F-35A/B Lightning II USAF/USMC Collection

Xtradecal, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

It is hard to believe that this cutting edge aerial weapon system has been around for almost twelve years and its entire career is demonstrated on this sheet. This is a monster sheet as it offers decals for 32 aircraft (!) and would probably be best look at  as a group or club purchase. Sealed in the familiar Xtradecal zip-lock bag There are eleven A4 pages illustrating the decal placements in port/starboard views with small sketches to showing wing and undercarriage door placements for each choice, with a sheet of upper and lower generic views for these surfaces. A note indicates that airframe stencils will need to come from the donor kit. The rear of the cover sheet has a listing of the Xtracryllix paints by FS numbers to help in the painting.

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The A5 sheet is absolutely crammed with markings which fortunately have a pale blue background to ease the search for the desired images. Each image is printed in semi-gloss with minimal and what looks like very thin carrier film. In this era of all grey “whistle sticks”, this markings are almost all in pale grey with the exception of a couple of special schemes in red, white and blue Marines examples. The tiny unit markings look just superb and very clear but there are only sufficient national markings for a single aircraft so they will be required from the kit sheets. 

The complete list of examples is extracted from the Hannants site as I could not cope with typing them all myself. Here they are:

Air Force

The Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning IIs are 

1. 09-5004, 'OT', of 53rd Wing, 31st TES, United States Air Force, based at Edwards AFB, California, USA, 2011.

2. 10-5009, 'OT', of 53rd Wing, 522nd TES, United States Air Force, based at Nellis AFB, Nevada, USA, 2011.

3. 13-5067, 'WA', of 57th Wing, 6th WPS, United States Air Force, based at Nellis AFB, Nevada, USA,

4.  11-5034, 'EG', of 33rd FW, 58th FS, United States Air Force, based at Eglin AFB, Florida, USA, 2014.

5.  12-5056, 'LF', of 56th FW, 61st FS, United States Air Force, based at Luke AFB, Arizona, USA, 2015.

6.  13-5068, 'LF', of 56th FW, 62nd FS, United States Air Force, based at Luke AFB, Arizona, USA, 2015.

7.  15-5165, 'HL', of 388th FW, 4th FS, United States Air Force, based at Hill AFB, Utah, USA, 2016.

8. 14-5102, 'HL', of 388th FW, 34th FS, United States Air Force, based at Hill AFB, Utah, USA, 2016.

9. 15-5200, 'HL', of 388th FW, 421st FS, United States Air Force, based at Nellis AFB, USA, 2017.

10. 07-0744, 'ED', of 412th TW, 461st FTS, United States Air Force, based at Edwards AFB, California, USA, 2010.

11. 17-5265, 'VT', of 158th FW, 134th FS, Vermont Air National Guard, United States Air Force, based at Burlington ANGB, Vermont, USA, March, 2020.

12. 17-5278, 'VT', of 158th FW, 134th FS, Vermont Air National Guard, United States Air Force, based at Burlington ANGB, Vermont, USA, 2020.

13. 15-5174, 'LF', of 56th FW, 63rd FS, United States Air Force, based at Luke AFB, Arizona, USA, 2016.

14.  13-5081, 'LF', of 56th FW, 308th FS, United States Air Force, based at Luke AFB, Arizona, USA,

15. 12-5044, 'LF', of 944th FW, 62nd FS, United States Air Force, based at Luke AFB, Arizona, USA, November, 2019.

16. 12-5049, 'WA', of 57th WG, 16th WPS, United States Air Force, based at Nellis AFB, Nevada, USA, 2014.

17.  13-5071, 'HL', of 388th FW, 34th FS, United States Air Force, based at Hill AFB, Utah, USA, 2016.

18.  09-5007, 'OT', of 53rd WG, 422nd TES, United States Air Force, based at Nellis AFB, Nevada, USA, 2013.

USMC

And the Marines Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning IIs are:

19.  169164, 'VK/01', of VMFA-121, United States Marines, based at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, 2018.
Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning II 168309, 'DC/05', of VMFA-122, United States Marines, based at MCAS Cherry Point, USA, 2018.

20. 168060, 'VM/51', of VMFAT-501, United States Marines, based at MCAS Cherry Point, USA, 2018.

21. 15-5194, 'HL', of 419th FW, 466th FS, United States Air Force, based at Hill AFB, Utah, USA, 2019.

22.  15-5194, 'HL', of 419th FW, 34th FS, United States Air Force, based at Hill AFB, Utah, USA, 2019.

23.  19-5474, 'LN', of 48th FW, 495th FS, United States Air Force, based at RAF Lakenheath, UK, 2021.

24. 18-5345, 'AK', of 354th FW, 355th FS, United States Air Force, based at Eilson AFB, Alaska, USA, 2019.

25. 15-5124, 'HL', of 354th FW, 355th FS, United States Air Force, based at Eilson AFB, Alaska, USA, 2020.

26. 18-5436, 'AK',of 354th WG, 356th FS, United States Air Force, based at Eilson AFB, Alaska, USA, 2020.

27.168720, 'VK/021', of VMFA-121, United States Marines, based at MCAS Yuma, USA, 2018.

28. 168309, '17', of 461st FLTS, United States Marines, based at Edwards AFB, USA, 2017.

29.168732, 'CF/01', of VMFA-211, United States Marines, based aboard USS America,2016.

30. 169164, 'MV/52', of VMX-1, United States Marines, based aboard USS America, 2016.

31. 168717, 'MV/05', of VMX-22, United States Marines, based at Edwards AFB, USA, 2017.

32 168732, 'DC/01', of VMFA-122, United States Marines, based at MCAS Cherry Point, USA, 2018.

WOW!!

Anyway, the quality of the decals and instructions is excellent and I recommend these to any modeller with an interest in this aircraft and service.

Thanks to Hannants for the review sample

Xtradecals are available online from Hannants' website

Review Text Copyright © 2022 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 21 June, 2022
Last updated 21 June, 2022

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