Prime and paint
A quick rub with 1000 grade and a clean with alcohol swabs to get rid of my sticky paw marks and it’s on with the primer.
Some pre-shading applied along the most prominent panel lines and we can start to get some top coat on.
Decisions, decisions
Now here’s where I face a conundrum. Being most certainly of European origin, I have no intention of building an American variant, this has to be a UK F35K, or at least my best guess at what one would look like.
At the time of writing, although the UK has bought into the program and has aircraft in trial in the US, no decision has yet been made on which RAF or Navy squadrons will get this aircraft, which leaves us in a quandary of which service to depict the model in, then what markings to use.
For the RAF, with it replacing the Harrier, should it be camouflaged and in 1, 3 or 4 Sqdn markings?
It is called the Lightning II, so how about air superiority Barley Grey in the classic 5 or 11 Sqdn drab?
For the Royal Navy, how about a Dark Sea Gray scheme reminiscent of the Buccaneers and Phantoms of old, or perhaps a Medium Sea Grey like the last FA2 Sea Harriers?
The ‘decision’ is Navy, but only because this will most probably be the scheme we see first in British skies, should the government hold to their promises of the new Queen Elizabeth Class carriers.
So Medium Sea Grey and a Naval Air Squadron scheme wins; Time for some research online and find some images to work from.
It’s a pretty inconclusive look for the UK’s trial aircraft, therefore some artistic license must be granted.
With our primer complete and pre-shading in place, time to apply our extra thin coats of MSG, taking care not to obliterate our shading, subtle yet visible is the aim here.
One side effect of our amended order of construction is the need to revisit the intake joins where the internal components mated to the fuselage halves. Nothing a quick sanding can’t fix and reapply our white finish.