F-22 Raptor - decals

[Will Vale]

Hi folks,

I picked up a couple of these from the Lucky Model bargain bin recently for a silly price, and they're so nice in the box I thought I'd better build one. The idea is to do one 'proper' Raptor and kitbash the other into a 10-20 years hence drone vehicle. I was going to assemble them in parallel but I'm not very good at production line stuff and so the drone is still boxed up - good subject for the what-if group build?

I'm hoping to recreate this photo, by the way: http://www.air-attac...ke-exhaust.html

The kit includes "AK" decals for Elmendorf so that's sorted. There are even some remove-before-flight tags on the decal sheet

So far I've assembled the seat and cockpit and painted them. The photo shows just how much detail there is that I couldn't see, so I need to go back and clean up some of my splotches and try and bring out the raised controls a bit more. There are also two more decals for the panel and some to add to the seat as well.

(click for bigger)

The other thing I've done is add all the bits that'll be white to the bays and painted them. I covered the pin holes in the Sidewinder bays with small styrene strips, which look a bit agricultural in this pic, but hopefully they'll be less obvious when there's a missile on the rail. I didn't think it'd be possible to fill and sand them because the bay is a single part and the ribs are quite deep.

I also sprayed the insides of the intakes, I'm now trying to psyche myself up to add the grey bits and decal them. There were a few pin marks to fill there as well, but I'm not planning to do anything clever with the seams, hopefully the fact that they're right-angled will mean I can just join them.

This is my first airbrush-painted model - you can see where I removed the overspray from around the bays - and so far it's going OK. I did try and pre-shade my Stuka with an airbrush and propellant cans, but I now have a compressor - what a difference that makes! Looking at the masking required I may have picked rather a bad choice to start with, but I'm sure I'll learn something

Cheers,

Will

Edited October 19, 2012 by Will Vale

[Matcham11]

Wow! Looking brilliant already! Keep up the great work

Robin

[theclay]

nice. i might have to get mine out and have a got at it again

[Devilfish]

Nice idea. I did an Italeri RAF Raptor Whif here....

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234924364

The only thing I'd say about the Drone is, it would probably be more like 50 years from now. 10-20 years the aircraft will be undergoing mid-life updates etc. Look at how long the F-16 and F-15 have been going. (let alone the B-52!!)

Edited September 6, 2012 by Devilfish

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the comments folks, hopefully I can get some more done at the weekend.

The only thing I'd say about the Drone is, it would probably be more like 50 years from now. 10-20 years the aircraft will be undergoing mid-life updates etc.

Fair point, I forget how long some of these things have been in service. It's probably a subconscious desire to have the future happen sooner so I get to see it

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Not as much free time at the weekend as I would have liked, but I did get some things done:

(click for big)

I decalled the seat and added the two I'd missed off the panel. I also drybrushed the side consoles and IP switches more to try and bring out the details, going all the way up to white. I now need to touch up the black to tidy things up I think. Oh, and the panel is installed now - it was fiddly to line up so I taped the tub into the upper fuselage while the glue went off so I could get it to sit properly in the coaming.

If anyone knows where decal #1 is supposed to go, please let me know. I couldn't figure it out from the callout in the instructions. It looks like it might be on the seat, but I couldn't match up the illustration to any of the cockpit parts. Unless it's the HUD??

The other thing I did was to paint the grey sections of the intakes, then varnish and decal them, and then assemble. The seams are not all that they could be, but I think some thinned paint run along the seam might help a bit? I have my doubts as to how well the intakes are going to fit, I hope that fixing that doesn't destroy what I've managed so far. I think if I made another I'd probably make my own intake floors rather than use the kit ones, which have an awful step in them.

('scuse fingers)

Oh, and lastly I Kleared the bays and applied the 7 decals which go in each Sidewinder bay. It'd have been a lot easier had I not installed the bays in the fuselage and left off the missile rails, but we live and learn:

Next step is to fit the intakes to the lower fuselage (somehow!) and then as a reward I can go and clean up the mess I made of the bay cables with a wash and some white paint.

I get the feeling 1/72 is just too small for me - I can't see what I'm doing half the time. The photos look OK but a bit messy, it would be helpful to be able to see that much while working. I guess I really am going to have to invest in a magnifier

Cheers,

Will

[Roy LeMont]

If anyone knows where decal #1 is supposed to go, please let me know. I couldn't figure it out from the callout in the instructions. It looks like it might be on the seat, but I couldn't match up the illustration to any of the cockpit parts. Unless it's the HUD??

What does decal #1 look like? Very nice job so far Will, and some comments on the cockpit. The emergency oxygen bottle on the left side of the seat should be green, and the seat should have both lap belts and shorter straps for the survival kit too. Also, the rudder pedals in the F-22 are Dark Gull Gray, not black like the rest of the cockpit. This picture should help; it's a test jet at Edwards AFB, so you can ignore the one orange panel on the left side console.

Roy

Edited September 10, 2012 by Roy LeMont

[Will Vale]

Thanks Roy, I'd seen that picture but it's useful to have the extra information - I was so pleased with the orange panel I added to the cockpit, but I guess I'll need to paint over it. My fault for not researching properly.

The O2 bottle is painted green, but it's a dark bottle green and doesn't really show on the model, I'll see if I can brighten it up around the decal. The seatbelts are coming - I haven't installed the seat yet, and I have some 1mm masking tape which should work.

I'll see if I can take a macro pic of the decal - I can't see it as anything other than a 1mm square white dot

W

[hacker]

I have been eyeing the Revell version in 1/72 but this kit is not bad. Now l wonder which is the better kit?

[Will Vale]

I should wait and see if I can get the intakes in before making any judgement calls Apart from those and the filling I'll need to do on the vertical surfaces around the engine outlets this is a neat kit. The dry fit of the fuselage is spot on, the vertical tails conform to the surface they sit on, and the surface detail is what I think they call "refined". Good decal sheet too.

Given that it cost me a hair over 12 NZD it really feels like a bargain.

Will

[Roy LeMont]

I'll see if I can take a macro pic of the decal - I can't see it as anything other than a 1mm square white dot

Since you mentioned it might go on the seat, it might be the ACES II logo for the seat.

Roy

[Will Vale]

Here's the pesky chap:

In case it's unclear from the photo, it's white (greeked) text on clear. I boosted the contrast a bit so you can see it over the backing paper. I can't find the strappy thing called out on the instruction sheet on the seat, and it's in a boxout specifically referring to the two halves of the seat frame.

Possibly it's downsized from the 1/48 kit, and the part wasn't?

If there's no good place to put it, I might use it to letter the yellow (ejection?) handle at the front edge of the seat - that appears to have text in your photo.

Cheers,

Will

[Roy LeMont]

Based on the instruction diagram it goes on top of the seat headrest. The top of the headrest is actually fabric material covering a drogue chute, and there is often stencilling there.

Roy

[Roy LeMont]

The stencilling is visible on the aft portion atop the headrest in one of the pictures here. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=20396

Roy

[Mike]

That's an interesting article Roy... looking at the cut canopy, you realise that they're actually quite thick! Also, at $182,000, they make a clear vacformed canopy look really cheap

[Will Vale]

Thanks

The stencilling is visible on the aft portion atop the headrest in one of the pictures here. http://www.spaceref.....html?pid=20396

Thanks Roy, some great colour references there as well. My oxygen bottle is far too dark green as you pointed out, and the canopy lift cylinder appears to be a reddish metallic finish.

I decided the kit intake floor was just too rough last night - it has a big step at the back, and some sink marks. I suppose I could have filled the ramp in and sanded it all flat but it was easier to make new intake floors from white styrene. If the step was part of the floor then filling it would be a more obvious option, but because it's actually in the intake part I think it'd be a pain to get everything lined up.

Anyway, this is the kit version:

and this is now:

Sorry about the rough pictures

I don't have a like-for-like shot, I'll do one when I have them all fitted. It may be academic because it's much darker when the rear intake plate with the compressor fans is installed, but it feels better and you can see the difference in person. I wish I'd thought of this before since it would have affected where my masking went for the grey part of the intakes. I *may* be able to get in there with paint now, but I doubt it.

Fitting the intakes into the lower fuselage was fiddly and needed quite a bit of work with a big file removing the inside front of the weapons bay. I wasn't able to get them perfect but they fit flush at the top and outside, so most of the filling bar a tiny bit is going to be fairing in the join between the outside front of the intakes and the lower fuselage. This could be my fault, but I wasn't able to get them to fit in cleanly before I added the floors either so it may not be.

Cheers,

Will

[Roy LeMont]

I have been eyeing the Revell version in 1/72 but this kit is not bad. Now l wonder which is the better kit?

I have the Revell kit, from looking at the build here, it seems they're about equal in fidelity and ease of assembly, with the Academy kit having more decals like the ones provided for the weapons bays.

Roy

[Will Vale]

Well I got the decal in, thanks again Roy! I also touched in the oxygen bottle with a brighter green, which has sort-of worked with the stencil decal which was already in place - it's now green-tinted but it doesn't look too bad. The seat needs a flat coat now, and the belts, and then I think that's it for the cockpit. Must dust it before I do any of those jobs though

(click for big if you aren't scared of giant dust bunnies)

I did some touching up around the side consoles and centre switch panel with Nato black and MIG dark wash, I think they look cleaner now and less over-drybrushed while still showing the detail.

I also washed the weapons bays and main gear bays, using MIG Cold Grey and a bit of Dark in the corners. This is tricky to judge, I think it has the right kind of contrast compared to the real thing, but looks too dirty. In real life a lot of that black/white contrast comes from all the black cable runs, and the deeper relief of the structural members which are quite shallow in the kit.

I've been gradually cleaning the wash up since I applied it, but from these pictures I might need to do a bit more. I also touched in a few more cables with black, but I find this very hard to do neatly and that shows in the full size pictures if you click through. Still, not bad detail for an out-of-the-box kit

Soon it'll be time to tape these up and then sand down the intakes to fair them in and get rid of the nasty step and gap at the lower front.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

I hope the seat's done now - I added tape lap belts, and the blue cover for the top of the cushion from Roy's cockpit photo link above. I also touched in the headrest in pure black as opposed to black grey, and added the HUD. Nearly ready to fit all those parts into the fuselage.

Any tips for painting individual buttons? I find my depth perception fails me and I can't always get the brush (or cocktail stick) to go where I want. If it's a bank of switches the same colour then drybrushing works well though.

Will

[Will Vale]

Still plugging away at this one. I got the cockpit installed and the fuselage halves together, although I'm still working my way around the seams with Tamiya extra-thin and clothes pins so they're a bit gappy in places yet.

(click for bigger)

I painted up the nav lights before I put the fuselage together, but it was late and I wasn't really checking references. I assume that the light reflectors would be small (because the bulbs are) but it seems from some in-flight shots that they fill up the entire diamond. Whoops:

At this point it helped that I hadn't sealed up all the seams since I was able to slit open the wingtips with a scalpel and do some keyhole surgery. I took the paint off the reverse of the clear part with an IPA-soaked cotton bud, and then installed some heavy gauge foil from a disposable roasting tray, held in place with masking tape. Much better, I think:

In case it's interesting, I did the bulbs/gels by drilling up into the rear of the clear part and wicking GW red and blue glazes into the holes. I think it looks quite good, although maybe a smaller drill would have been better - I used 0.5mm and I think I should've used 0.3 - pics of the real bulbs suggest that they're really really skinny. The Games Workshop glazes have beautiful deep colours, I'd definitely use them again for lights.

Oh, the other thing I've been doing is slowly fairing in the intakes - I had to build up about 1mm of styrene and putty, feathered down to the front edge. I think three layers so far, but it's nearly there, hopefully one more round of sanding will sort them out. Then I can glue the upper seams and try and deal with the interior faces.

More soon hopefully, there's a club meeting next week and it'd be nice to have it done for then.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Well it definitely wasn't done for the meeting! I tend to build a couple of things at a time (apart from the usual shelf-of-dooom stuff) and if one looks like it's getting nearly finished (in this case Surcouf) then it gets the attention. I think I was scared of the Raptor intakes after another round of sanding - it must have been pretty scary if 1/350 seaplanes were a more palatable alternative. Mind you, all that's left to do there is rig the thing and paint more tiny sailors, so I've run away from that in turn and am back looking at the Raptor.

Is fear-driven modelling a phenomenon? It definitely seems to describe the way I approach things

Back to the plane: I added still more putty to the intakes and filled in the interior seams with Tamiya putty, then Liquid Surface Primer and finally superglue. Some fairly fraught sanding was involved (trying not to destroy the decals) using various grades of wet & dry glued onto lolly sticks.

(click for bigger, unless scratches and lumps offend)

I thought it was finally close enough that it could do with some paint to see how things were going, so I stuffed the rear of the intakes with bogroll and sprayed some Sea Grey over the interiors (and the outside just to check the surface) - it's not perfect, but it's much better than I'd hoped for. I'll do some final tidying up of loose bits of putty, and maybe fill the inside ends of the top seam again, and hopefully I'll be back doing fun stuff like sticking the fins on soon

I've also glued up (and/or filled up) the remaining gaps around the airframe, and I'm working on smoothing the vertical surfaces aft of the engines, which are a bit of a mess as moulded.

Sorry this isn't the most exciting or speedy build, there's a lot to learn about jets because I haven't built one before. At least for the WHIF I'll have a better idea about how to approach this - I think painting the intakes first is definitely the right thing to do, but doing the decals after the install would make a lot of sense. They'd be hard to line up, but the sanding would be way easier.

Cheers,

Will

[Roy LeMont]

Will,

Thank you for posting these pictures, after seeing your struggles on the intakes I think I will stick with the Revell kit.

Roy

[Will Vale]

It's entirely possible that a more competent modeller would struggle less! I heard the Revell intakes weren't exactly easy either:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal8/7501-7600/gal7545-F-22-Rotramel/00.shtm

The way Academy break down the intake halves (so that they're partly open) makes masking a bit easier than it sounds on the Revell one, on the other hand I think the big step on the outside is unique to the Academy kit

Will

[Moeggo]

I am sure this will be fantastic Will! No doubt I will see it at a club meeting!

[Will Vale]

Thanks! I was hoping to finish for the last one but I got caught up in the submarine instead

I've been finishing off various jobs on the airframe to get it ready for priming - I filed/trimmed a bit off the flaps so I can drop them as per my source photo, and filled a couple of deepish sink marks (opposite the bulges) with CA, sanded flat.

(click for bigger)

I also attached the vertical tails (which fit amazingly well despite the difficult curved surface they have to sit on) and sanded the exhaust sides some more. They're still not perfect, so I think another round of CA and sanding lies ahead. The surface only needs to be good as far as the petals because I'm going to fit FOD covers. There's also a raised surface, I can't remember if it's inner or outer, which might need to be added (or faked with a scribed line).

Even the intakes are looking pretty good now - few tiny blemishes to sort out.

It's nice to see the whole thing starting to look like a plane, and the primer has also revealed how nice the surface detail is - top stuff!

Apart from cleaning up I think the primer could do with a little rub-down before painting. I also need to re-fit the spare canopy since the PVA didn't hold it.

Cheers,

Will