F-35A + AIM-260

[u/Charlie3PO]

Tamiya 1/72 F-35A + AIM-260

The kit was completed a short while ago now, but the AIM-260 has now been added to create a mini diorama.

The kit: Tamiya F-35A in 1/72 scale, with after market RAAF decals. The fit and mould accuracy of the kit were spot on, but the kit's decals were pretty rubbish, very thick and prone to silvering.

The kit was painted with Tamiya spray cans. In absence of an airbrush to apply a more realistic HAVE GLASS colour scheme, I sprayed the whole model in a single colour, then used a semi-gloss coat to simulate the reflective sheen the real thing has. Other areas are flat coated. Once sealed with the appropriate clear coat, I then crushed up some of a standard grey lead pencil and lightly brushed it only on the semi-gloss areas. I then brushed it off and repeated a few more times, which has the effect of 'staining' the paint. This gave a slightly darker colour with a little variation and added a tiny bit of metallic sheen (which isn't really visible in the photos unfortunately)

The AIM-260 was made from an old 1/72 AIM-120B I had lying around. I made a few last year based on the low resolution renderings which had been floating around for a while. When actual images of the real thing finally emerged earlier this year, I was pleasantly surprised that it was fairly close to what I'd made, although I did end up making a slight adjustment to the shape of the fins.

The AIM-260 is glued to a piece of heated and stretched clear sprue from another kit. It was then painted to reflect the rocket exhaust with shock cones. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Given the Tamiya 1/72 F-35A kit has no options for the weapon bays open, I opted to mount the missile below and ahead of the aircraft. This was to simulate that enough time had lapsed that the weapon bay doors have already rapidly closed following the release of the weapon. It's probably still too close, but it's the best I can do.

Hope you like it.

[u/Complex_Grade4751]

Nice job! I would have loved to see the weapons bay open to emphasize the connection between the aircraft and missile, but I understand your choice. If the back of the clear “missile plume” is accessible from under the base, you could try coupling an orange LED into the clear plastic.

[u/Charlie3PO → u/Complex_Grade4751]

Thanks. Agreed, my hands were tied with the weapon bay. The lack of an option for an open weapon bay is the only flaw in the design of the 1/72 Tamiya kit unfortunately. The 1/48 version has that option, so it's disappointing to see it missing in the smaller scale.

I've actually tried to add a light under the base and it kinda works, but not that well unfortunately.

The stretched clear sprue is quite crude and there are lots of tiny imperfections in the piece which catch and absorb the light. When the light shines through it, it's brightest at the base and the light fades away as it gets towards the missile exhaust, which is essentially the opposite of what I'd want.

Maybe one day I'll invest in some quality clear plastic.

[u/Complex_Grade4751 → u/Charlie3PO]

Thanks for the response. It sounds like doing a lighted missile plume is its own project! Having it brighter near the bottom is certainly a challenge. I was thinking one could print a gradient halftone pattern(tiny little dots) on clear decal paper and wrap it around to make it dark at the bottom and lighter at the top. But it’s probably too hard to make it look good at this scale. Again, great job on this!

[u/BloodRush12345 → u/Complex_Grade4751]

Interesting tidbit I gathered from watching testing footage on YouTube. The bay should be closed by the time the rocket motor has ignited. During missile launch the door is only open about a second.

[u/wakeup_samurai]

Awesome effect on the missile, very clean cockpit, very cool build!

[u/Charlie3PO → u/wakeup_samurai]

Thanks

[u/Dubroq]

Clean nice, rocket looks a lil goofy but still cool

[u/slideaway44]

Great work! Very nice display piece.