-wise.

Hopefully not another month before another update (knock on styrene)!

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Wows!

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Superb.

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I might have missed it in an earlier post but the canopy shine is so pot on. How did you achieve it?

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It’s the result of using a circular polarizing filter on my camera to cut down on the glare/reflections.

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Stellar.

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wow that looks great. All that masking would have driven me insane :slight_smile: The BattleScale Collectica Show

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Dam !
Definitely nailed this one !
Got this kit in the Hanger Stash w/ several Aftermarket parts only thing I need to get is the Mask set from DM then it can be moved to the Staging area to be built …

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