Hasegawa 1/72 US F-35A Lightning II E42 01572

Hasegawa 1/72 US F-35A Lightning II E42 01572The Joint Strike Fighter program started with a set of requirements for a tactical fighter that would meet the operational needs of the US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps using an airframe that maximized the number of common parts and thereby reduce development and maintenance costs. As with any ambitious program like this, the devil is in the details and as the program evolved, challenges arose. The first step in the program was to determine

The Joint Strike Fighter program started with a set of requirements for a tactical fighter that would meet the operational needs of the US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps using an airframe that maximized the number of common parts and thereby reduce development and maintenance costs. As with any ambitious program like this, the devil is in the details and as the program evolved, challenges arose. The first step in the program was to determine the best overall design and Boeing developed the X-32 that had, shall we say, a rather unique appearance. Lockheed Martin countered with the X-35 and this design would ultimately prevail. This victory made Lockheed Martin the only US company to produce the only two Generation Five fighters in US service - the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.

I really wasn't surprised to hear Hasegawa's announcement of a 1/72 F-35A Lightning II kit. The race to be first was between Italeri and Academy, but Hasegawa held back to be the best kit of this subject so far. Let's take a look:

Molded in light gray styrene, this kit is presented on five parts trees plus two trees of clear parts. I've built the Academy and Italeri 1/72 F-35A kits and one of the common questions from you was which kit is the closest in dimensions? While I haven't formally answered that, let me say that the Hasegawa kit is the first to be dimensionally correct (at least in length and wingspan). They nailed it!

Academy and Italeri took a page out of Hasegawa's 1/48 F-22A Raptor kit and molded the surface radar-absorbing material (RAM) shapes as raised details which was not accurate nor well-received. In this kit, Hasegawa learned its lessons and molded the outlines for the RAM details as scribed lines, but you can see in the images that they've provided the RAM as decals this time. Another first among F-35 kits!

Glue, paint and finishing supplies not included

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