If you’ve built Academy’s 1/72 F-35A, this kit’s parts breakdown will seem familiar although most of the parts are new to account for airframe and power plant differences between the conventional A and the vertical takeoff and landing B. While the F-35A was molded in three colors — white, gray, and black — this kit is all molded in gray. I built the F-35A when it was released, so I knew what I was getting into — and it was good.
The instruction booklet is well drawn and concise. The full-color instructions include yellow warning boxes to alert you to step and parts choices for the two build options — vertical takeoff or landing with everything open, including the weapon bays, or flight type, with everything buttoned up; Picking and choosing between these gives more choice. No pilot or stand is included.
The finely molded ejection seat lacks a harness. Decals detail the instrument panel displays and the side consoles.
The fuselage is split into upper and lower halves that incorporate the wings. The Lightning’s distinctive RAM tape is outlined with fine recessed lines.
Landing and weapon bays with sharply molded details are sandwiched by the airframe halves. The upper lift fan is molded into the upper fuselage part, which complicates painting. The forward lift system’s lower exhaust fan is molded into a separate shroud and is also challenging to paint cleanly. However, there’s a driveshaft from the front of the engine to the fan gearbox as well as full intake trunks that look great with the fan and auxiliary intake doors open. Be mindful that the intake tunnels comprise multiple parts revealing unsightly seams when viewed from the front.
All gear, weapon, and lift fan doors are separate, but the kit provides optional closed-door parts that fit perfectly and are great for masking the bays if you plan to pose them open. Ejector-pin marks mar the inside of the nose gear doors.
Optional exhaust nozzles allow the engine to be posed for VTOL or conventional flight. My only real complaint about the kit is the nozzle attaches to a boring bulkhead with no detail. Fortunately, it’s difficult to see.
The fuselage fit without requiring filler.
Other optional parts for the build options include drooped or stowed leading-edge flaps and flaperons, and neutral or drooped tailplanes. Everything fits great here, too.
Academy also provides the option for “beast mode,” with pylons and weapons. The underwing ordnance looks good on the part trees with plenty of fine detail; I chose not to use it.
The model kit gets really hard to handle with all the doors open without adding more weapons. Thankfully, the hinges for all of the doors are sturdy.
I painted the model with the recommended Testors Model Master colors, but light ghost gray looks too light for the RAM tape.
The decals provide markings for three USMC F-35Bs, two from the USS Wasp, the other off the USS Essex. The decals were terrific and laid down beautifully. I appreciated that the decals include the RAM tape, so no 18 hours of masking as I’ve had to do on other F-35s. They line up perfectly but be careful since there is no way of seeing how they fit until the decal solution takes over; I had a couple get misaligned because I put them on upside down — they looked symmetrical to me. The decal instructions are small so it can be hard to see.
Academy’s F-35B is well executed and engineered. The only things I would ask for are seat belts, weighted tires, a little detail on the rear bulkhead, more marking options, and a tinted canopy. But the separate inside canopy frame is a nice touch.
Conclusion
So, which is the better kit of the F-35, Academy or
Italeri? I have no definitive answer. Both have great detail and fits. Both are engineered nearly identically, give plenty of ordnance options, and cost about the same. It comes down to what you want. Academy provides more optional parts for posing the model and provides decals for the RAM tape. Italeri gives better detail in the lift fan and engine. For me, it’s the Italeri kit by a nose because of those features.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the September 2020 issue.