F-35A Italeri in Thunderbirds Motiff

Comments

Aris Grey
Beautiful painting once again, but i don't think this would ever happen 😄 Too expensive plane , and not maneuverable to join the aerobatic team. 😄

25 September 2018, 19:20

Chris Vandegrift
Yeah, But it would be an awesome Thunderbird! Thinking about it though could it be less maneuverable than the Phantom was? I just happened to talk with a Phantom driver at an open cockpit day last week and he mentioned what a pig it was. lol

26 September 2018, 12:52

Lee Fogel
Stunning paint work!

26 September 2018, 13:30

Aris Grey
Haha maybe you are right. On blue angels was even the F7U Cutlass which was so unpowered.

26 September 2018, 21:08

Martin Oostrom
Nice build and dio 👍
Perhaps the team has learned from it's Phantom mistake and won't make it twice 😉

26 December 2018, 08:05

Tony Stark
Wow well done!
I've built(not finished) the 1/72 Italeri A and its a fantastic kit!
If this is anything like that then you've probably really enjoyed your build.
You've done an absolutly amazing job turning her into a Thunderbirds jet!
I get what people are saying about the Phantom's performance, has anyone read up on the Israeli's Super Phantom?
And I know its too expensive now but what about the next big fighter investment, with inflation and changing times that surely has to cost more and make the F-35 look like an financial eco worrier.

30 April 2019, 17:46

Album info

I just added a few updated pictures. The original canopy ended up fogged from the new glue i tried. Took 6 months to get one from Italy due to the distributor in the US getting bought out. This is nearly all out of the box, a few scratch built parts to add some detail in the cockpit is all I added. I used the decals from the Tamiya F-16 Thunderbird to make up for anything I couldn't do with graphics. I used Maketar paint masks for all the scallops & curves on the bird and 3M fineline tape to connect everything together. I used MCW (Model Car Works) lacquer paints mixed to the correct FS colors for the Thunderbirds. The nozzle and cockpit is done with Vallejo paints and varnish. You can find a detailed work in progress build in Group Builds: Stars and bars.

I decided to do tribute to the outgoing F-16 and I found the perfect art on the USAF site. This poster was created by SSgt Jon DuMond of the USAF Thunderbirds and they had a 3mb file available for free download, perfect. The key for me was the 2 F-16's o

F-35A Lightning II

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