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MODEL: Lockheed F-35A Lightning II
BRAND: Revell
SCALE: 1/72
KIT NUMBER: 03799
NUMBER OF PARTS: 143
NEW MODEL: yes, March 2025
PRICE: approx. 29,- Euro
IN BOX REVIEW
The Lockheed F-35A, popularly known as the JSF Stealth Fighter, needs no further introduction. The Royal Netherlands Air Force also has the F-35A in service and additional aircraft have recently been ordered. For more information, check out the NedMil web pages on our IPMS website here….
THE MODEL
Revell has released its own 1/72 F-35A kit in March 2025. This should not be confused with the Revell reissue 03868 of the old Italeri kit 1331.
This brand new Revell kit 03799 has 143 parts in 5 sprues in very light gray plastic and a transparent very light yellow tinted sprue for the cockpit canopy and a fairing. There are optional parts with some nice extras. The instructions are in full colour with 75 building steps but seem rather busy. The manual recommends 20 grams of nose ballast, but I don't think that is necessary. The colours are indicated in Revell paints only.
The decals are for 3 F-35A gray schemes:
(1) F-35A, USAF, 49 Squadron Valkyries with some nice insignia, flying from RAF Lakenheath in England;
(2) F-35A, German Luftwaffe, Geschwader 33, flying from Buchel, Germany;
(3) F-35A, Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), code F-026, no. 313 squadron, flying from Volkel air base, Netherlands. (there is a typo in the instructions).
The decals look good and are printed by Cartograf. There are some additional grey decals to suggest the RAM panels and it looks sufficient.
The Revell kit has neat parts in some soft plastic. The RAM panels are very neatly and subtly depicted with raised details. Some engraved panels look a bit to deep engraved, a modeller can do a bit filling here (not for the engraved hatches). Loose flaps and stabilizers are included but not the intake tunnels but the curved intake parts do not make that necessary as an engine fan would not be visible. The cockpit looks a bit bare but decals are supplied for the instrument panels. The ejection seat is very simple and lacks details. The strange supplied Alien pilot is better replaced. The cockpit canopy can also be opened, the necessary hinge braces are included. A loose cockpit ladder with an open bay can also be installed. There are also loose FOD cover plates supplied in the kit and a cover plate for the exhaust. Some small parts are a bit vague and require some sanding.
When measuring roughly the 218mm length and 148mm wingspan of the 1/72 model seem to be sized correctly. On the box Revell oddly gives a span of 153mm but perhaps that includes if installed with pylons the outer mounted Sidewinders.
You have the option to make the model with the main weapons bay doors closed in flight presentation with retracted landing gear but a stand is not supplied. But much more fun is the option with visible open weapons bay. A very strong point of this kit is that there is a very impressively detailed bay with the necessary doors. The accuracy of this can not be judged but it is probable that Revell had a look at a German F-35A. What is a pity are the many ejector pin marks on the insides’ of the doors; these all have to be filled and sanded away.
The nice armament supplied also makes it possible to build the model in “beast mode”, that is carrying external weaponry. The F-35A can, after the enemy air defenses have been eliminated and the invisible “stealth” properties become less important, also be used for ground attack. The kit includes JDAMS, GBU-12 Paveway II, GBU-31 guided bombs as well as AIM-9X Sidewinders and AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles with the necessary pylons and weapon decals.
A big disappointment with this kit is the transparant canopy: the cockpit canopy is not moulded very clear and has a light yellow tint. I think it should be perfectly moulded and have a smoke tint. Perhaps a thin transparent layer of "smoke" tint over it can make it more convincing. The separate internal cockpit frame is handy as it makes painting easy.
You have the option to apply the small external fairings that make the F-35 visible for radar in peacetime.
A very nice extra is that the parachute fairing (part C72) on top of the fuselage rear section is included separately with the kit. This was developed at the request of the Norwegian Air Force and is also optional for the F-35A of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. This parachute fairing can be placed or not. The various holes for these options and any pylons must be drilled open in advance and Revel indicates this in the instructions.
For the F-35 stealth grey Revell gives a mixing colour of 80% grey 378 with 20% metal 91 but it is much better to buy a correct paint for the special paint of the real F-35: FS36170 grey. (for example from White Ensign WEM ACUS41, Vallejo 71.280 or AKAN 72071). What you see when looking at photos is that RAM panels can vary quite a bit per F-35. On the later F-35 photos they are less and less visible and what Revell supplies with a few decals is fine.
CONCLUSION
Several 1/72 F-35A kits have been released in recent years, with varying levels of detail. In particular, the way in which the characteristic RAM panels were depicted differed per kit. The Hasegawa kit in 1/72 scale was the most accurate, but the RAM panels were virtually absent and suggested with decals.
At this 1/72 scale the Revell kit seems to be the best choice for an F-35A. It has very subtle RAM detailing that is convincing. Furthermore the kit has a nicely detailed main weapons bay, armament and fine decals. Extras are also the ladder and parachute fairing. The very light yellow tinted and not clearly moulded cockpit canopy is disappointing however.
For Royal Netherlands Air Force (KLu) modellers the KLu kit decals that are included for the F-026 with even a small tail emblem are perfectly usable.
REVIEWER: Meindert de Vreeze
NOTE: In 2014 Hasegawa released a 1/72 F-35A, for an in box review impression look here…..
this in box review was first published March 30, 2025 (c) Copyright IPMS Nederland / author