Fujimi 1/72 scale F-35B Lightning II

Having built Fujimi’s excellent F-22A Raptor, I was expecting a repeat performance with its new F-35B kit.

I got some of what I expected. The highlights included fine, shallow recessed exterior detailing and an excellent rendition of the engine and lift fan of the novel STOVL version of this new aircraft.

Two engines are provided, in fact, one for the nozzle in cruise position and another for the nozzle turned 90 degrees for vertical landing. Only one finely detailed nozzle is provided, though.

Fujimi has cleverly included two sets of doors for the landing gear, weapons bay, and nozzle and lift-fan hatches; one set is for open, the other for closed. However, each set has molded-on tabs that fit into thick-walled slots in the bays and appear rather toylike.

The cockpit is a mix of good and poor detail. It gives relief detail on the consoles’ cockpit sills, and a separate side-stick, but the main panel relies on a decal, and the ejection seat is a simple bench.

The instructions in my sample have good drawings, but all the labeling is in Japanese. It wasn’t clear (to me) about the alternate open/closed features. There’s another set of doors on the top of the fuselage that open when the aircraft goes into STOVL mode, but they are only engraved on the kit; no separate doors to open.

Throughout the kit, the parts are attached to the sprue with stubs that sit on the outside and inside on the mating surfaces. This means more time devoted to preassembly cleanup.

But the highlight for me was the fit of the components. The kit appears to be designed to press-fit, with little glue needed. The upper and lower fuselage halves squashed together tightly and showed no gaps around the carefully positioned seams. Same goes for installing the doors; the closed ones fit so perfectly they were almost impossible to remove once pressed into place. The engine, with either exhaust configuration, can be pulled out from the rear to show off the detail.

The weapons bay has some detail molded in, but it is a bit simplified for the scale. A pair each of AMRAMMs and JDAMs have the right shapes but no detail. I painted the bombs international orange like the ones in photos of the test aircraft. Decal stenciling is provided for the missiles.

The paint scheme is simple but not accurately labeled in the instructions. The aircraft should be overall FS36118 gunship gray, not FS36081 dark gray as suggested. I painted the fins gloss black for the special demonstrator scheme. The kits decals are beautifully printed and fit perfectly.

Fujimi provides both tinted and clear canopies, but the fit to the fuselage isn’t great. There is no mechanism to hold the canopy in the open position (hinged at the front), and there is no indication of the internal bow that is evident in photos. I applied a strip of black decal film to produce the bow.

For those who must have a kit of the F-35 before (or if) it goes into service, this kit will do. The clever alternate doors and engine open up a wide range of display ideas, but the lack of some details will have some modelers putting in more time to enhance them. It took me 23 hours to build my kit right out of the box.