F-35B Lightning VMFA-242

Academy, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by John Miller

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.

Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A (CTOL), the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B (STOVL), and the carrier-based F-35C (CV/CATOBAR).

Text edited from Wikipedia.

The kit comes in a top-opening box adorned with very nice artwork depicting an F-35B from VMFA-242 "Bats" in a high performance turn. Inside are 6 sprues of grey styrene carrying a total of 150 parts, one clear sprue with 2 parts and one large decal sheet.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

The recessed surface textures are nicely rendered as are a multitude of fuselage panels that are molded in relief. The sprue gates are small and there’s not a lot of flash, even on the smaller parts.

Although some cleanup will be required, you’re not going to generate a lot of styrene dust in the process.

The model can be built configured for flight or for vertical takeoff and landing. The latter option involves building the kit with the lifting fan (situated right behind the cockpit) in the open position and the exhaust nozzle deflected downwards. This also involves using a different set of horizontal stabilizers so read the instructions carefully. For those inclined, the internal bomb bay can also be posed open and a nice selection of ordinance is provided.

Unlike most aircraft kits that start with the cockpit, construction begins with a wealth of internal trunking and engine assemblies.

Step 5 entails building a nicely detailed, 7-piece ejection seat and the cockpit tub. Once assembled, the cockpit and internal trunking/engine assemblies are sandwiched between the upper and lower fuselage halves. To this are added  single-piece slats, ailerons and the nose cone. 

Next up is the landing gear comprised of a nose gear (5 parts) and left and right main gear (6 parts each). The gear legs are nicely detailed and will look great under some paint and a wash.

The tires for both the nose gear and main gear are single-pieces so there’ll be no annoying seems to deal with. As with the rest of the kit, the gear doors, lifting fan door, ventral exhaust nozzle doors and bomb bay doors are all nicely molded with little-to-no flash.

Ordnance:

If you wish to hang some ordnance off your F-35, Academy provides a nice selection including AIM-9X (x2), AIM-120C (x2), GBU-31(V)3 (x2), and BGU-38 (x4). A diagram is provided that shows the load-out options.

Clear Parts

The one-piece canopy is crisply molded and crystal clear.

Unlike the Tamiya version, which is a bronze-gold in color, the Academy canopy has no color.

Of note is the nicely molded internal canopy framing that is provided as a separate part.

Color and Markings

The decals, printed by Academy, are crisp with good color density.

Markings are provided for three airframes as follows:

• U.S. Marines VMFA-242 "Bats" (special 2025 markings)

• U.S. Marines VMFA-242 "Bats" (Izumi 2025)

• JMSDF BX-1 (the first JMSDF F-35)

I like this kit. If you choose to build the in-flight version, I suspect this will be a quick and easy build. Conversely, building the kit in the vertical takeoff and landing configuration entails more assembly steps as does posing the bomb bay doors open. Considering how crystal-clear the canopy is, I would consider adding a 3-D printed cockpit set but, it’s not needed. Either way you build it, the Academy F-35B has ample detail to make a very nice model right out of the box.

Keep your airbrush wet!

John

For more on this review visit ModelPaintSolutions.com

https://modelpaintsol.com/reviews/academy-f-35-b-lightning

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2025 by John Miller / Model Paint Solutions
Page Created 21 November, 2025
Last updated 21 November, 2025

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page