1/48 Panda Models F-35's

Gallery Article by Dylan Smith

These are the much talked about F-35's from Panda models out of China and they aren't nearly as bad as some people say they are.  And yes, they are based on an early prototype, but  they look ok to me. 

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The kit 
The parts are molded in light grey plastic on three sprues with a clear sprue for the canopy and hud. the only difference between the a.f. version and the marine version is the tail pipe. the a.f. one is straight and the marine one is angled at 90 degrees for a vertical landing. other than that they are identical. 

Construction 
construction is quite simple. the main airframe is split into top and bottom and the fit is really good the only filler is on the intakes and that is easy to take care of . the cockpit is sparse at best with a basic instrument panel and side consoles. so i elected to just paint them black and once the canopy is on you cant see it anyways. the seat looks like a poor copy pf a k-36 from a mig, so that went right in the bin and i replaced them with an aces 2 in the a.f. jet and a martin baker in the r.n one. the canopy has a really heavy frame and it was missing the center frame so i made one with a piece of masking tape, it blends in quite well with the rest of the frame .(finishing) both models were painted with gunze acrylics and futured before applying the decals. 

The royal navy decals are off of a harrier sheet from sky model and the usaf ones are from Aeromaster. after the decals dried i used a wash of india ink in the panel lines and sealed it all with humbrol matt. all of the metal areas were painted with polly s railroad acrylics . 

I had alot of fun building these kits....they are simple and cheap. I only  paid $28 Cdn. (US$18) for them.  I'm sure that in a few years one of the big kit makers will come out with a more accurate one, but for now we will have to just make do with these. 

I plan to load these up with Amraams, LGB's, and fuel tanks, but I thought I would show them clean for now.  I will send Steve some pics of them loaded up in a few weeks.  

Dylan Smith

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