1/48 Hasegawa F-22A Raptor WIP

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