Hasegawa F-22A Raptor - WIP

Michael Phillips
Starting my next project, an in-flight Raptor! I have seen some of these get pretty dirty, so that is what I am going to go for. Will also be fun to replicate the metallic "Raptor Sheen" and goldish canopy. Should be a fun one!

Nathan Dempsey
I'm in. Can't wait to see what you can do with this kit.

Konrad -
Watching too. I've got the Academy one. So I'm really looking forward to this one.

Michael Phillips
Welcome Nathan and Konrad, it is good to have you aboard!

So I have some progress to report... Got the cockpit painted and in the upper fuselage. Next up is to paint the pilot and some more canopy tint experimentation.

Jos Jansen
A very good start with the cockpit Michael...nice! I am in mate....👍

Soeren R.
I am in too😉

Daniel
Cool, nice pit, i am taking a seat!

Maciej Bellos
Cool jet! I'm sure you'll do it justice!

Michael Phillips
Welcome and thanks Jos, Soeren, Daniel, Maciej, and James!

Got the pilot painted and in the cockpit tonight. I am not the greatest at figure painting, but he will do. 🙂

Next up will be canopy tinting. This should be interesting. I will be testing on some spare canopies. Here is a previous test I did awhile back using nail polish and thinner. Check it out here:

Canopy Tint Experiment | Album by Fighting 84 (1:48)

tyu
What finish metallic?

Agustin Prellezo
I think that cockpit is fantastic!

Michael Phillips
Thanks James and Agustin!

tyu, I haven't decided exactly how I will tackle the metallic finish, but I have some ideas. Right now I think I might try misting airframe aluminum over the finished camo to give it a bit of an uneven sheen as I have seen in some pics of weathered Raptors.

Michael Phillips
Well, I have painted the canopy tint. I am pretty happy with the outcome, although the pilot is more obscured than I was expected. The metallic flake of the paint is a bit larger than I would have liked, but the color shift and look is pretty much right on IMHO.

Daniel
Nice! This will look awesome together with the metallic camo, have you seen takeoff-models raptor on YouTube? He nailed the camo imo

Nathan Dempsey
That canopy looks great Michael. That's exactly how I remember it when they had one at Sun-n-Fun Airshow. Kinda reminded me of a pair of Oakley's I used to have.

Michael Phillips
Thanks Daniel and Nathan! Yeah, I have a pair of Oakleys with the same color shift Iridium lenses.

Daniel, thanks for letting me know about the video, I had not seen that one. Looks like he is doing his metallic sheen the opposite way I plan too. Will be interesting to see how my approach works. 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Oooo, I'm a bit late, but totally in! Canopy came out great.

Michael Phillips
Thanks James and Donald!

James, it is a mixture of the Nail Polish and MR Color Levelling Thinner. Exact ratio is kind of unknown, but around two pipettes of thinner to 1/2 pipette of polish.

Patrick Hagelstein
Huh! I guess I missed something here! 😉

Black Baron
Following

Michael Hickey
Lovely so far mate.👍

Slavo Hazucha
I guess late is better than never, I´m happy to discover & follow this! Most interesting for me, since I´am playing with the idea of going on a 5-gen trip myself with the "adversaries" Su-57 & J-20 as soon as they hit the market...

Progress looks great so far - did you have a pilot with the next-gen helmet or is it scratch built?

The job on the canopy may look somewhat strong on the unpainted model, but painted assemblies vs plastic always do that - I tend to believe our eyes just adjusted to see bare plastic as "no color at all" and once the proper colors come together, everything makes best sense again 🙂 I´m sure it will actually look spot on once the Raptor get´s it´s coat, including the hazy appearance of the pilot inside.

Very much looking forward to the job at hand - your methods & intentions bear promise & I´ll be glad to watch 👍

Michael Phillips
Thanks and welcome everyone!

I now have most of the assembly completed and she is now primed. Next up will be pre-shading then on to the camo and metallic sheen attempt.

Tim Heimer
And another late arrival! I'll just grab a seat back here to watch the last part of this build. Your work is always worth the time!

Jos Jansen
Nice work Michael...

Bryn Crandell
I have this same kit. Looking good so far. The only thing I dread is all of the raised detail for masking. looking forward to see how you tackle this.

Michael Phillips
Thanks Tim, Jos, and Bryn!

Bryn, luckily this is not going to require as much masking as the early F-35s did. Those are nuts! But this one will have plenty as well.

Anyway, I got the pre-shading done. Just a really quick one, I try not to spend too much time with this step. Next up I will paint the lighter gray "outline" areas, then mask before painting the main color and camo and sheen. Stay tuned!

Michael Phillips
Thanks James!

Got the outer lighter gray painted as well as the nose and canopy. Tomorrow I will mask these areas then paint the two-tone camo.

Konrad -
Looking very cool so far Michael 👍!

Black Baron
Nice

Michael Phillips
Thanks Konrad and Black Baron!

Got the base coat down tonight. No issues there. Tomorrow I will add the darker camo. 🙂

Tim Heimer
Michael we saw your secret! Mtn dew! How you use that we're not sure! LOL

William O.
Excellent work sir! I especially love the job you did on the pit, looks very realistic. Following with gusto! 🙂

Michael Phillips
Thanks Tim and William!

Tim, LOL, I do love Mt Dew. A little too much, probably. LOL. In the case of the bottle in the pics, that is a very old one that I spray out my airbrush wash out into. I always spray through lacquer thinner after painting to clean out the brush, then I put alcohol in it when finished to keep it clean and from paint drying in the brush.

William, welcome, it is good to have you here along for the ride!

Michael Phillips
Well, got the camo painted. Painted freehand, and I will tell you it was one of the trickiest ones I have done simply because of how close they are to each other in darkness. It was hard to see where the paint lines were. But in the end, I am happy how it turned out!

William O.
Lookin great Michael! Good quality air brush is a must, for sure! Altogether is coming along nicely, maybe is all the mt dew that doing it😉. Thumbs up sir 🙂.

Michael Phillips
Thanks William. I use a Procon Boy PS-270 by GSI Creos, the maker of Gunze paints. It is a fantastic brush that can be had for well under $150 and can hold it's own against even a Custom Micron. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new brush.

Michael Phillips
So after looking at more pics of Raptors I am not happy with the darker camo. Everywhere I read the scheme is basically the Mod Eagle colors, but either my MRP Mod Eagle DK Gray FS36176 is off or that color is not right. Too light and too blue. I think I might try Gunship Gray and see how that looks.

Patrick Hagelstein
I see what you mean... Could you do a test on a scrap piece and see how it alters under the metallic coat? If no change occurs, would you be able to reproduce the exact camouflage outline over the current paint coat?

Daniel
I agree it shouldn't be mod eagle colors... in my vallejo usaf set they say its "aggressor gray" fs36251, might be worth a shot?

Michael Phillips
Patrick, I think I will do some testing. I will definitely be able to airbrush over the existing color with no problem, the pattern may end up being ever so slightly larger, but nothing noticeable.

Daniel, so I did use the MRP FS36251 for the base (they call it Med. Mod Gray instead of Aggressor Gray though), and that looks pretty close if only a bit warm, but I can live with that. The metallic sheen I will add will help cool it down a bit. It's the darker gray I need to adjust. I am thinking Gunship Gray is going to be my best bet, but as Patrick said I will likely need to test first.

Daniel
Oops, mixed those up, fs36176 ocean gray should be the one vallejos calling out 🙂

William O.
Thanks for the recommendation on the brush Michael, I've been looking at getting a new brush. I'll keep that one in mind. Sorry to hear the camo didn't work out, I still like it a lot, even though it's a little light and blue😉. Fun stuff sir! 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Aggressor gray IS the light gray on the 15Cs. FS36176 and FS36251 are the two colors. There is a darker version, not sure what units use it, but those are FS36320 and FS36375. The first combo should work for the raptor I think.

Maciej Bellos
Hey Michael, check my F-15S, I used Molak's FS36251 and Model Master's FS36176. I don't think this combination is the correct one for the Raptor. Something better for my eyes would be FS36375 for most of the aircraft and FS36251 for the darker areas.

Clifford Keesler
How did I miss this one? Looking good Michael. I thought they had come out with a New color Called Have Glass Grey, which is used on the Dark vipers and F-35's are the F-22's a different color?

Michael Phillips
Well, after some experimentation tonight I decided to go ahead with the Gunship Gray FS36118 for the dark areas and left the base color as FS36251. That looked pretty good to my eye. Then I lightly sprayed Alclad Airframe Aluminum overall to give it the sheen. I am pretty happy with the look I achieved with this. Once I put the gloss coat, decals, wash, weathering, and flat coat the sheen will likely be diminished somewhat, but that is a good thing as the well worn Raptors I have seen pics of have somewhat patchy looking sheen areas.

William O.
Looks great Michael! I can now see what you meant earlier, looks much better. Thumbs up sir! 🙂

Patrick Hagelstein
Yep! Better contrasting colors! 👍

Soeren R.
Ok that looks fantastic....
Really great work Michael!

Daniel
Looks perfect, really like how you recreated the irregular spray patterns and the overall amount of metallic look 👍 👍

Dominik Weitzer
Looks very good Michael!

Nathan Dempsey
I like that sheen! Looking great Michael.

Jos Jansen
Wow Michael...a joy to follow mate, 5th gen aircraft's aren't easy to paint...yours is spot on!

Clifford Keesler
I agree with everyone else, fantastic job.

Michael Phillips
Thanks William, Patrick, Soeren, Daniel, Dominik, Nathan, Jos, and Clifford!

Not much to report, but I did get a future gloss coat on last night to seal in the "sheen" layer before I start masking for all of the little different colored panels all over this thing. That will be my task for tonight and after that it will be decal time! One good thing about this aircraft is there are not many stencils (or markings for that matter), so that process may be doable in one night.

Michael Phillips
Of course Roland! I am eager to see you tackle this kit some day. I would be more than glad to answer any questions you might have once you get to that point.

Pierre
Looking great indeed. Always curious to see how modellers tackle this so that I know what to do when I finally build that plane.

Michael Phillips
Thanks James and Pierre!

James, I lightly sprayed Alclad Airframe Aluminum over the entire aircraft, except the masked areas of lighter gray around the "edges" of the aircraft, nose, intakes, and canopy. Very easy to do and seems to give the effect I am looking for so far.

Pierre, there are many ways to do this, but I had never seen anyone do it the way I did. I have seen pre-sheen and mixed metallic paints before, but not post camo paint. We shall see how this looks after a wash and flat coat. If I lose too much sheen, I can always go back and lightly spray some more.

Michael Phillips
Tonight was all masking and painting of the lighter gray from some of the interior panels. Nothing difficult, just a bit time consuming. Tomorrow I will mask and paint the darker (almost black) panels on the upper and lower side. After that it is decal time!

Black Baron
Looking good.

Tim Heimer
Yes it is! Hope mine comes out half as good. Michaels talent with planes and some of these other guys is just mind blowing.

Michael Phillips
Thanks BB and Tim!

Those are some very kind words Tim, I truly appreciate it! It is always a thrill to know my work can inspire someone and it drives me to keep going and to try to improve my own craft as I go along. 🙂

Clifford Keesler
It is coming along nicely.

Michael Phillips
Thanks Clifford and you are welcome James!

So I had a bit of a busy weekend, so I did not get much time at the bench... But I did get the rest of the panel painting on the fuselage done. A bit of tedious masking, but I think it will look much better than using kit supplied decals for those panels.

Next up will be the decals, then it will really start to come to life!

Konrad -
Hell Yeah Mike it looks really outstanding. Looking forward to the Final Roll out😉

Michael Phillips
Thanks Konrad! Slowly getting there!

Tonight I got most of the decals on. Have some stencils and panel decals to add but not much. Will finish those tomorrow then it will be wash time!

Daniel
Nice, those decals blend in perfectly 👍

An accuracy side note (if you care about): Raptor pilots cant use the JHMCS, simply because it doesnt fit under the narrow upper canopy part, so your guy might be locked into looking straight😉

Tim Heimer
It is coming along nicely! Looking good!

Jos Jansen
Very nice Michael, would recommend this kit...?

Michael Phillips
Thanks Daniel, Tim, and Jos!

Daniel, after reading your comment, I looked into that and you are correct. I guess I should have did a little more research before starting. LOL I figured since it was in the kit I could use it. I am not sure if I will replace the head or not (sounds morbid!). We'll see how I feel as I move along. Thanks for the "heads" up on this. (Bad pun intended) 🙂

Jos, I can recommend this kit. This is not a perfect kit, however. While the fitment is generally quite good, the fuselage and intake assembly is quite complex and over engineered. There are tons of braces and guide pin type structures in the fuselage interior. This actually made fuselage assembly more difficult and fitment was off a bit until I cut some off and removed some others.

Another issue is the overscale panels. They are simply protrude way too much. This didn't bother me so much, so I left them be. Others have sanded them down to get them closer to scale.

Shape of the Hasegawa is quite good overall, especially the nose area when compared to the other decent 1/48 F-22, Academy. So, to answer your question, I would recommend this kit if the above does not bother you or are willing and able to overcome the issues.

Clifford Keesler
Looking nice Michael. Question, how come Tyndall always gets left out on these decal sheets. Come on give a Florida boy a break. I was born there for Christ's sake. LOL. just kidding, but I do wonder why you never see Tyndall.

Michael Phillips
Thanks Clifford! Yeah, seems like they are always Langley, Edwards, or Elmendorf, but most often Langley like mine.

Michael Phillips
Got the wash done on the upper surface. After looking at the pics it does appear I need to go back in and get a bit more of it up around panel edges. Looks like I am losing a lot of sheen after the gloss and wash, so I may decide to go back in and add some more post flat.

Michael Phillips
Final weathering and flat coat are done. The sheen was degraded considerably at this stage, so I did go back in and spray some more airframe aluminum, which did help and since I did it kind of randomly, I am getting some random high sheen areas which looks pretty cool to me since I wanted this Raptor to be moderately weathered.
Not many steps left to the finish line! Next up is the exhaust then final assembly... then in-flight base construction.

Konrad -
Yep that looks indeed very cool👍!

Jos Jansen
Thx Michael for your information, Iam considering to buy one from a friend of mine...but if I see your fantastic build then I think it's a fantastic kit...🙂 👍

Daniel
I admit I was a bit skeptical about post-metallic sheen application at first, but not anymore 🙂 This is awesome! 👍

William O.
Lookin awesome sir! I don't think you could get any more realistic then that, good job 👍.

Michael Phillips
Thanks Konrad, Jos, Daniel, and William!

Daniel, I too was not sure what I would get with that approach, but thought there was a chance it could really give me the effect I wanted and a little bit more control over it. I am very happy with how it turned out!

Michael Phillips
Ok, exhausts are done! Happy with these, actually pretty easy to do and other than the masking. Will finish up either tonight or tomorrow I think. Getting pumped for the final reveal... I must say, the canopy turned out INCREDIBLE, but I am saving pics of that for the final reveal. ????

Nathan Dempsey
You should be Michael. It looks really great. Seeing your build is making it very hard for me to stay on task and keep working on my Aussie Truck 🙂

Clifford Keesler
It's looking awesome Michael.

Slavo Hazucha
Excellent show Michael - just a pleasure to watch & follow step-by step how the colors & wash layers melted together into just exactly the right appearance! Must be just a great feeling seeing how all things come together to make a bigger & better whole 👍! Great trail of info in the comments as well - once 5th gen starts on my bench, this will be a reference project!

Looking forward to see it with canopy on & in proper light!

Michael Phillips
Thanks Nathan, Clifford, and Slavo!

Slavo, this project is now completed, and in case you had not seen the album, you can check it out here:

Hasegawa F-22A Raptor - Completed! | Album by Fighting 84 (1:48)