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Hi Everyone, This was my first visit to RIAT and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My wife and I were going to go to a different airshow, but decided we would try RIAT out. As soon as the show finished, I said to my wife that I would like to go again next year especially as the theme is 75th anniversary of the USAF. I hope they bring the big bombers over including the B-2. I couldn't believe how many members went to the airshow this year, I wonder if I saw any of you without realising it. My wife and I were sat to the right of the P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft all day and had a great view of all of the displays. Anyway I'll let my photos do the talking. Comments are welcome, if anyone would like to know what gear I used I can get the specs off the gear and put them up here tomorrow. F-16 Greek Air Force - Team Zeus on runway Red Arrows , F-35B Lightning II and 2 x Typhoon F-22 Raptor Red Arrows Wildcat F-35B Lightning IIFF-35B Lightning II Ramex Delta - Mirage 2000N Chinook V-22 Osprey (Static) F-16 Belgian Air Force - Tiger Meet F-16 Turkish Air Force 'Solo Turk' F-16 Polish Air Force Patrouille Suisse Breitling Wing Walkers MiG-29 Fulcrum Polish Air Force A400M Atlas Dassault Rafale Another F-16 I have lots of photos (I took over 800 in total) and edited 160 which are in the album these come from. Here is a link to the full album of 160 photos on photobucket : http://s1117.photobucket.com/user/mrpaddy1/library/RIAT%202016 If anyone has any further pictures of the planes that were at the airshow they would like to see, please leave a post and I'll see if I have any photos. Comments are welcome. All the best, Rick

There are some great photos of this exercice over on the USAF website: http://1.usa.gov/1XYNPnu

Hi - If you are not aware of the Global Aviation Resource website then its definitely worth a look. In the article on the A10s and F22 deployment to Estonia there is a nice shot of the top view of an F22 (6th photo down in the article). Not sure I would be able to reproduce that on a kit - but I am sure someone would! Here's the link: http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2015/09/24/operation-atlantic-resolve-a-10s-f-22s-deployed-to-estonia/

Academy is to re-release its 1/72nd Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor kit with ref. 12527 Sources: http://www.academy.co.kr/6q/board_news_main.asp?pMenuId=BOARD00002&pCode=9035&pCategory=NEWS1 https://www.facebook.com/academytoy/photos/pb.1450541581840342.-2207520000.1442819447./1718872271673937/?type=3&permPage=1 F-22A Raptor "94th FS, Langley AFB" V.P.

Chinese new brand? Shenzhen M-Legend is working on a new 1/72nd Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor kit - ref. Sources: http://m-legend.com/cp_detail.php?cl=cp&topid=45359&id=13026164&nowmenuid=20001627&ppid=&cpath=45359:&catid=45359 http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=286736 V.P.

Guys, so I'm thinking of modelling one of these bad boys (in the title) and was wondering if anyone could give me some help on the best 1/72 scale kits for the aforementioned. I really love these American jets and having modelled Mig-21's Mig-25s' Su-27's and the T-50 I was looking for a bit of a change. Thanks in advance P.S. I'm looking for readily available kits and if you include a link, please could it be to a website that uses GBP. Thank you very much for your time! P.P.S I love this forum!!

A couple of years ago I picked up a 1/48 IdolMaster F-2A by Hasegawa to do for my niece. The WIP is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234943817-how-to-build-an-f-2a-and-lose-your-mancard/and the RFI is here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234944706-how-to-build-an-f2-a-and-lose-your-mancard-is-finished/. It was quite enjoyable although very detailed regarding the decal scheme. I was following a link on Britmodeller the other day that took me to HLJ website. Since I was there, might as well cruise it (addicted people will take any excuse to use!) Lo and behold, HLJ had all of the IdolMaster kits on sale. I was weak, I was not strong; I was very bad. I got this kit, the Hasegawa 1/48 F-22 Raptor in the IdolMaster scheme. I also somehow ordered all of these: So, my purchases of Micro Sol and Set will be going up exponentially due to these kits. The main appeal for me is the decal schemes; they are very decal intense. Here are the instructions. As you can see in the instructions, there are quite a few decals that have to be applied and in a certain order (that is never described in the instructions mind you) as some overlap others. The decal sheets are quite large, about 14 inches long. The parameters of the build are to get it done reasonably well, but the main focus is the end scheme of the plane. Obviously, I am not trying to get as accurate as I can F-22 Raptor. This is an anime portrayal of an actual aircraft, not the aircraft itself. With that said, upon opening the box, I am greeted with some lovely shades of plastic. I have standard Hasegawa grey sprues, a very dark black/grey sprue, and multiple sprues with a fetching shade of hot pink. (I can’t wait to go to the LHS to try and match this color. They are used to me getting the drab WWII camo colors. Guess I will tell them I am doing a flaming PR spitfire!) Since this is Hasegawa’s regular F-22 kit, the build starts with the cockpit. After freeing the parts I have a wonderful hue of plastic colors to work with. And all the parts are assembled to dry and await a very dull black base color. As the main cockpit dries, I begin work on the instrument panel and the six decals it gets. After a few doses of setting solution, the decals snuggle into place. Next up a base application of NATO black over the entire cockpit. When the base coat dries, a drybrushing of metallic silver helps to bring out detail and give a little life back to the cockpit. I have not decided if the canopy will be open or closed. If it is closed, not a whole lot will be visible in the cockpit. With such a dark base color, even with the canopy open, not a lot will be visible. Next up the main weapons bay. There are 3 bays, the main, the port and the starboard. I have already decided I will not have the side bays open. I am still debating about the main bay, so I will build that up. The main bay is put together All that is left is the six weapon racks that have to be made up. One down, five to go. And all of the weapon racks installed. The nose wheel bay is next to be built up. Here is where I am at a loss. If you look at the detail molded into the weapon bay pictures above and the main wheel bay to come, there is some fairly nice detail to the parts. For the nose bay, nothing except the one part that is attached at the end of the bay. Now maybe the actual aircraft has nothing in the bay, but I kinda doubt it. I just am at a loss as to why Hasegawa would put such effort into making the detail in the weapon bays and main wheel bay, but nothing for the nose wheel. The two side bays are removed from the sprues (great detail). And the main weapon bay, side bays and nose wheel bay are inserted into the bottom fuselage section. Finally, a rubber gasket is held in place by this round plastic cap allowing the nose wheel to be removed. A very nice touch when it will get down to painting and decaling. (In fact, after looking ahead in the instructions, all of the wheels are designed to be removable. That will be very helpful. Next up is the main wheel bay. There are four different sub-assemblies that are inserted into the fuselage. I have built those up. These are off to get a coat of white before I install them. On a side note, being the ham fisted builder I am, I frequently send small parts sailing far away from where I want them to go. I may not be too thrilled about the hot pink plastic, but it is great when having to search for lost parts!! I haven’t lost a single little small part even though I have dropped several very tiny parts. Apparently, the carpet monster does not like pink. And this is where I stop today. As always comment welcome.

Nothing screams raw, pure, outlandish masculinity like a bright, pink, aircraft covered in multi-colored flowers with Japanese Anime cartoon figures on it. (I promise after this post, I am putting on my boots, riding my horse, punching a few cows, eating very raw steak and telling SWMBO that I really don’t care what she thinks about my purchase of 3 1/24 Airfix Typhoons!! And then, I will take a blanket and find refuge outside with the dogs where I will be sleeping for a few nights.) This fine kit is Hasegawa’s 1/48 F-22 all doled out in the IdolM@ster markings. IdolM@ster started out as a video game and then expanded into books, magazines, TV shows and a movie. The F-22 IdolM@ster centers on Haruka Amami. And, that, folks is about all the knowledge I have regarding its background. If you need more, that’s what the internet is about. While feeding my slight obsession for Tiger Meet Aircraft, I came across one of these kits (there are several aircraft in the IdolM@ster series) and got hooked. This is my second with 5 more to go. The kits are somewhat decal intensive to say the least. It is the standard Hasegawa F-22 Raptor kit, albeit molded in bright pink and dark grey sprues. The trick to these kits is a very careful study of how to put on the 200 plus decals and then using a shockingly huge amount of decal setting solution to make the decals behave. With patience, the decals will settle into the kit decal as if they were painted on. To me it is an enjoyable build, different looking, and just an escape. The build thread is here. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234964072-the-idolmster-f-22-raptor/ I am going to finish a few more conventional builds before I tackle the next kit in this series. The last picture is the kit in its new home next to the other IdolM@ster kit and some of its Tiger Meet cousins. As always, all comments welcome. Must make mental note; really, really need to fix that wheel!!

Here's my Hasegawa F-22 Raptor, finished last year. Additional items were Cockpit and nozzle sets by Aires. As the kit decals were a huge disappointment, I mainly used an Academy sheet - courtesy of @Stevej60. Here are the images. I tried to simulate the "Raptor sheen" by using Hasegawas way of mixing Gunze Colors with paints from their 'Super Metallic' range which worked quite well but the paints suggested were not always to my liking - being either too dark or too light. So did my own mixing - at least for parts of the colours used. The sheen itself is very subtle, not quite as intended but rather a little to less than too much I think. There's a hint of 'sheen' on this one The Aires nozzles with their fine texture on the moving nozzle parts. Despite the rather complex construction of the kit everything goes together very well - given a little patience and some dryfitting. I've loaded this model with four 'SDB's" - small diameter bombs and AIM-9X missiles. I do not know if the standard F-22 is already equipped to carry them but if not, they should be very soon. The SDB's are by Skunk models. That's it for my F-22. Hope you like it.

Pictures from Graham James,