1/48 Hasegawa F-22A Raptor WIP

Definitely looking forward to this one.  =]  I've heard all the same and have been dying to do one eventually one of these days...but with a lot of reluctance.  I hope you can put that to ease.

bvallot

Definitely looking forward to this one.  =]  I've heard all the same and have been dying to do one eventually one of these days...but with a lot of reluctance.  I hope you can put that to ease.

The only AM replacement that might be the most beneficial would be some resin wheels...which I did get.  The kit wheels are kinda sterile.  And maybe the resin exhaust if you plan on displaying it with the vectoring nozzles open.  Although I did get the PE details for the exhaust area.

Speaking of resin wheels I'm using the Brassin wheels/tires to replace the boring kit wheels/tires.  These are really nice and have very good detail:

I'm looking forward to watching this WIP progress!

Yup, me too...this one'e on my hit list.

YESSSSSSSSS! I've been dying for someone on here to do a WIP for the raptor. If it's going to be anything like your other builds, I'm in for a treat. I have this kit in my stash but I'm holding off until I'm confident I'll do it justice. I will be watching closely

Thanks guys!  I will try not to disappoint!

I should mention that I'm going to build this F-22 with the weapons bays closed.  I am doing this because I think the F-22 has way better lines when the bay doors are closed.  After all, this is a stealth fighter, right?  Plus, you really don't ever see the F-22s parked on the ramp with all the doors open and missiles hanging out.   One benefit is that it will save alot of work.  Another benefit is that I will have six spare AIM-120C AMRAAMs and two spare AIM-9Xs.

And yes, I am going to try some weathering.  I've come across some pics of F-22s that are surprisingly dirty.

Before I glued the doors in place I had to install the weapons bays:

In the pic above you can see that I've also attached the guide/reinforcement pieces that align and join the upper and lower fuselage halves.  What I did was I attached 1 or 2 of the parts at a time.  As the glue dried I dry fitted the upper fuselage half to the lower fuselage half to assure that the alignment parts were seated perfectly.  This worked out very well.

The doors did not fit perfectly into their spaces.  I had to use a bit of filler to get rid of some gaps.  I used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to do this.  After applying the Aves I wiped away the excess with a cotton swab dipped in Alcohol.  Otherwise the doors are reasonably flush with the outer skin.

Fly-n-hi

Speaking of resin wheels I'm using the Brassin wheels/tires to replace the boring kit wheels/tires.  These are really nice and have very good detail:

Looking forward to seeing this one, Fly. Are the Eduard wheels and tires separate pieces, or are you just that good at painting them? If they're separate, I'm definitely gonna start buying them instead of trying to paint them......

Devil Dawg

Looking forward to seeing this one, Fly. Are the Eduard wheels and tires separate pieces, or are you just that good at painting them? If they're separate, I'm definitely gonna start buying them instead of trying to paint them......

I start off by painting them Mr.Color Tire Black (C137).  Then I paint the treads something close to Dark Gull Grey (C317) to make them look dirty.  Then I cut out my own circular masks using a drafting circle template and a sharp #11 blade.  I have US and Metric templates to cover as many sizes as possible.  Then I paint the wheels white.  Lately I've been using Mr. Color C316 which has a slight off-white color instead of plain gloss white (C1)...but these wheels were painted with regular C1 white.  I'm not sure why I did that but I don't feel like re-doing them.

And, of course, I'll give them a wash once I have the wheel wells painted.

Here's a small unexciting update.  

I've assembled the vertical stabilizers.  Hasegawa's offering here is way better than Academy's.  The stabs are very thin and much more accurate than the thick Academy stabs.  But the way they chose to separate these two parts makes it a little tricky to sand seamless.  Here you can sort of see the parts:

Here they are attached, filled with Mr Surfacer and sanded seamlessly:

Unfortunately, I did sand out just a little of the raised detail.  This may not really be an issue, though, because of the way these parts will be painted.  There will be a light grey "outline" on the parts and the edge of the grey almost exactly follows the raised detail that was lost. It shouldn't be a problem.

I was playing around and dry fitting the canopy to the fuselage part.  I couldn't believe how precise the fit was!  This is the tightest fitting canopy I've ever seen on a model.  When I rub my finger across it I can't feel any seams!  It almost makes me want to pose her with the canopy closed since this happens so rarely!

Looks great,I did this on a few years ago,a great kit with no build issues at all.Have fun and looking forward to more.

Should have left that loaded missile bay open,it looks real impressive 

Tojo72

Looks great,I did this on a few years ago,a great kit with no build issues at all.Have fun and looking forward to more.

Should have left that loaded missile bay open,it looks real impressive 

Here's the Academy F-22 that I build about 3 years ago.  I think I can do alot better today:

Nice work in there indeed,very nice.The Hasegawa kit goes together like butter for sure!!

That canopy does look nice! I don't think i've ever had a kit where the canopy cleanly fitted before.

Nice Academy build too.

I'm not much into to modern stuff, but I look foward to this one.....and how are you going to improve on that Academy Raptor which looks perfect to me.....

Joe

lawdog114

I'm not much into to modern stuff, but I look foward to this one.....and how are you going to improve on that Academy Raptor which looks perfect to me.....

Joe

I think I've gotten alot better at weathering and detailing my models over the past year or two.  I feel like my Academy F-22 is just a bit sterile.  Don't get me wrong, though.  I'm happy with the it turned out.  I believe I did a good job performing all the basics like filling seams, painting, etc.  And at the time that was really about the best I could have done.  I just feel like the stuff I'm making today is a bit more interesting to look at.

Fly-n-hi

lawdog114

Thanks alot, Joe!  I'll make you a deal...you make something modern and I'll make something from WWII.  We'll get out of our comfort zones.

 

Hummmmmmmmmmm.......ok deal ....how modern do I have to go?  Something in current service or can it be retired, like the Tomcat?

Joe

lawdog114

Hummmmmmmmmmm.......ok deal ....how modern do I have to go?  Something in current service or can it be retired, like the Tomcat?

Joe

Ok, are you guys ready for the million dollar update?  This might be the new standard when it comes to these Hasegawa F-22 intakes.

I've figured out how to deal with these very oddly shaped intakes.  You see, since they have such a large bend in them and since the white part of the intakes starts fairly far back inside those intakes it will be quite challenging to paint them.

So here's what I did.  I assembled the intakes and used Mr. Surfacer 500 along the seams to fill them.  Then I glued a piece of foam backed sanding pad to a small dowel rod and sanded out the seam.  This isn't the million dollar tip, btw. Here's what I'm talking about:

I didn't actually take any pics of the intake assemble and clean up but I think you get the idea.  

After cutting of the forward part of the intakes I used the "dump & pour" method of painting them.  I sealed off the back ends of the intakes with tape, poured some Behr High Gloss Interior/Exterior paint in them and then poured out the paint...and removed the tape, of course.  Actually, I didn't really pour it in.  I used some small squirt bottles that I bought at Hobby Lobby.

The Behr enamel paint is great because it holds up pretty well to sanding if you have any flaws in the paint.  Alot of people use latex paint but it rolls up if you try to sand it.

Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage.  And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut:

It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great.  Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts.  But this should be a piece of cake.  And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part.

Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it.  Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them.

Looking great Fly.  I don't waste paint on stuff that can't be seen either.  Its counterproductive.  Hey...and nice going, I'm intrigued now so you have me perusing varous jet builds. I'm seriously considering a Phantom.  I might grab the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby with a 40%-er.  Any thoughts or better suggestions?

Joe  

.  

lawdog114

Looking great Fly.  I don't waste paint on stuff that can't be seen either.  Its counterproductive.  Hey...and nice going, I'm intrigued now so you have me perusing varous jet builds. I'm seriously considering a Phantom.  I might grab the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby with a 40%-er.  Any thoughts or better suggestions?

Joe  

.  

They aren't really cheap, though.  The best deal I found was $44 on eBay.  But just the weapons set that is included with the kit is probably worth $20.  And the decal sheet has something like 300 decals on it!  Plus, there's already alot of AM stuff for it if that's your thing.

Alrighty...maybe I'll check that one out.  I saw a Monogram Phantom on E-bay going for like 5 bones.  Now that can't be a good sign....LOL.  I do have a 1/48 Hasegawa VF-84 F-14 A in my stash, which was supposed to be a commission build eons ago, but the guy bailed out, so I'm sort of stuck with it. Maybe I'll dive into that.  i have heard that is one challenging kit....eh what the heck.

Joe

lawdog114

Alrighty...maybe I'll check that one out.  I saw a Monogram Phantom on E-bay going for like 5 bones.  Now that can't be a good sign....LOL.  I do have a 1/48 Hasegawa VF-84 F-14 A in my stash, which was supposed to be a commission build eons ago, but the guy bailed out, so I'm sort of stuck with it. Maybe I'll dive into that.  i have heard that is one challenging kit....eh what the heck.

Joe

Here's the VF-84 I built about 3 or 4 years ago:

I've assembled the exhaust parts and painted the turbines.  I painted the turbines Alclad II Burnt Iron and weathered them with some Tamiya Weathering Compound Sand color:

I used the same technique to smooth out the insides of the exhaust as I did with the intakes.  I used Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded it out with the sanding pad/dowel tool that I made:

This pic shows the smooth seams a little better:

You may have noticed that I scribed some lines into the backs of the exhausts.  I'm not sure what they are but they are present in the reference pics I've seen.

This is an area that might benefit from AM resin.  As you can see the turbines are fairly plain.  But, I will be posing the trust vectoring nozzles in the closed position so we may not be able to see much inside of there anyway.

I've discovered, after dry fitting the Aires cockpit, that this part needed to be trimmed down a bit:

Looking good!

So on the intakes, you cut off the front part, painted the insides white, then reassembled them back the way they were, if that's how I understand it?

Jim Barton

Looking good!

So on the intakes, you cut off the front part, painted the insides white, then reassembled them back the way they were, if that's how I understand it?

That is correct.  Although I haven't reattached them yet.  I need to paint the front part before I do that.  

I have a better pic of where exactly I cut the intakes.  I'll post it when I upload it to Photobucket.

Looking good, I got the Italeri 1/48 kit in the stash that I won't get started till after the group builds I am in are completed. I am dreading doing the nose correction on it but hey I scored it for 12.00 sealed up still. I will be keeping tabs on this thread as a reference.

Here's a pic showing exactly where I cut the intakes:

I've gotten some work done on the cockpit.  Its pretty much all black which makes it easy to paint.  But it doesn't really have any coloring that makes it pop.

Here's where its at now.  I've dry brushed some MM enamel light grey and picked out several of the switches.  I've detailed the seat a bit, as well:

I'll add a little more detailing I think.  Plus, there are a few more PE and resin bits that go into the cockpit tub and ejection seat.  

Ok, here's the corrected seat.  I think the OD cushion looks better but it wasn't correct so oh well.  I also removed the khaki areas at the top of the seat.  They weren't there on the F-22 seats, either.  I've also added a few more details:

In the pic above you can see the pull handle for the ejection seat on the towel next to the seat.  Aires includes a PE part for this but I'm going to use the kit part since I think it looks better.

Here it is in the tub.  I've added some blending and fading to the seat cushion to give it a little more visual interest:

The paint blending on the seat cushion looked terrible.  I've touched it up:

I think it looks alot better now.  This was a little difficult because I've never blended black paint before.  The blending on the OD seat looked good I thought, too.

This build is looking great so far!  I look forward to more updates.

Thanks, T3ch!  

More update are on the way.  I just haven't uploaded the photos yet.  I have installed the intakes, landing gear bays and I am about to install the exhaust piece.  I have to add some resin stuff around the cockpit and once that's done and the cockpit tub is installed I can get the two fuselage halves together and begin to fun part...the painting and weathering!  Its just all this tedious internal stuff that I don't really enjoy doing is bogging me down.

Also, I've slowed down a bit because, frankly, I'm just a little burned out building right now.  I just finished 3 pretty intense builds (the F-15E, IAF F-16C and the C-17) and I need a little break.  But...I haven't stopped!  I've just slowed down a little.

And...I think I still need to touch up that ejection seat a little bit.

Everything looks great so far, Fly.  

I'm curious to see how you handle that "Raptor Sheen" paint that seems to be bugging folks.

Thanks Dre!

I'm going to use the colors that are recommended by Hasegawa in the instruction sheet.  They say to mix Mr. Color Metal colors with greys to get that "sort of" metallic Raptor Sheen look.  I've seen one painted with the recommended colors and I though it looked pretty convincing.

There seems to be quite a bit of variation in the sheen from picture to picture.  I'm going to go for a more subdued sheen.  I think this will be more consistent with the type of weathering I like to do.

Great work on the cockpit Fly, I'm pretty interested in that blending technique on the seat. It does a great job of breaking up all that black, and gives it the look as if it has been sat on and pressed down in the center. It also gives the edges a lighter, worn color that black canvas has where the pilots legs would be moving and rubbing. Keep it up! Very interested in the F-22.

Joe, just build yourself an F-14  and do a WIP!

lawdog114

Nice pit work Fly. Honestly I was digging the OD seat... It drew your eye right into your beautifully painted and weathered cockpit. Oh well, sacrifices eh? I look forward to the rest of the build. 

.... And your Tomcat has me speechless. Just a work of art. Can you IM me some more pics of that turkey?... Or how about a thread on it? 

Joe

I thought the OD seat turned out pretty good but in the quest for accuracy it just didn't sit right with me.  The new black one is OK but I still need to touch up the blending just a little bit.  To the naked eye it looks fine but the flash really brings out some little spots that I missed.

As for the F-14...sorry, but I didn't take any WIP pics of that one.  And I only have a few nicer pics of the finished model.  I did post a thread about it when I finished it here in the FSM Aircraft forums...F-14A

I have a couple HB Tomcats in the stash and I will definitely do some WIPs with those.  I have some weathering techniques that I think will look really good with those!

DWood538

Great work on the cockpit Fly, I'm pretty interested in that blending technique on the seat. It does a great job of breaking up all that black, and gives it the look as if it has been sat on and pressed down in the center. It also gives the edges a lighter, worn color that black canvas has where the pilots legs would be moving and rubbing. Keep it up! Very interested in the F-22.

Ok, here's another update.  I've been assembling the wheel wells and getting ready to install them into the lower fuselage part.  The wheel wells assemble as one large part that contains both wells.  

I should mention that I bought the Aires resin wheel well set.  But after dry fitting the wells to the lower fuselage part...and after dry fitting the landing gear parts to the wells...I've decided just to use the kit parts.  You see, the resin parts left gaps between themselves and the fuselage part and the landing gear seems like it is a tad bit flimsy and complicated.  I think the gear would attach better to the styrene plastic with welding cement than it would to the resin with CA glue.  Plus, the kit's wheel wells are fairly detailed.  I am going to use the resin nose gear well, though.  Its better than the kit part by far.

I've also attached the intakes to the lower fuselage.  These ended up fitting very well:

BUT...   In my excitement to install the intakes I forgot to install the main wheel well part first!  The wheel well part sits underneath the intakes!  So, I had to cut the wheel well part into 2 separate wheel wells.  It worked out just fine.

I'm not going to be able to use that center support piece, though.  But I don't think it will matter.  This thing has so many supports in it already.

I've also decided to assemble the landing gear now.  Normally I'd save it for the end and paint it separately, but this gear seems like it will be to flimsy and complicated to try to get it right after its all been painted.  There isn't really one solid connection point.  There are about 4 small connection points and I just think it will be more secure doing it this way in the long run:

The nose gear well requires a little bit of surgery to get it to fit:

The kit's nose gear part fits very securely into the resin well:

This is coming together nicely, huh.  I can't wait to start moving on to jets and more modern things.  =]  This is a real treat to see put together.  Don't stop now.

By the way...any thoughts on what WW2 plane you're thinking about doing???  =]

bvallot

This is coming together nicely, huh.  I can't wait to start moving on to jets and more modern things.  =]  This is a real treat to see put together.  Don't stop now.

By the way...any thoughts on what WW2 plane you're thinking about doing???  =]

I'm not sure which WWII plane I will to.  I have about 6 or 7 in the stash.  I'm thinking I may start with a Corsair or an F4F Wildcat...both 1/48 Tamiya kits.  I want to try out lawdog's radial engine technique and see what I can make of it.  In fact, I've been tempted to just bust out one of the engines to see if I can do it!  It will be my first radial engine so it might suck but we'll see.

After I finish the F-22 and an X-Wing (that I'm building for the SciFi GB) I have a 1/200 Hasegawa TWA 767-200 that I need to finish.  Then I may try one of the WWII birds.

Extra work is lying off, the cockpit and seat look great

For a very dark cockpit, your diligent attention to detail makes it pop very nicely!!

I've just been catching up on this thread.

Some great advice with the intakes. A really clever idea and good tip about the correct location to slice'n'dice

Also, your Tomcat looks awesome, i have that in the stash but still need to find time (and the diligence) to get around to it.

Tojo72

Extra work is lying off, the cockpit and seat look great

Rob Sherman

For a very dark cockpit, your diligent attention to detail makes it pop very nicely!!

cml

I've just been catching up on this thread.

Some great advice with the intakes. A really clever idea and good tip about the correct location to slice'n'dice

Also, your Tomcat looks awesome, i have that in the stash but still need to find time (and the diligence) to get around to it.

cml, thaks alot!  When I was building the intakes I just though there had to be an easier way to do them.  Trying to paint those without cutting them up would have been a PITA.  I have built a few Hasegawa Superhornets and the intakes are separated right about where the white part starts.  So I though why not do the same thing on the F-22.

The F-14 was a really fun build.  It wasn't too bad but there are a couple of tricky areas.  I used an Aires cockpit because the kit's cockpit is incredibly bland.  Plus, the VF-84 paint scheme just looks killer on the Tomcats!

Alrighty.  Here's a small update.

I've attached some of the small resin details that go around the cockpit frame:

I've installed the cockpit, as well.  And here's how it look painted.  I'm sorry to say that the flash really makes the dry brushing look overdone.  But to the naked eye it looks very good:

Here's a little bit of a sales pitch.  I highly recommend this razor saw set:

I'm not sure if it is made by JLC or UMM USA.  I bought it from the UMM USA website.  It cuts through resin and styrene like a hot knife through butter.  I cut those small resin parts off their block with ease.

Fly-n-hi

I'm going to use the colors that are recommended by Hasegawa in the instruction sheet.  They say to mix Mr. Color Metal colors with greys to get that "sort of" metallic Raptor Sheen look.  I've seen one painted with the recommended colors and I though it looked pretty convincing.

There seems to be quite a bit of variation in the sheen from picture to picture.  I'm going to go for a more subdued sheen.  I think this will be more consistent with the type of weathering I like to do.

Dre/ FNH

Somebody somewhere (I'll find it and post here) had a neat recommendation for how to achieve that sheen, and it used the MM Metallic colors oversprayed over the enamel FS colors.  I have one of the Academy F-22's in the stash, and a couple years back built the Testors YF-22 in 1/72. In prep for the big bird, I tested the methods on the YF.It came out fairly nice.  The only challenge is the lacquer is hot and wants to eat up the enamel.

I'll post a pic of that as well.  I had a little issue, but all in all, a great idea. 

As always, great work. I love the cockpit. Even monochromatic it is fantastic.  I too will vouch for the saw above. I got mine from UMM.  

Best, Marty

MAgather

Fly-n-hi

I'm going to use the colors that are recommended by Hasegawa in the instruction sheet.  They say to mix Mr. Color Metal colors with greys to get that "sort of" metallic Raptor Sheen look.  I've seen one painted with the recommended colors and I though it looked pretty convincing.

There seems to be quite a bit of variation in the sheen from picture to picture.  I'm going to go for a more subdued sheen.  I think this will be more consistent with the type of weathering I like to do.

Dre/ FNH

Somebody somewhere (I'll find it and post here) had a neat recommendation for how to achieve that sheen, and it used the MM Metallic colors oversprayed over the enamel FS colors.  I have one of the Academy F-22's in the stash, and a couple years back built the Testors YF-22 in 1/72. In prep for the big bird, I tested the methods on the YF.It came out fairly nice.  The only challenge is the lacquer is hot and wants to eat up the enamel.

I'll post a pic of that as well.  I had a little issue, but all in all, a great idea. 

As always, great work. I love the cockpit. Even monochromatic it is fantastic.  I too will vouch for the saw above. I got mine from UMM.  

Best, Marty

I will be adding a few layers of weathering and any bright sheen would be lost probably anyway.  Plus, I like the look of the dirtier used aircraft.  The Mr. Color mixes give a look that I think is just about right for me.

But please do post that link you were talking about.  There are a few people following this thread and they might find the additional painting advise useful.  And I'd be curious to see it as well!

Here's a small update.  Not a whole lot of progress.  I dry fitted the upper and lower fuselage halves and discovered that the resin cockpit and the resin wheel well interfered with each other and as a result the parts would not mate together.  (Also, you can see my other on going build...my X-Wing):

Not a problem!  I just used my new Dremmel 3000 and ground the parts down a little:

And now it all fits!

They say if it looks fast on the ground its probably fast in the air!

Well guys, I hate to say it but the updates have been pretty dull so far.  Especially since I'm not posing her with any weapons.  This is one of those builds that really won't come alive until I start the painting process...which should be happening fairly soon!

I've assembled the trust vectoring nozzles:

They fit into their respective spaces very well:

I really like the look of the rectangular exhaust exits.  

This would be great if it weren't for the fact that I'm going to put some PE parts on the sides of the exhaust areas to hide the seams.  I will have to file down the sides of the nozzles just a little bit to get them to fit.  I'll take a pic of what I'm talking about soon.

Great build coming together Fly-n.  =]  I do like your play-by-plays.  Every time I see one of your jet WIPs it makes me wish I'd just pick one up and start myself.  =]

The lines this jet makes are just beautiful aren't they?!

bvallot

Great build coming together Fly-n.  =]  I do like your play-by-plays.  Every time I see one of your jet WIPs it makes me wish I'd just pick one up and start myself.  =]

The lines this jet makes are just beautiful aren't they?!

I'm using the Wolfpack nozzle set.  But I'm just using the PE parts.  The resin nozzles look great but they are in the open position and I'm posing mine closed.  Here's the set:

And here are the PE parts:

And here are the PE parts attached to the exhaust area:

These PE parts look really good I think!  And they eliminate the need to deal with those seams.

Well guys I'm back...sort of.

Life is getting in the way of my model building!  Back at the beginning of August I had a vacation where I was gone for a week.  And we have been going through some big changes at work which has taken up a considerable amount of time.  I've also been teaching myself the art of options trading and I have spent most of my free time learning as much as I can about that.  I tend to go all in and put everything else to the side when I decide to learn something new.

Also, I used to do all of my painting and stuff like that when my wife was at work since it stunk up the house.  But now she works from home and she's home ALL THE TIME.  So it has really cut into my ability to finish my models!  Oh well.  Now she has job she loves and thats a good thing.

Anyway,

I've gotten a little work done on the F-22.  I've sanded and filled some notches on the nose where the sprues didn't break away cleanly.  I think this is a problem on all of these kits because I've seen a few other Hasegawa F-22 WIPs that had the same issue.  I used Tamiya White Putty for the first time to fill the notches.  This stuff works great!

I've also filled any remaining seams and primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer.  I masked the cockpit area with Silly Putty:

This area on the bottom required the most attention.  The fit of the intake parts is pretty good but it did need some filler to make it flush with the fuselage: 

Care is needed here to make sure that you don't sand off any of the raised surface details in front of the weapons bays:

My wife is a wedding photographer and she doesn't have many shoots here in AZ during the summer.  But she does have several starting here in the Fall so she should be out of the house more and I should be able to get alot more modeling done!

Glad to see you back at it Fly-in!  =]  Can't wait to see you get some paint on this one. =]

Great thread ,just went back and caught up with it. I got this in the stash but have been hesitant to start it,this is just the motivation I needed thanks for taking the time to post up such a well detailed wip!

bvallot

Glad to see you back at it Fly-in!  =]  Can't wait to see you get some paint on this one. =]

TREYZX10R

Great thread ,just went back and caught up with it. I got this in the stash but have been hesitant to start it,this is just the motivation I needed thanks for taking the time to post up such a well detailed wip!

I should be able to get the first layer or two of paint on tomorrow.

Fly-n-hi

Only just seen this thread and like a few others I have this in the stash so glad to see someone building one. I must say the panel lines that you mentioned being out don't bother me at all, it looks like a F-22 so thats fine by me

Phil

P mitch

Fly-n-hi

Only just seen this thread and like a few others I have this in the stash so glad to see someone building one. I must say the panel lines that you mentioned being out don't bother me at all, it looks like a F-22 so thats fine by me

Phil

Thanks, P mitch!

I've polished and masked the canopies.  I used the Novus polishing compounds to remove some small scuffs. I decided to mask them both so that I have the option of using either one since I'm still not sure which squadron markings I will be using.

I've also assembled and painted two of the AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles.  Obviously I'm not going to use them on this kit but I figured I'd make them anyway to see how they look.  I might use them on a future build:

Beautiful model so far!

Thanks Jim!

I'm getting more painting done.  I've painted all of the outer edges the lightest grey color.  I'm using the colors recommended in the instructions.  I mainly use Mr Color paints anyway so it works out well for me.

I added some black to that light grey color, sprayed it on randomly, then added some white to the color and sprayed it on randomly as well to give it a weathered appearance:

This light grey color doesn't really show up to well against the primer.

Here's the F-22 with all of the light grey areas masked off.  This was an easy process compared to some other models I've built.  All of the lines are straight and long except for the radome.

There are a few panels that I didn't mask like the thin panels that separate the rudder from the vertical stabs.  I'll mask these afterwards.  They're thin and  sort of jagged in some areas and I think it will be easier to paint them separately.  Same with the panel in between the exhausts.

Here's the F-22 with the first layer of paint.  Actually, its the first layer plus some post shading.  I'm trying to give the paint some tonal variation in preparation for the weathering.  

I just used the colors recommended in the instructions.  This seems to be the standard formula now for getting the "Raptor Sheen" in the paint.  Its just mixing in steel colored paint with grey paint at about 1:1.

I like the appearance of this paint.  Like I said earlier in the thread I'm going to give this one some weathering.  So I didn't want the fresh out of the paint shop look to the paint even though most F-22s are very clean.

I thought I took some pics of the paint before the post shading but I guess I didn't.  Oh well.

Hi Silver,

I myself was wondering how to achieve the Raptor's metallic sheen, and found your suggestion very interesting. Do you know of a source for SnJ metallic powders, or what similar/equivalent products there are?

Thanks in advance.

Silver

To get a realistic Metallic sheen on the gray surface just dry brush a micro amount of SN'J metallic powder.

If you use the paint mix recommended in the instructions you get just the right amount of "sheen."  The paint  they use to get the sheen is a new Super Metal paint line and it works very well.  Anything more metallic would have too much sheen in my opinion.

I'll try to post a pic of this F-22 in the sunlight.  The sheen will be very obvious, then.

This pic is maybe 4-5 years old.  I don't know if the current appearance is different.

I believe FineScale had an article in the last current issue on how to achieve the metallic sheen for the paintjob.  Has anyone else tried it?

The article uses a mixture of aluminum, graphite and grey.  It's basically the same idea as what the instructions call for.

Fly have a look at this if you're curious about painting. I saw this a while ago and think it might be useful. 

As far as I could ever see it's the closest I have seen to the paint on an F-22, I think he basically did what the instructions said as the guy doesn't say much about the painting but here's a link anyway, it might be useful to you.

He said something about using a thinned translucent grey over silver, perhaps that's the key instead of mixing?

maximodelizm.com.ua/viewtopic.php

I appreciate the suggestions but I've already got the amount of sheen I'm looking for.  Mine's going to be one of the dirtier line jets.  Those pics above look like a fresh paint job.  That's not really my thing.

I completed a pair of the AIM-120C AMRAAMs that came with the kit just to see how they'd turn out.  Not bad me thinks:

I'm not going to use them but I thought I'd share the pics anyway.

Alrighty, I've got the basic camo painted on.  I've noticed in my research that , it seems, no two F-22s have the exact same camo pattern.  There was alot of variation out there.  I just sort of made up a pattern using several images.  I've also applied some post shading to the camo:

After this I will give a general lightening/post shading to the camo spots, paint a few of the light grey areas that I skipped earlier, paint some of the detail panels and paint some of the dirty areas.  Then I will gloss coat and decal it.  Then the fun weathering begins

This looks great, Fly.   Right up there with your usual awesome builds.

Thanks, Dre!  I've faded out the dark camo spots a little and I've masked off the remaining light grey panels that I skipped during the first round of masking:

It will probably sit like this for a while since I can only paint now when my wife isn't home.  She's always home since she works from home so who knows how long it will be before I get to it again.

Am I the only one thinking why they used a camo scheme on a stealth plane?

Great build! I'll do one eventually.

ww2psycho

Am I the only one thinking why they used a camo scheme on a stealth plane?

Great build! I'll do one eventually.

Actually, the camo itself is a form of stealth.

Really looking good, the missiles were impressive although the decals were tedious but worth the effort.

Thanks Tojo!.  There were 33 decals per missile!  I only used 17 per missile, though.  I didn't bother with all of the little "NO HOLD" decals that went on all the fins.  I figured nobody would see them anyway.

Great job on the missiles!

I remember years ago watching a B-2 and an F-22 flying very low (not much more than 500 feet off the ground) over a friend's house one New Year's Day. They were on their way to a flyover of the Rose Bowl in nearby Pasadena as a part of the pre-game festivities before the kickoff.

Jim Barton

Great job on the missiles!

I remember years ago watching a B-2 and an F-22 flying very low (not much more than 500 feet off the ground) over a friend's house one New Year's Day. They were on their way to a flyover of the Rose Bowl in nearby Pasadena as a part of the pre-game festivities before the kickoff.

I've got most of the grey border panels unmasked.  It turned out almost flawless.  There are 2 very small areas that I need to sharpen up but otherwise  it was a successful masking job:

You may have noticed that the left aileron is painted light grey.  I saw a photo of an F-22 like this.  I think it was just a replacement part that hadn't received the metallic paint, yet.  I thought it looked cool so I did it on my F-22.  I also painted one of the smaller main gear doors like that based on a similar photo.

Something you mentioned above made me curious- You mention discoloring to denote replaced panels.  My background is Navy, but if you look at the fuselage sides of many Navy aircraft (particularly F/A-18s) you often see panels that are much lighter.  This is from internal repairs (electronics, hydraulics, engines, etc.) followed by repainting the panel after the aircraft has been closed back up.  This leaves the lighter/cleaner patch.  Does the USAF use the same practice on its aircraft, or do they just replace the panels?  Does anyone have any insight into how the Air Force handles post-maintenance cleanup/painting?  Thanks!

Groot

I've added some brake lines to the main gear and some electrical lines to the landing/taxi lights on the nose gear:

I may add another set of lines to the main gear.

It's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see it complete.

BrandonK

It's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see it complete.

Moving along like an arthritic iceberg (did I use that one already?)...

I've completed the latest couple layers of painting.  Like I've said before I don't like to paint fresh out of the factory paint jobs.  But most of the F-22s out there aren't particularly dirty.  So I've used images of different F-22s with various weathering on each plane and will combine them on my F-22.  Those of you who follow my builds know that's how I like to do it.

So one of the images I came across showed an F-22 that had all kinds of paint touch ups all over it.  Several panels had been repainted as well as several random spots.  So I've tried to recreate it on my Raptor:

I came across several images where there was a sooty exhaust stain on the upper door of the Sidewinder missile bay on the left side.  There is some kind of exhaust vent right above the door and when the door is open the vent blows right on it.  I tried to re create it using black and Alclad II Smoke:

At the rate I'm going I'll post an update in about 4 weeks...  Next up will be to paint the exhaust area (which is masked and ready to be painted) and the wheel wells.  The wheel wells shouldn't take too long.

Glad to see you back. I like what you did here.  I'm the same way.  I just have to tell more of a story with regards to the painting.  I like more to show through.  =]

Great job.

Thanks, bvallot!

I've painted the wheel wells and the hydraulic lines on the gear.  I've also masked the exhaust area.  That should be easy to paint now:

I still need to give the bays a wash.

Well folks I'm back from the dead!  I packed up my modeling stuff back in January because we had company staying with us and I just needed a little break.  Plus I had some other things going on that just made it hard to do any modeling.

I got out the airbrush today and did some work on the F-22.  I touched up all the little errors and added some metal color ahead of the exhausts.  I didn't take any pics with the new metal color but I will post them on the next update.

I've painted several of the vents and exhaust ports:

I'm still planning on making this a dirty Raptor.

Good to see that you're back to your bench! Looking forward to the next installments.

Mike

mrmike

Good to see that you're back to your bench! Looking forward to the next installments.

Mike

I painted the area just ahead of the exhausts Alclad II Pale Burnt Metal.  It doesn't seem like all of the F-22s have this color in this area but there are some that definitely do...so I added the effect to mine:

You can't really see it in any photos but I've also gone over the entire model lightly with 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit polishing cloths to give it a really smooth surface.  I might do it again to get it even smoother so that I can apply the decals right to the paint.

So I was wondering why so few F-22 pics have that pale burnt metal area.  I did a bit of picture hunting on Google and I now realize that the only F-22 that had that burnt metal coloring was Raptor 01.  Too bad, too.  I thought it looked pretty cool.

 So I'm gonna mask it off and re paint it the way its supposed to be.  It will be really easy to do, actually.  I'll paint them just a slightly different shade to make it more interesting.  Alot of them look a little lighter in the pics so it should work out well.  I have some other areas that I've decided to touch up, also.

Interesting build Fly. I really like your clean paint work. I'm  curious about the micro mesh job. I've tried that in the past in hopes of skipping the initial gloss coat, but as I sand the model down with the micromesh pads I seem to nick corners and raised areas and it sands through the paint and I always have touch ups to do. Trailing edges seem to be the worst. Maybe I'm being too aggressive?

Nathan T

Interesting build Fly. I really like your clean paint work. I'm  curious about the micro mesh job. I've tried that in the past in hopes of skipping the initial gloss coat, but as I sand the model down with the micromesh pads I seem to nick corners and raised areas and it sands through the paint and I always have touch ups to do. Trailing edges seem to be the worst. Maybe I'm being too aggressive?

So I guess its just a matter of using a light touch.

I'm working on an airliner now and I've been painting the wings black (for Alclad II Airframe Aluminum) using Tamiya TS-14.  During the first coat or two I was polishing down to the primer a little bit.  But after the third coat I was just getting a nice glossy black finish.  So the number of coats makes a difference.

Here's where my AMS problem kicks in...

I noticed there were some ghost seams where the bottom of the air inlets join the bottom of the fuselage so I sanded them out and polished them up.  

There were some spots in the lighter grey areas that I touched sanded down, also:

I just could resist...

Fly-n-hi

Nathan T

Interesting build Fly. I really like your clean paint work. I'm  curious about the micro mesh job. I've tried that in the past in hopes of skipping the initial gloss coat, but as I sand the model down with the micromesh pads I seem to nick corners and raised areas and it sands through the paint and I always have touch ups to do. Trailing edges seem to be the worst. Maybe I'm being too aggressive?

When I start with the 4000 grit cloths I tend to use really light pressure.  The only places that I need to touch up (because of the polishing) are the spots where I pressed down a bit too hard...  and most of those spots were around some raised panels or corners kind of like what you're saying.  But there were only 2 or 3 spots that needed to be repainted.

So I guess its just a matter of using a light touch.

I'm working on an airliner now and I've been painting the wings black (for Alclad II Airframe Aluminum) using Tamiya TS-14.  During the first coat or two I was polishing down to the primer a little bit.  But after the third coat I was just getting a nice glossy black finish.  So the number of coats makes a difference.

Are you using the cloths or a stiffer sponge? I'm using the sponge squares, but they are fairly stiff. Thanks for the help.

I've used both before.  But I use the cloths more often because I tend to over do it with the sponges.

I've completely missed this thread....since last June!

This is a really interesting WIP, and what a great job you are doing, Fly-n-hi. Will be a great reference for when I decide to tackle a modern military jet, which hasn't happened for a couple decades at least. Won't be able match your craftsmanship, but you're providing one heck of source of info!

Thx!

Greg

I've completely missed this thread....since last June!

This is a really interesting WIP, and what a great job you are doing, Fly-n-hi. Will be a great reference for when I decide to tackle a modern military jet, which hasn't happened for a couple decades at least. Won't be able match your craftsmanship, but you're providing one heck of source of info!

Thx!

I'm really dragging my feet on this build.  It should have been finished a few months ago!  If you like this one you might like my next one.  I've already started building a 1/48 Hasegawa F-15C.  It should be more interesting than the F-22.  I'll start a WIP thread after I finish this one.

Can relate to dragging heels. Have had a 1/48th Stuka going for a year. Sigh.

F-15's are my favorite, so you can bet I'll keep my eyes peeled for that one!

I've already got my seat for the eagle! I've been wondering how the old hasegawa kit stacks up to the new GWH one.

Nathan T

I've already got my seat for the eagle! I've been wondering how the old hasegawa kit stacks up to the new GWH one.

That's what figured. How about the GWHs thick plastic parts? Ailerons, flap, and elevator trailing edges?

The panel lines and surface detail are crisp and fantastic.  As far as the thickness of the trailing edge parts...they might be a tad on the thick side but no worse than the Hasegawa trailing edges.  They are all separate so I'm not seeing them attached to the wings/vertical stab as I write this.  It might make a little difference to see how they look when assembled.

The cockpit and engine exhaust details are incredible.

I've painted and weathered the thrust vectoring nozzles:

Nice work on the Raptor Fly!!!  As always, she's looking great!  I too havent had as much bench time recently as I've wanted.  Like anyone else, life sometimes gets in the way of doing the fun stuff.

Thanks, jelliott!

Here's the repainted exhaust shroud areas.  I just painted over the Pale Burnt Metal areas with a lightened mixture of the base color:

I applied the base color using very thinned paint and I like how it turned out!

On top of all of that I painted the middle area of each exhaust Burnt Iron...so the exhaust area has Steel, Burnt Iron and the covered Pale Burnt Metal.  Enough already....right?

Ok, I finally have a really good update!  I've got most of the decals applied!  It took a few hours.  I was going to try to find some AM decals but I decided to go with the Hasegawa decals because I figured that they were more likely to match the Mr Color colors recommended by Hasegawa.

The decals went on mostly well.  There was a little bit of silvering here and there but nothing that I couldn't fix.

This thing went from looking zero-to-busy really fast!

It's looking great Flyn'!  I'm still aching to start something more modern.  Sooooooooon....

What's next on the agenda here?  I don't suppose we'll see any ordinance huh?

Very nice work with the Hasegawa decals. What setting solutions did you use?

bvallot

It's looking great Flyn'!  I'm still aching to start something more modern.  Sooooooooon....

What's next on the agenda here?  I don't suppose we'll see any ordinance huh?

I'm not working on an F-14 or anything.  I just got the urge to build these.  My next project, though, is a 1/48 Hasegawa F-15C.  That one will have some goodies hanging underneath it.  I've already started it and will post a WIP after I finish the F-22.

I decided to paint the steel brake areas on the wheels:

I think I'm going to use the resin exhaust petals that are in the open position.  It seems like most of the F-22s parked on the ramp have the petals open.  I don't know if they are positioned like that by hand or if they "default" to that position without hydraulic power:

I had to file down the sides of the brass parts quite a bit to get them to match the resin parts.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!! That's better.  =]  I actually have been searching for a good F-15C to build.  I'll likely do the Revell -E that they have out as well.  But I'd really like to put a single seater from the Gulf War with the gear up.  =P

What's the reviews like on the Hasegawa C?

bvallot

What's the reviews like on the Hasegawa C?

I ran into a bit of a problem with the F-22.  I applied a panel line wash some of the vent decals broke up and disintegrated as I wiped the wash off.  

This is annoying but I can get replacement decals from Hasegawa USA.  I needed to get a new canopy and windshield to replace on an F/A-18C kit I bought on eBay anyway so it isn't really too inconvenient to order them all at once.

Small update...

I ordered the decals from Hasegawa USA and the customer service was really good, again.

Also, I painted the HUD.  I decided to use the kit's HUD instead of the PE HUD that came with the Aires cockpit because the Aires HUD seemed way too big.