Tom Murphy

Sorry Ratch this reply comes a bit late and yes, at the time I did jump the gun slightly but alas I've been proven right, the RAM panels stand out too much for my liking. Do you remember the matchbox kits from the late seventies early eighties. A lot was mentioned then about their panel lines being way to deep for their scale well in my humble opinion the F35 kits on sale today from most manufactures suffer the same problem regards those panels. As I understand it the RAM panels were marked in special tape or paint on the prototypes to help the ground crew treat them carefully so they didn't damage these areas. Now that the aircraft is in service the panel taping/paint is gone and the fuselage looks smooth in comparison. I still hope that Airfix and all the other manufactures bring out an updated version soon. here's an example of what I mean

I got two 1/35 tanks from my lovely wife for Christmas. Both the Cromwell MkIV and MkVI and very good they are to. I've acquired both with the corrected wheels, both kits having the eight nuts instead of the six on the earlier pressings. I used to build amour models a few years back having mainly built aircraft models which I still do to this day. What inspired me, or rather who, was a certain Belgium gentleman by the name of Francois Verlinden. If you're new to the hobby I suggest you seek him out on-line. There are some wonderful amour modellers out there today but if you asked who inspired them then surely his name will crop up. Sadly he passed away in 2002 but he left behind a great legacy of his work including resin kits of 120mm figures and update kits with 1/35th scale in mind as well as books of his work. He's well worth checking out as are his kits which you can still get to this day.

Just to show what I mean about the ram panels here's a photo of an F35 taking off from an aircraft carrier. I think it's the C variant. Note there are no taped ram panels.

Hi Thanks for the replies everyone. I didn't know that about the tape RAM you live and learn as they say. I hate to moan but some of the new kits that have come out, some in 1/48th and some in 1/72nd the price of these can be a bit eye watering. The reason I mention this is because I've seen and read some reviews where they suggest to rub them down a bit to lessen the appearance. Now I'm not a lazy modeller and I like a challenge, it's all part of the enjoyment, and I've been on many a nostalgia trip on some of the older model's so a bit of sanding is definitely called for. The modern kits have surpassed all of this but, in my humble opinion, and like I've stated I'm not going to spend that kind of money just to sand it down to make the model look better. I'll just wait and see what awaits in the future. Happy modelling.

Hi This is my first time in this discussion forum so forgive me if this topic has been mentioned before. I fancy building an F35 for a while but have been put off by the way the distinctive panels on the aircraft have been represented on the first models to be produced. I can understand that the early examples were of the prototype but since it's now in service the latest photos available in the aviation press show a much smoother skin. The aircraft has stealth technology built into its design from the start so I think the early photographs show panels outlined in a different colour to show ground crew where they are. The early model's had these panels standing slightly proud of the skin. If you scale these panels up 1 to 1 scale then you would have little walls surrounding these panels. It's a stealth aircraft so smooth skinning is vital. So my question is does anyone else think that these panels are a bit over the top in the way they are depicted? The photos I've seen of the Airfix kit once again show these panels standing slightly proud of the surface.