I got my hands on the Panda F-35 kit… But because it was a B, and because I like to only model RAAF aircraft. I decided to completely cut this bad boy apart and re-sculpt it as an A…
All was going great, until I some how spilled super glue all over the canope… So away the kit goes for a few months, and then when I came up with the idea of molding the canope into the fuselage, I decided to go from there…
What I have come up with is a half decent (not great) F-35. And although I would like to eventually see a better kit produced. This will be enough until then… More updates to come…
Mate, the differences are quite large. The A is a CTOL aircraft with a normal aircraft shape, and makes use of your normal runway take off’s and landings.Its being produced for The Royal Australian Air Force, and the USAF.
The B however is STOVL aircraft that is capabale of vertical take off like a Harrier. This aircraft not only uses a rotating aft engine, but a massive fan just behind the cockpit for its take off’s. Hence, it is a chunkier oddly shaped version. Designed for the Marines
There is a C model that is being developed for the Navy. Where by the airframe is strengthened, and the surface area such as wings ect are increased for carrier take off’s and landings…
Andrew on Aussie modeler just gave me some good info regarding the shape of the RAAF aircraft, so I will be doing a bit more hacking and shaping…
Not if you are going to use it in 3 different ways no…
I guess they will be saving money in that the 3 versions will be fundimentally be the same. But its use can be used in 3 different ways also…
Example. The Navy needed a stronger airframe because of the heavy pounding that carrier based aircraft have to go through… For example. Although it probably could be done. If you try landing an F-15 on a carrier, the landing gear would probably snap, and the thing would be flat on its belly… If you hooked its front gear to the catapult. it would be torn from the aircraft most likely.
As for the Marines. They have shown that they can put to great use an aircraft like the Harrier for the role it was designed for. And as they only use small amphibious carriers. They need an aircraft that can take off vertically, but still have the punch that someone like the Navy and AirForce can give…
Anyways, I am not here to sell th F-35, nor am I really that much of a fan of it… If I had my way, Australia would be getting F-22 Raptors. But because that will never happen, then I guess we have to just make what is available work.
Here is an update on mine. As you can see, I re-did the vents and started to give it some life.
I’m lovin’ it Chris! Too bad about the canopy, that’s the only part I dislike. Not your fault, looks like you were able to recover the best you could with that one. Nicely done, great to see an F-35 here. I picked up one of those Panda kits (the FAA version) and hope to get to it soon. Thanks for the inspiration! [^]
I am very disapointed about the Canope, but what can you do eh?
I will say that I made the most out of a bad situation and it turned out the way I could have hoped for… That said, it is a bear of a kit, but with some sweat and some detailing, it can actually look half decent…
Here are a few more pics. I tried to keep the detail to a minimum, and am yet to put the roundal on the under side of the wing…
I kind of actually like the way the canopy turned out, reminds me of a wooden carved model rather then a plastic kit. Too much super detailing these days (I can say that because it seems to be my goal in life), a good solid looking build is great. Definately looks more like something that would sit on a desk in a lockheed exec’s office then one would with PE seatbelts and a futured canopy.
