Tamiya 1/48 Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk

TAMIYA 1:48 LOCKHEED F-117A NIGHTHAWK

Reviewer: Brian Manning (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 6 October 2009

Kit Details:

Tamiya #61059 - 1/48 Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter-bomber

Aircraft History:

The F-117A is the result of a long and secret Lockheed "Skunkworks" project dating back to the early 1970's, to be for all intents and purposes invisible to radar. It was first exposed to the combat arena in the Gulf War where it performed under the cloud of darkness and all types of weather and was spoken of to be a deadly accurate fighter bomber.

The Kit:

Tamiya have produced another outstanding looking kit which is well detailed and over 100 parts on multiple sprues with no flash, in crisp and lovely detail. Wheel bays have detail and even the landing gear has molded detail to depict hydraulic hoses. Surface detail is finely engraved and all the parts are separately bagged to protect the contents. A set of masks for the canopy and FLIR housing is provided to aid in painting later.

Instructions:

If you have built a Tamiya kit before you will know how these will look as they follow their usual standard format in a fold out booklet with the provision of multiple assembly diagrams, four view decal placement and markings, brief history, usual warning and modelling symbols used in the instructions and painting information from the Tamiya range. A combination of English and Japanese text is used throughout.

Construction:

There really is not a lot to complain about the cockpit - you get just about everything you need for this scale, bearing in mind if you have a closed cockpit then not much will be seen later anyway. Control columns, throttles, instrument panels, side consoles, a realistic looking ejection seat and rudder pedals are all provided in the kit. The main console detail that is provided by way of a decal is rather generic. Everything fits as it should into the tub and is set aside ready to accept the upper/lower fuselage halves.

The halves fit very nicely together but the join lines need a dab of filler just to ensure a seamless look about it. One of the problems with an aircraft like this one is all its lines, angles and panels are unique and need to be kept that way. A bonus though is that the aircraft has very few panel lines on the external body since it needs to remain stealthy, so this makes the sanding and filling process all the more easy.

The main wings are virtually already there by virtue of the breakdown of the kit components but the leftover overhanging halves attach with ease and look nice. Tamiya give you the option of having an open bomb bay with the trapeze deployed and the Paveway III guided bombs 'exposed'. This is a little bit of a tricky area to do but compared to most other kits, still a cinch!

The FLIR housing in the nose is nice, and well worth a bit of time spent to make it look realistic. Again all the components of this kit fit very nicely together. The canopy fits like a dream, as do the tailfins and the gear and bomb bay doors presented no problems at all. The undercarriage is made up of multiple parts to depict reasonably well detailed legs and struts and the wheels are treaded and weighted.

Construction continued and there is not much to report as it all went together very nicely, Tamiya do produce some fine fitting kits! After the construction is completed, the masks were carefully cut out from the sheet and applied to the canopy and FLIR housing. These go on quite well providing you have a steady cutting arm and you carefully check each mask against where you think it is supposed to go - ie: test fit! From there, all that is left to do is paint and finish off.

Colour Schemes/Decals:

Any colour so long as it is black - with two USAF fighter-bomber options from TAC provided for this bird, both from the mid 90's era. The only other colour used is white for the bomb bay and landing gear wells. The decal sheet is a good size with a plethora of stencils and unit badges to place on the model, all in low viz grey of course. Colour register is excellent but the decals are thick and glossy compared to other manufacturers. Using standard Microset/sol decal setting solution provided no problems and the carrier film disappeared once sealed in with a subsequent gloss cote.

Conclusions:

What can I say other than another Tamiya winner! It is superbly engineered and is of the highest quality with an ease of fit that makes this model a breeze to build for all levels of skills. It looks spot on the money when it is finished. Highly recommended!

Updated kit alternative:

A final comment is that Tamiya have reissued this kit in the past year or two but this time it comes with extra sprues and decals to also make a Humvee (kit number 89773) to accompany the aircraft!

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