F-35A Lightning II
‘Beast Mode’

Italeri, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Andy King

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning is a fifth-generation single seat warplane that is designed for both air superiority and strike roles. It can also provide electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

The first flight of the F-35 was on the 15th December 2006 and during its development, the aircraft came in for a lot of criticism due to various issues with it (such as the oxygen system, too short landing hook for the naval version etc.) and delays, let alone the exorbitant costs involved (something like $75 million per airframe currently).

A lot of the issues were eventually ironed out though and the first F-35 (a ‘B’ model) entered service with the US Marine Corps in July 2015 followed by the US Air Force in August 2016 with the ‘A’ model, the US Navy ‘C’ models went into service in February 2019.

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Since then other countries have taken delivery of the F-35 including the UK, Australia, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Israel (who used them in combat during 2018), Italy, Japan, and South Korea along with orders placed by Belgium, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and Germany.

The Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) had requested to place an order for the F-35 but this was rejected due to the reluctance of the US over fears of espionage by Chinese spies in Taiwan.

Turkey was another contender for the F-35 but in 2020 following Turkeys decision to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, the US cancelled the Turkish order and formally seized the eight aircraft that were due to be delivered and transferred them to the USAF inventory together with a contract to modify them to US standards.

As of January 2023 the US Government had not refunded the $1.4 Billion payment Turkey made for the F-35s. Whoops!

The Italeri kit of the F-35 first appeared in 2013, also being re-boxed by Tamiya, Revell, Mistercraft, PM and Zvezda. This particular kit has the same mouldings but with additional parts for what is described as ‘Beast Mode’ which is in reference to all the weapons pylons fitted and open weapons bays.

In the box are just four sprues (one clear for the canopy) and a decal sheet. The parts are cleanly moulded with very little flash present and the few mould-pin marks found (apart from the main undercarriage bays) are confined to hard-to-see areas. There is some slight sinkage on the forward edge of the starboard weapons bay which will need filling.

The cockpit is pretty bare, with instrument and side panels represented by decals only, which by the way are wrongly numbered on the instruction sheet. The ejection seat is okay with decals for seat belts but a resin aftermarket item would look better. The engine exhaust is quite nicely rendered inside and out, the undercarriage looks useable and you get a decent array of weapons to hang on the model. The engine has a front fan and rear afterburning disc but there is no representation of an air intake tunnel so it may be necessary to fit intake blanks. The weapons bays are quite well done and will look good after a pin-wash.

Looking at the rest of the airframe and the depiction of the RAM (Radar Absorbing Material) panels, this is a ‘love it or hate it’ thing as these have been moulded onto the airframe rather than use decals. Personally speaking, the representation of the RAM panels is not that bad apart from around the nose as these appear to be fairly thick and will need sanding back, in fact the instructions call for the rhomboid shapes to be removed entirely.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about RAM panels on the F-35 but to me, after looking at pictures of the real aircraft the panels do look slightly raised rather than flat but that’s just my interpretation. One method of reducing the height that I am toying with is to spray the airframe with primer then sand back the RAM areas, this way when the final colour is applied the ram panels shouldn’t stand out as much…that’s the plan anyway.

Marking Options

Six marking options are provided on the instructions for F-35s from Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, the US Air Force along with two Israeli airframes, you also get full colour illustrations of the markings applied to the weapons.

The decals are printed by Cartograf, are of very good quality and as well as the individual aircraft markings you get a full set of stencil data for both aircraft and weapons.

On the whole this looks to be a great starting point for a model of the F-35 as it should look good straight out of the box.

You probably won’t have to go mad with aftermarket goodies but I think with a new cockpit, engine exhaust and wheels that should be enough to lift the model. Also if you are doing one of the versions that has different colour RAM panels I would recommend a masking set as these areas would be difficult to do successfully. Personally I’ll be choosing a Lakenheath machine as the RAM panels are the same colour as the airframe.

I wasn’t a fan of the F-35 at all and haven’t really paid that much attention to the machine but after watching a live stream of US Air Force F-35s being delivered to RAF Lakenheath here in the UK on December 15th 2021, I did start looking for a kit of one so this model by Italeri may be heading for the bench very soon.

History via Wikipedia.

Thanks to The Hobby Company Limited for the sample

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2023 by Andy King
Page Created 27 June, 2023
Last updated 28 June, 2023

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