Thanks for the comments everyone!
artoor, I seem the similiarity! it seems like F-22, F-35 and even B-2 have "beaks" !!
Kelmola the lego is going to stay because it fits really well and I could make something similar out of styrene, and it would look a tad better but this already exceeds my expectations so I am going to keep it. I am thinking about doing this same trick with a 1/48 Tomcat and 1/32 parts. it would definitely be more detailed and I would use styrene in that case. With a bigger scale you have to take more care.
update:
The original 1/72 cockpit glued in a different location (and good god almighty did it fight me. It did not want to go there!) with a stand in 1/48 seat. The cockpit is going to be
extremely minimal. Might throw a figure in there to "hide" it.
F-35 intake shape!
in an effort to "break up" the large flat panels at the rear I had to make some cuts and add more work.
I almost cut through the whole thing!
begin the blanking!
lots of glue since it was rough shapes that would have to be sanded and cut on the model itself. Didn't want them breaking off. you can also see where I drilled holes for the new fins.
new bottom
so the rear now has a large step. To be filled with small pieces, greeblies to give it a slightly more blended look. slight gap, easily filed. This is the nice thing about doing major kit surgery on smaller scales, fixes are just far easier.
Fin test fit
broke out the big guns. Hasegawa F-35A brought out of the stash to help with proportions and dimensions comparisons.
This 1/72 Tomcat converted to 1/48 would be about the size of an Av-8 Harrier. So its relatively small.
