The F-35 entered
service 4 years before the first of the 2 Royal Navy Super Carriers HMS Queen
Elizabeth and HMS Charles IV were commissioned in 2020. The first of the new
carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, took over her new air wing with number 800 and
801 squadrons with F-35s. Squadrons 899 and 892 being reserved for the Charles
IV. To celebrate finally getting their carrier, a retro scheme was applied to
the Squadron commanders aircraft number 100 for 801 squadron. This used the old
extra dark sea grey over white scheme last seen on the harriers as they sailed
for the Falklands. The jet is seen during catapult trials on the new Elizabeth
and sports the old style E but for Elizabeth rather than the previous Eagle.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The Panda kit is for one of
the prototypes but was released quite early on, good to see the Chinese
have good sources of data on western jets? The production version will be
quite different so time to have some fun. The kit was very easy to build
and includes the weapons bays and stores. A few mods were made to get the
jet pipe pointing down as this option is not in the kit for some bizzare
reason. The scheme was based on the supermarine scimitar with markings
from and old Tamiya Harrier sheet and the spares bin.
Happy New Year to
All ARC'ers.
Colin Whitehouse
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