Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II
Meng (LS-007)
1:48

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters. This fifth-generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack and air defense missions. It has three main models:

1. F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant
2. F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant
3. F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR)

A 5th Generation fighter has advanced stealth, exceptional agility and maneuverability, sensor and information fusion, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. 5th Generation technology provides greater survivability, situational awareness, and effectiveness for pilots, as well as improved readiness and lower support costs. As a true 5th Generation fighter, the F-35 has stealth designed in as part of the aircraft from the beginning.

The F-35 and the F-22 are the world's two premier fighters, but there are some differences between the aircraft. The F-35 is optimized to be a multirole fighter, with the ability to perform air-to-air, air-to-ground and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. While the F-22 is superior to the F-35 in air-to-air missions, the F-35's air-to-air capability is superior to all other fighters. The F-35 is better than any other fighter aircraft, including the F-22, for air-to-ground strike missions. [source: f35.com]

The F-35 is designed with the entire battlespace in mind, bringing new flexibility and capability to the United States and its allies. Reliance on any single capability - electronic attack, stealth, etc. - is not sufficient for success and survivability in the future. Missions traditionally performed by specialised aircraft - air-to-air combat, air-to-ground strikes, electronic attack, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - can now be executed by a squadron of F-35s [source: f35.com]

Not too surprisingly it was the RAM surface detail that I first looked at when I cracked the seal on the box. The RAM panels are prominent on the fuselage top and bottom and when you compare the scale thickness of the Meng kit and what the RAM panels look like on the real aircraft I would have to say the kit panels do look overscale. How much this bothers you is entirely subjective, for my part I plan to lightly sand the more pronounced panels to try and tone them down and bring them back to a better scale representation.

The general fit of the kit is extremely good (much like their previous P-51D). As I was dry fitting the part together I came across no areas where the sub-assemblies did not simply slot together with little or no gap. I guess we are becoming more accustomed to this level of quality in the age of CAD tooling but its still worth mentioning because it does make modeling projects that little more enjoyable (at least to me).

Being a stealth aircraft you should not have any seams or joins (ie panel lines) on the airframe skin that are not covered by RAM paneling. This means that on the model where Meng have engineered the kit with joints (eg wing to fuselage or vertical/horizontal tail surfaces) you will need to completely eliminate any seams. This will be pretty straight forward on the wing joins but will be more complex on the vertical tails as the seams cut directly over top of the RAM paneling. A better solution would have been for them to design the two vertical tail halves to join along a natural RAM panel join. Kittyhawk did exactly the same thing on their F-35 kits which makes me wonder if there is some limitation here in the plastic moulding process?

The internal subassemblies (intake trunking, weapons bay, wheel bays, cockpit and exhaust) all fit with a reassuring click. Meng have done a good job of providing positive alignment tabs on the fuselage top and bottom to make getting every to sit where its needed. Given the streamlined design of the F-35 and the way that Meng have engineered the top and bottom fuselage halves as single pieces the parts count for making this model is quite low and it only took me an afternoon to cut out, clean up and tape together the whole airframe including the internal bays. You could build this model very quickly, which would give you more time for all that RAM panel masking (gulp).

Meng (like Kittyhawk and Hasegawa before them) have completely side stepped the 'Have Glass V' finish of the F-35. The "Have Glass 5th Generation" paint is the evolution of the original Have Glass RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) technology which is made by mixing microscopic metal grains that can degrade the radar signature of the aircraft. Its what gives the F-35 (F-22 and many USAF F-16's) that distinctive metal sheen to the paint finish. The underlying "Camouflage Grey" color is equivalent to Federal Standard FS36170.

Have Glass has traditionally been devilishly hard to reproduce on a scale model. Recently a number of model paint makers have taken up the "Have Glass" challenge and released FS36170 Camouflage Grey paints but only a handful (Mr Paint, True Earth etc) have tried to tackle the metallic sheen via a clear coat. I plan to use the Mr Paint combination as part of my build, so more on that later.

Rather than take you through a sprue by sprue tour of the kit contents, I've picked out some noteworthy items and summarised them here. First up lets look at the weapons. Meng provide us with a full set of wing pylons and weapon bay (note I didn't say bomb bay because the F-35 can carry much more than just bombs internally).

At this point in time the F-35 program is still in the early stages of weapons testing and certification so most of what you could put in/on it is probably not actually deployable today, but lets just park that for the moment. Jump ahead a few years and the F-35 will be capable of carrying just about any suitable ordinance you like.

With this in mind Meng has (cleverly) provided us with at least one weapon choice that has never been kitted in 1:48 (to my knowledge) before, the Raytheon GBU-53 Small Diameter Bomb, a 250 pounds (113 kg) class bomb that can identify and strike mobile targets from standoff distances (of beyond 40 miles) in all weather conditions. Each weapon bay on the F-35 is designed to accomodate 4 x GBU-53 and still leave room for a AIM-120 AMRAAM.

If you are looking for additional weapons to place on the wing pylons or weapons bay beyond those that come in the kit, shortly after this F-35 kit announcement, Meng followed up with three new 1:48 modern weapon sets:

1. SPS-043 U.S. - Short-range Air-to-air Missiles
2. SPS-044 U.S. - Long/Medium-range Air-to-air Missiles
3. SPS-045 U.S. - Satellite-guided Bombs

Beyond the main airframe parts (fuselage, tail, wings, canopy etc) the remainder of the parts consist of the usual suspects such as undercarriage, wheels, assorted doors (weapon and wheel bay). The following pictures are a representative assortment to show you the quality of the detail provided out of the box.

If I had to pick one thing (beyond the RAM paneling) that I wish Meng had done differently it would be their decision on where to have the vertical tail halves join seam. It would have been so much better to make two full halves to each vertical fin rather than have a horizontal seam running across the inside of the fin. I know from experience with the Kittyhawk kit that this is a bugger of a seam to remove due to the RAM panels it crosses over. The horizontal tails (elevators) likewise have join seams on their surface that must be removed but thankfully they do not cross any raised RAM paneling.

The exhaust nozzle of the F-35 must have been quite an engineering challenge for Lockheed Martin. Unlike the F-22 they could not just hide it deep inside the fuselage, it had to be external and even rotate on the F-35B. To do all that and still make it have a low radar signature would have been difficult. In the end they arrived at a multi serrated design that makes for one of the more unique nozzles you will see. Meng has done a very nice job of capturing the complexity of the nozzle and once painted I think it will look spot on.

The external pylons are nicely detailed and as mentioned earlier if you want to model a 'non stealthy' F-35 then you have the option (pre-marked drill holes included) to fit these to the wings. At first glance the kit cockpit looks very plain and its not until you compare it to the real thing that you understand why. The F-35 relies almost entirely on a massive glass screen for all readouts and switches. The side consoles are very simple and the cockpit in general very uncluttered, especially compared to what we are used to as jet modellers. The canopy frame will be needed if you plan to display the canopy open in its unusual (for US based aircraft a least) forward hinged position.

The F-35 canopy (like most modern fighter canopies) is treated to reduce radar reflections (much like the fusleage RAM panels) which gives it a characteristic goldish tint. Modellers will need to figure out for themselves how to reproduce this as Meng provides the canopy (in fact all the clear parts) without any tinting. I've not seen any manufacturer try to pre-tint canopies since Hasegawa did it a few years back in some of their F-16 boxings. Meng have thankfully manage to mould the canopy without any seam, which will be welcome to those of us who dread sanding out canopy seams :)