Academy 1/72 Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk

ACADEMY 1:72 LOCKHEED F-117A NIGHTHAWK

Reviewer: Paulo Ivo Teixeira (contact via SMAKR webmaster)
Kit Review submitted: 28 February 2009

Kit Details:

Academy Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk 1/72 scale, kit # 2107, from 1991. Sturdy top-opening box. From a model shop in Andorra in late 2008, courtesy of C. Silva.

Aircraft History:

The F-117A and its history are covered in great detail in http://www.vectorsite.net/avf117.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117_Nighthawk. Here I shall just note that it is an aircraft designed to be invisible to radar so it can penetrate enemy defences on its own and carry out precision attacks. These are the reasons for its unusual shape and the secrecy surrounding it. Having entered service in the early 1980s, it was first used operationally during the Panama invasion of 1989 and extensively during the Gulf War, where the 40 F-117s assigned to the conflict dropped 30% of all precision-guided munitions. The specialised nature of the aircraft, combined with high maintenance costs and obsolescing technology, led to its retirement in 2008.

Kit Parts:

About 50 injection-moulded parts on 2 sprues of black plastic, plus one clear (actually brown-tinted) sprue (bagged separately) containing canopy and covers for forward and downward-looking radars. Four parts should not be used and are marked as such in the sprue diagram. Note that some pairs of identical parts (e.g., main wheels) are counted as a single part.

Instructions:

A long strip of paper folded into a US-letter-sized, 3-page booklet, featuring a very brief history of the aircraft (English only); explanation of symbols; 9 clear construction steps with text instructions and colour callouts; sprue diagram; painting and decalling guide showing 4-views of aircraft; and pictures of 3 other kits, presumably from the same range (2 b/w photos of assembled kits, plus one boxart).

Colour Schemes:

Two overall black aircraft: the "Toxic Avenger" (first to bomb Baghdad on 16 January 1991) and an aircraft from 415th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

Options:

Wheels up or down, bomb bay doors open or closed, canopy open or closed, choice of ordinary 2000-lb bombs or LGBs. Flaps are also positionable.

Construction:

There are actually very few parts: basically the upper and lower fuselage with moulded-on wing halves, plus the cockpit, flaps, tailfins, undercarriage and ordinance. So this looked like a quick, uncomplicated build. Which it was.

I started with the two LGBs. which come in two halves. They were painted modern olive drab FS34088 (Hu 155) with bright yellow (Hu 69) rings, silver (Hu 11) tips and copper (Hu 54) between the fore fins, to match photos found on the Aircraft Resource Center website. These were then put on one side and work was started on the cockpit. This consists of a tub with rear bulkhead and side consoles, plus three-part seat, instrument panel and control column. The seat cushion was painted modern olive drab FS34088 (Hu 155) with khaki drill (Hu 72) straps; the rear bulkhead was painted dark gull grey FS36231 (Hu 140). Everything else is black and was left unpainted. There are decals for the instrument panel and side consoles, after these were applied, all black or decalled surfaces were given a couple of coats of Humbrol flat varnish.

I then started work on the fuselage. The exhaust area was painted gunmetal (Hu 53). Now the undercarriage, wheels, undercarriage bays, bomb bay, as well as the insides of all doors, should be satin white. I first gave the larger parts a couple of coats of flat white (Hu 34), then another 3 or so coats of satin white (Hu 130), till they looked white enough. The sawtooth edges on the insides of the bomb bay doors were painted pale yellow (Hu 81) to match photos. The smaller parts were painted satin white direct, with silver (Hu 11) oleos). Tyres were done in flat black (Hu 33), as was the canopy framing.

Tee forward-looking radar was then cemented onto the upper fuselage half. I painted the radar antenna gloss black (Hu 21), but shouldn't have bothered, as it sits behind tinted clear plastic. The cockpit was then also cemented into the upper fuselage half, some weight was placed around the nose area (lead chippings in plasticine, as is usual for me) and the two fuselage halves could go together. Some care is needed here, as there are no alignment pins and it is important to get a perfect alignment, otherwise there will be gaps (as noted by Mark B. when building the Italeri kit of the same subject).

Once most of the kit was together it was time to add the flaps. There required some sanding to fit flush. The two tail fins are engineered to sit at the correct angles, but it's easy to reverse them, so I did and had to remove them and start again. But it was ok in the end. Also the strut that the bomb bay doors attach to was too long and had to be slightly filed to size. The bomb bay doors and undercarriage bay doors have very small attachment points, so superglue was used, with perfect results.

The LGBs went on last. Their pylons are rather stalky (and, from photo evidence, completely inaccurate), so more superglue to the rescue. A landing light just aft and to the left of the cockpit was painted bright red (Hu 19).

On to serious painting? Well, no. I sort of felt silly painting black plastic black. However something had to be done, as there were sanding marks everywhere. Following the advice of a modeller on the Aircraft Resource Center website, I decided I would just give it a couple of coats of flat varnish after decalling. This is necessary not just to hide blemishes, but also because bare plastic has a different reflectivity to paint. Also the more observant readers will note that the (painted) canopy frame is a slightly darker shade of black than the (unpainted) airframe. This is something I can live with though. :-)

Decals:

Quite a bit of stencilling, consisting mostly of "NO STEP" signs. Quite hard to see on the (pale blue) decal sheet, starkly visible once placed on a completely black airframe. I lost some decals by dropping the sheet into the plate of lukewarm water, but most of those were redundant. I decided to leave out the decals on the inside of the bomb bay doors, as photos of the aircraft don't seem to show anything there. Then all black/clear surfaces got a couple of coats of Humbrol flat varnish.

Construction completed!

Accuracy:

Looks like an F-117A, that's good (or bad) enough for me! :-) The only nagging thing is the incorrectly shaped bomb pylons, but they're hard to see anyway.

Conclusions:

A simple, easy-to-build kit. Recommended to all who like odd-looking planes.

References:

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