THE iDOLM@STER F-117A Nighthawk

Ron Garcia
The kit was easy to build and presented no real challenges, so I'll concentrate on the paint job and decals. However, put a lot of weight if the front section to prevent it from being a tail sitter - and I mean A LOT of weight. I always put more than I think I should, and the weight I added was barely enough.

If you follow the instruction's paint formula, the paint will be an almost exact match for the colored plastic sprues. The instructions show the plane in a lighter blue (the mix is almost aqua). I sort of liked how the instructions showed the paint job as I think the snowflake decals would have looked better on the lighter blue background. No big deal, but something to think about.

As with all of the Idolm@aster kits, leave anything off that will stick out. The decals are very stiff and big. They don't settle well over any types of protrusions unless you use a lot of setting solution. They also crack easily so, for example, I painted the nose white rather than use the decal supplied in the kit. That decal would have cracked for sure, so save yourself the headache and paint the nose and the tips of the fins and wings white beforehand.

Speaking of which, the decals are designed for you to use the white nose and wingtip decals. The snowflake decals extend all the way to the nose and the wingtips. Since I had already painted mine, I did several things. I left the snowflakes on the under side of the nose. I thought it looked fine that way. For the underside of the wingtips, I put the white decal over the two wings decals. The decals aren't quite opaque, so you can see a bit of the underlying decals. Since it was underneath, I could live with that. For the upper right side, I used a piece of aluminum foil to remask the white area and painted over the end of the decal. Don't you dare use ANY sort of low tack adhesive on these decals as they will 100% peel off. For the left, I just left well enough alone. The animae figure pretty much completely covers the area so there are no worries on that side.

The two fin upper sections swivel on the kits. Glue them so they don't. I thought the decals on the fins would be in two pieces to accommodate for this. They aren't, and will will crack if you move tops of the fins once the decals are dry. I had to add a bit of CA glue with a toothpick to the swivel point once I discovered this.

The most important advice I can give you is DO NOT cement the fins in place before you apply the decals. There is a giant snowflake decal that covers the entire topside. There are no cutouts for the fins so if they are in place, you will have to do some jigsaw cutting to try and piece it together around the fins. The instructions do not point this out at all. I found out the hard way and it was a bit of a headache to correct it.

Once done, the plane looks nice, just like the other Idolm@aster kits. I'd say this one was slightly more difficult due to the instructions not giving any warning about the decals overlaps. Plan on several long decaling sessions when you tackle this kit.