As
one of the first to finish the new 1/72nd RoG (Revell of Germany) F-22 and in response to
numerous questions asked about the pictures I posted here over the weekend, here
are my comments about the kit and my experience building it. Note, I built an
early test shot and some of the flaws I found have since been fixed.
I
strongly suggest you go to Airliners.net and search for F-22 photos. There are
some great photographers out there who have taken photos of it from almost every
angle. Another great source is the Aerofax F-22 book, a real gold mine of detail
shots, even if most are of the preproduction jets.
General
Construction
First
off – it’s VERY nice kit. Although I'm not a expert on the Raptor, you
can’t help to be impressed with how much and how cleverly the jet (and this
model) have crammed a whole lot of equipment into that fuselage.
The
top of the "back" side of the bottom missile bay (part 22) is the also
bottom of the intakes. There is a small notch cut out of the "intake"
(in front of the notch for the tabs for the back-off wall). These notches should
be filled in.
The
test shot (and from what I’ve seen the production models also) have injection
pin markings in the most maddening places. In addition to the weapons bay, there
are some on the visible part of the intakes. I say maddening, because the flaws
are on the part you see while the hidden backsides are glassy smooth! The good
news is that these are much less noticeable on the production kits.
The
canopy isn’t tinted. I used Tamiya Smoke—it looks okay, but is too dark in
my estimation. I wish someone did a transparent, faintly gold colored tint; that
would be just the trick. Better yet, tint the thing so I don’t have to. (If
you hate working with clear bits as bad as I do, here’s a tip. Always dip the
canopy in Future before working with it, especially if you’re going to tint
it. That way, when you screw it up the first time, you can simply soak it in
Windex for a while to remove your blunder, recoat in Future and try, try again.)
Since it also lacked a decal sheet, I got the Eduard PE set for the Italieri
cockpit--kind of a waste as between tinting the canopy and adding a pilot from
my spares box, the other cockpit detail is barely visible.
It
appears to me that
the actuator arms (parts 75 & 76) that go at the front and back of the
AMRAAM missile bays may not be long enough (they only seem long enough to reach
the fuselage exterior). I used straight pins to make arms long enough to reach
where they should attach inside the weapon bay. Also, there is no clearly
defined way to attach the spoilers to the front of the weapon bays. Basically,
they should go as far forward as you can get them.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
main missile bay doors fit perfectly in the closed position. The bottom of the
AIM-9 doors are obstructed by the detail from fitting flush--either leave off
the AIM-9 bay or remove some of the detail from the doors if you want them
closed. The sink holes in the weapon bay doors are easily filled and sanded out.
The landing gear doors are pretty much a drop fit if you want to go “gear
up”, requiring little, if any filling. The doors that I opened were left uncut
and “glued” temporarily in place using liquid masking.
The
side weapon bay doors don’t have any secure way to attach to the fuselage
other than a butt joint to the fuselage opening. It’s not a huge problem, just
something to be aware of. The sink marks on the weapon bay doors are no big
deal--a coat of Mr. Surfacer takes care of them.
The
last area of the fuselage before the exhaust petals is a rusty metallic color.
When I went to paint that area I discovered that there were no panel lines
bounding this area on the outside of the top fuselage half and the inside of the
bottom fuselage half. You can easily scribe those lines in a minute or two on
your own.
The
sides of the exhaust channels are white on the raised part by the petals
and light gray at the back. The demarcation line between these two parts
is straight in the kit, but should be angled slightly to form a forward
point. Although barely visible, the raised vanes on the engine exhaust are
white as well. |
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image below to see larger image
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The
exhaust petals have one scribed line on the outboard side. There should be at
least two, if not three. When you start looking at photos of that area (look no
further than the cover shot of the Aerofax book) you'll see what I mean. In the
end, I couldn't figure out exactly what was going on and made masks for the
missing panel that is there all the time. The other bone-shaped panel MAY be
something that is only visible when the petals are moved to certain positions.
The inside of the petals is a light gray. I painted the outside Alcad
Duraluminum, then applied the masks and painted the remainder Light Ghost Gray.
I didn’t attach these until after the rest of the model was painted.
While
there is a scribed line on the top fuselage half representing very complicated
radome, there is none on the bottom half. To fix this and the lack of scribing
on the exhaust petals, I've attached a couple of templates. Just print them out,
lay a piece of Tamiya tape across them, and cut them out. I'm sure Eduard will
come out with something eventually, but these will get you close. (I designed
the template for the test shot, which had no scribed lines for the radome, so it
won’t be exactly right on the top fuselage half (unless I got REALLY lucky),
but it should be close.
It
would have been nice if the top and bottom of control surfaces had been molded
on the top fuselage half. The trailing edges are so thin that care needs to be
taken when removing glue seams in those areas so as to not also round off the
sharp corners of the planform.
Click on
images below to see larger images
There
is a missing "notch" on the top of the fuselage right above where the
inboard wall of the intake meets the top of the fuselage (check photos and
you'll see it); a very minor omission that can be easily fixed with a couple of
swipes of a file.
The
most annoying problem is the wingtip lights. It would have been nice if they had
been molded in clear (and been more streamlined). In the end, I painted the
clear part Chrome Silver. This worked surprisingly well.
The
nose pitot tubes are parallel to the ground, not perpendicular to the fuselage.
Air
Intakes
The
intakes will drive you NUTS! Each intake is formed by segments of the two basic
inlet pieces, the backing plate, the top and bottom fuselage halves and the top
of the bottom missile bay part. Good luck getting rid of all those seams!
Especially, since you will be working to remove some of them after gluing the
fuselage halves together. They fit fine for what they are, but the painting will
drive you crazy! There is the gray section at the front. Then, about even with
the outside gray demarcation line, begins the metallic gray belly color that
goes back to about the front of the Sidewinder bays, where the white begins. To
make matters even more complicated, the opening at the bottom of the intake
pieces where the top of the missile bay starts serving as the bottom of the
intake doesn't break where the silver stops and white begins. (I apologize for
this being confusing if you don’t have the kit in front of you.)
Click on
images below to see larger images
To
solve the silver-white problem, cut the assembled intake trunks apart laterally
in line with the front of the Sidewinder bays and paint the back section of the
intakes white and the front part silver-gray. (This isn’t exactly what I did,
but what I’ll do if I build another one.) Paint the visible part of the
backing plate gray or black (it doesn’t matter as it’s barely visible once
assembled) and glue the white-painted rear sections of the trunks to it. Glue
this assembly to the top of the main weapon bay, then paint the part of the
weapon bay exposed by the slot in the inlet trunk white, and the part that will
be exposed by the remainder of the trunk silver gray.
Don’t
worry about gluing the front and rear parts of the inlet ducts
together—they’ll fit tightly enough and between that and the break in the
color, they will stand up to all but the closest inspection. Once you assemble
the inlets into the rest of the fuselage and get the whole thing sealed up,
you’ll probably want to get rid of the resulting seams. Stuff tissue into the
back of the inlets to protect them and sand away. After doing that, spray the
inlets with light ghost gray and, once its dry, use the funny shaped templates
to mask the inside of the inlet and spraying the silver-gray into it to get a
nice, sharp demarcation between the gray and the silver. Once all that is done
and dried, stuff the inlets with tissue to protect your work.
Yes,
this is a GIGANTIC pain in the derriere! Not mentioned above is that (in
my opinion) the bottom of the inlet duct is too deep and should have
gently sloped up from the leading edge of the inlet into the fuselage and
not dropped down like it does. A better parts breakdown would have been to
treat the intakes more like an exhaust: Make the exterior and interior
portion of the inlet that is painted gray one piece, make the silver-ray
portion a second piece and the white portion a third piece. Paint ‘em,
glue ‘em together, stick ‘em in, and forget ‘em. I would recommend
this as an aftermarket item except that RoG didn’t mark the gray area in
any way, so instructing the modeler where to cut would be an iffy
proposition (adhesive masks?). |
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Click on
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Weapons
The
AIM-9M Sidewinders appear to have been lifted from previous RoG kits. The aft
wings are too thick to fit in the slot in the missile body without a lot of
filing and don't align easily. AIM-9D/G/H/L/M/S Sidewinders (like these) have
bodies that extend beyond the trailing edge of the wing (the AIM-9B/E/J/P/N
wings and body are flush). If the wing is trimmed enough to slide all the way
forward, then the "motor" part of the wings is too far into the
fuselage. If the "motor" part of the wings is aligned with the back of
the fuselage, the wings are too far aft.
The
AIM-9X locating holes should be opposite (180 deg) the conduit, not 90-deg like
it is in the kit.
The
GBU-32 1,000-lb JDAM is the only air-to-ground store currently authorized with
the F-22. (The GBU-39 is under test, but won’t become operational for several
years from what I’ve been able to gather.) There is a small faring running
between the wings at the aft end of the body. This fairing is only on the top of
the bomb, but on the kit it is on both the top and bottom. Also, the nose plug
given is the Navy's ogive nose. They should have is the USAF conical nose plug,
which is a bit blunter. It could have used a better demarcation line between the
warhead and fin. And, if you’ve got AMS really bad, the umbilical connector
(on the top, at the front of the fin) should be about twice as wide as it is.
However, all that said, if you put it in this jet, all you’ll see is the
bottom of the weapon.
AIM-120s
need a better demarcation line between the radome and guidance section; the gray
body starts 19-inches back from the tip of the white radome. At least these
nicely represent the live missiles and not the blunter-nosed trainers.
Painting
One
thing that I did that really seemed to help was to NOT glue the vertical tails
onto the model until all the painting and decaling was complete. They mount at a
very acute angle and host a lot of decals that will be very challenging to apply
once the tails are in place. The fit of these pieces is very good, so filling
won’t be an issue. I snapped them in place while painting the Light Ghost Gray
and light metallic gray camouflage to keep paint off the gluing surfaces, but
otherwise left them off.
There
are areas of gray trim around the flying surfaces, various parts of the
fuselage, and (most importantly) the radome. Although opinions vary, I would
have liked lightly scribed lines to aid in accurately masking these areas for
painting. The RoG decal sheet appears to have covered the multitude of gray
panels and grills that I had to paint. Should you choose to paint these instead
of decal them, use 36375 Light Ghost Gray for all of the flying surface and
intake edging as well as the radome. For the large panel over the left engine
and on top between the engines use 36251 Aggressor Gray.
If
I were doing a kit with the decal sheet, I would probably still paint the larger
grills (Testors Metalizer Gunmetal) and gray panels, and use decals for the
smaller gray and black panels. I would first paint the Gunmetal and Aggressor
Gray panels, mask them (you could make a copy of the decal sheet to serve as a
pattern for the masks), then paint the overall model Light Ghost Gray, and mask
the wing edges and radome. (Let the paint dry for AT LEAST a day or two before
masking; even if the Gunmetal lifts off a bit with the masking tape touchup will
still be easy.)
The
grills sometimes appear as kind of a brassy steel color and the RoG decal sheet
reflects this for the spine grill decals that go just behind the cockpit.
However, the Gunmetal color seems to be a better representation for the grills
that have been in use for a while.
When
masking the wing edges. Start with the wingtips. The outboard edge comes close
to the scribed outline of the wingtip lights; the trailing corner almost reaches
the aft point of the wingtip light. That will give you the correct width. Tamiya
5mm tape works great for this. I assumed a 3-inch gray stripe at the leading
edge of the wing and tail control surfaces, which seems to be about right.
Matching
Raptor Colors
The
real challenge in building a model of the F-22 is duplicating the metallic sheen
of its camouflage coating. As you can see from the photos, the coating can
appear lighter or darker than the gray radome or other painted areas, depending
on the sun angle. After getting used to Metalizer and Alcad II paints over the
years, the prospect of spraying silver enamel was so daunting that I: 1) cleaned
my study, 2) dusted my models, and 3) did my taxes to avoid painting the silver
coats for as long as possible. Once I actually started, it only took about an
hour from starting the first coat to being finished. (Of course, the masking
leading up to the painting was a multi-night effort).
Mark
S., ARC poster, the owner of an engineering firm with experience in automotive
paint (not to mention Wolfpak Decals and the upcoming Spectre Accessories),
developed the following technique that I used on my model. Based on his
experience in the paint business, he believes that the formulation of Model
Master enamels provide the best match of the metallic gray colors of the F-22
scheme. This gets into the optical physics of the paint that, if you were
exposed to, you’d probably want to kill yourself (it is better to eat sausage
in ignorance than watch it being prepared)! Anyway, after a bit of back and
forth, what follows is Mark’s process, with some touches I added as well.
1)
Paint the leading edges of the flaps, ailerons, rudders, canopy frame, radome,
and other hard-edged gray patches FSN 36375 light ghost gray (Testors 1728).
[Other guesses for this color include FSN 36440 Light Gull Gray or FSN 36251
Navy Aggressor Gray—take your pick.] After allowing them to dry thoroughly,
mask over prior to applying the “metallic” camouflage.
2)
If desired, pre-shade selected areas dark gray. I got a LOT of questions about
this at my local club. What I did after the Light Ghost Gray was thoroughly dry
was to refer to photos and sketch the pattern of the darker silver gray pattern
on the model. I then sprayed this pattern Gunship Gray (36118), not bothering to
make it a solid coat. I then made a photocopy of the top of the fuselage,
horizontal tails, and both sides of the vertical tails. I cut out the dark parts
of these copies to make masks that were used after the light metallic silver had
been applied.
Click on
images below to see larger images
3)
The metallic grays are mix of Testors Model Master automotive enamels. The light
metallic gray is 4 parts Aluminum (1781) to 1 part of Graphite Metallic (2712);
the dark metallic gray is 1 part Aluminum and 3 parts Graphite Metallic. These
colors must be shaken frequently to keep the colors mixed. As you spray, the
thinner in the dark metallic gray will re-melt the light metallic gray coat,
causing the two to blend better. Since they are NOT Metalizer paints, using any
sort of adhesive masking on them will be a recipe for disaster. [Late breaking
news: This is UNTESTED, but Mark advises that adding a tiny amount (a drop or
two) of Testor's Gun Metal (1795) into the light metallic gray mixture to tint
it slightly MAY improve the look of the coating even more.]
4)
First spray two coats of normally thinned light metallic gray to give a rich
color. Immediately after the second coat is dry to the touch, start spraying a
somewhat thinned mix of the dark metallic gray, not sprayed to complete density
of the color so the coat is thin and translucent. You do not want to cover over
the light silver entirely. Because all the wing edges are masked, it was easy to
loosely tape the masks I had made to the edges of the model without masking the
just sprayed light color. This greatly simplified the painting task and was well
worth the minimal effort required. It also made possible the consistent and
well-defined, yet soft edges I achieved. Once finished, allow the model to dry
thoroughly for a few days.
Click on
images below to see larger images
5)
Although you can wait until the end, you’ll probably be busting to unmask
everything but the canopy here—go ahead.
6)
Apply decals after the overcoat has dried thoroughly. If you haven’t already,
you’ll need to unmask the tails and apply Future to the tips before applying
the squadron fin flashes Another (un-tinted) clear overcoat here is optional to
hide decal film.
7)
A final flat finish, such as Testors Dullcote (1160X), should be applied to even
out the finish. You are not going to want to do this because it looks so cool
the way it is, but don’t fear, the metallic sheen will remain. To convince
myself, I sprayed the bottom of one of the horizontal tails first as a test.
Decals
These
are definitely a mixed bag. There are lots of different jets to select from,
which is good. However, they pretty much screwed the pooch as far as the decals
for the various panels and screens go.
In
general, the various diamonds that are colored light gray should be 36375 Light
Ghost Gray, except where specified as 36251 Aggressor Gray. The diamonds that
are yellow or dark gray represent screens and should be Metalizer Gunmetal. If I
were using this decal sheet, I would proceed as described above, using the
decals as a pattern to cut masks from using Tamiya Tape. It will take longer,
but the result will be much more realistic. Specific errors noted:
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All
the national insignia should be light gray (like #1). The fuselage ones
should be larger--15"-dia.
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Decal
24 should be Aggressor Gray (like 94) and be located between the outboard
and middle saw teeth. There should be another decal of that size and shape
in light gray (like 93) in the same relative location in front of the
opposite weapons bay.
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There
is a light (or something) between decals 102 & 103 on the spine behind
the cockpit that you could add a decal for. It’s not on the very early
jets, but most do have it.
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Decal
47: outside of the black outline should be Aggressor Gray.
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Decal
50: WAY too big.
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Decal
49: Check to see if is really there.
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Decal
56/96: gray areas should be Aggressor Gray.
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Decals
91 & 93 should be repeated on the bottom of the wing (in the same
place). Decals 105 & 109 don't appear on instruction sheet. They were
probably supposed to be the bottom versions of 91/93, but should be light
gray.
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There
should be two small diamond-shaped light gray areas just in front of 97.
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Decals
99/106 don't appear to match the panel lines.
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Decal
110: Don’t use.
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Decal
115: Incorrect; delete solid black rectangle from left side of decal.
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Decals
127 & 128 are single, not double diamonds and should be about the size
of 107.
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The
missile markings totally miss the mark. The ones for the AIM-9M and AIM-120
are inaccurate and there are none at all for the AIM-9X. Use the 1/72nd
drawings of the bottom of the missiles in this article as a guide. Yellow
bands are 33538, brown bands are 30177, and fuselages are 36375. Note that
the color bands do not cover the conduits that run along the bottom of the
AIM-120 and AIM-9X.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Other
painting instruction miscues include:
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I
believe that the leading edge gray strips on the ailerons, flaps and rudders
are about 3-inches wide. The ones in the kit decals are about 2" wide
and there don't appear to be enough of them.
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The
gray outline on the stabilizers should be the same width as on the wings.
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Depiction
of the tail boom (and exhaust petal) panel lines don't match model and are
very ambiguous as to how those areas are painted.
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Depiction
of the bottom radome area color is incorrect--nothing aft of the front panel
line should be gray.
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The
planform drawings for decal placement show a "hinge-line" like
demarcation between the gray and camouflage along the leading edges-- it
should be a straight line.
Jim
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