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...and has only an extremely limited of external stores available to add interest to the model.

You're describing the F-105.

So maybe in a few years they'll decide to put fuel

in the internal bay and give the aircraft a different

mission to fit the times, and a Legend is born ?

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You're describing the F-105.

Not even close, considering the varied external weapons loads the Thud could and did carry, the externally different subtypes, the fact that it took place in a mayor conflict and carried a number of schemes, including a lot of distinctive nose art (natural metal, silver lacquer, Thunderbirds, SEA, SEA reverse, Commando Nail wraparound, SEA wraparound, the AFRES wraparound Europe 1 and desert schemes...

Cheers,

Andre

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All very interesting insights about the F-22 and Hasegawa's kit. I hadn't thought of how limited the appeal of a Raptor is, but it makes a lot of sense. Now, has anyone done any real work on a good way to tone down or even remove the overdone surface detail on the kit?

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UK shop price of a 1/48 Hasegawa F-22A Raptor, as seen in ModelZone / Hannants is around £ 72 That's US$116

UK shop price of a 1/48 Academy F-22A Raptor, as seen in ModelZone / Hannants is around £ 40 to $ 48 That's US$65 to US$77

For someone who can only afford to buy a new kit once every few months, and who can't afford to pay the import charges / customs / postage to buy from overseas, which would you go for ? The Hasegawa one costs me one weeks income.

I can't remember the last time I saw anyone buy one of Hasegawa's expensive 1/48 jets in the model shop in town here.

Regards,

Gerard

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Now, has anyone done any real work on a good way to tone down or even remove the overdone surface detail on the kit?

Easiest way I know of would be to buy the Academy kit :whistle:

Joking aside, I'd guess careful and slow sanding to take off most of the height but still leave the panel slightly raised. I'd thought at one time that a good way to represent the detail would be via vinyl decals, it would be in scale and would conform to the surface (unlike PE) but on the real jet a lot of the raised panels I saw blended into the surface, instead of a sharp vertical edge there was a taper.

Ken

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Hasegawa's Raptor is still the best Raptor in 1/48, even with over emphasized panels. Some modeling tasks are still required, find Mike V's. take on the kits on all the DG's. Boring color to some, challenging to pull off correctly. That is the biggest hiccup to date, although some have pulled it off, a lot of money wasted if screwed up. You have to like modern gray jets to to appreciate the design, so with that said to those who really would like this kit, go buy one from Tower Hobbies for $29.98 plus shipping, $39.98 at most in the USA. That is equivalent to about 25 quid! If you want one you are going to have a tough time getting it for less.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXZKT8&P=SM

John

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You're describing the F-105.

So maybe in a few years they'll decide to put fuel

in the internal bay and give the aircraft a different

mission to fit the times, and a Legend is born ?

At least the f-105 sees real war...

f-105 have a 2 seater variant,also NMF can also be done on it (which is an interesting finish)

f-105 also had the wild weasel version, with different ordnance...

also, the limited production reduce greatly the chances you'll ever see it in the distant future...

As effective and efficient the real f-22 is/should be... it is not a super interesting modelling subject... not yet... neither in the forth-seen future...

the only interest i see in the raptor, is to put it side by side with other same-scale models, for size comparisons-appreciations...

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Could you mean the F-106? Every one was grey, one user, no external stores, never fired a shot in anger...

yeah... but it was one of the most graceful jet ever!

and might not fired a shot in anger... but those where cold-war days... much more "involving" era for Air defense...

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Hasegawa's Raptor is still the best Raptor in 1/48, even with over emphasized panels. Some modeling tasks are still required, find Mike V's. take on the kits on all the DG's. Boring color to some, challenging to pull off correctly. That is the biggest hiccup to date, although some have pulled it off, a lot of money wasted if screwed up. You have to like modern gray jets to to appreciate the design, so with that said to those who really would like this kit, go buy one from Tower Hobbies for $29.98 plus shipping, $39.98 at most in the USA. That is equivalent to about 25 quid! If you want one you are going to have a tough time getting it for less.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXZKT8&P=SM

John

You cost me $40 :(

:)

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Well, if anyone is interested, I just orderered a Hasegawa 1/48 Raptor from Omni Models on eBay, for $30.00, plus $8.00 shipping. I doubt you'll ever find the Hase Raptor selling for much less than that.

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I bought the Acad kit when it first came out and had a blast building it. Pretty quick and easy build and was reasonably accurate. Gave it to my dad and it's sitting in his office next to his Phantom collection. All I hear is "great build Jon but it's too clean and it isn't a looker." I bought two of the Hase last week. I shouldn't have because I wanted Hasegawa's 1/48 F-18D and got hacked off at the price so I impulse bought two Raptors instead. Wish I hadn't because like mentioned before, it's just a plain bird and you don't see grimy ones. I like grimy. I wanna dirty bird and frankly the raised detail is a huge turnoff that I couldn't judge until I had one in my hands and looked at it myself.

I'm getting back into building after a semi-short hiatus and luckily I have a friend willing to trade a Hase 1/48 F-4E for it. What better way to shake the rust off my airbrush skills than with CAMO!

So to get back to point- I like the accuracy of the Hasegawa Raptor but the raised detail completely kills it for me. I'll take very slightly undersized stab's and no exaggerated detail of the Academy kit anyday. And too add- in my opinion, it just doesn't hold the allure of an F-14, F-18 or an F-4.

Edited by afterburner
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I have the Hasegawa F-22 and its a sweet kit. I'd rather deal with the (barely) overdone RAM detail than scratch my head over the sad excuse of a nose Academy attempted to put on their kit, not to mention the vertical tail issues. The detail on the Hasegawa kit is amazing, too. As far as F-22 popularity, just give it time. It doesn't have to be the most popular kit on the shelves to provide revenue for the company.

Aaron

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I've just got the model. It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Yes, the raised details are over-emphasized, especially on the underside but what a model.

I give a huge applause to Hasegawa for designing an incredible model. When compared to most of the other models such as Su-30, just received 2 days ago, one has to appreciate the amount of effort given to make everything come together "nice and easy". In my estimate ~30% of the plastic that one's going to glue while building this model will be invisible, inside the model. But these parts will assure precise alignments and a "solid" finish.

One can see the philosophy of two companies when compare Hasegawa F-22 and Academy Su-30.

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I've just got the model. It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Yes, the raised details are over-emphasized, especially on the underside but what a model.

I give a huge applause to Hasegawa for designing an incredible model. When compared to most of the other models such as Su-30, just received 2 days ago, one has to appreciate the amount of effort given to make everything come together "nice and easy". In my estimate ~30% of the plastic that one's going to glue while building this model will be invisible, inside the model. But these parts will assure precise alignments and a "solid" finish.

One can see the philosophy of two companies when compare Hasegawa F-22 and Academy Su-30.

Yep thats what I thought when I got mine.It is the best 1/48 F-22 kit out now.Academy was good except for nose and vertical tails on early kits(which I have 2 of) But Hasegawas is better.

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Okay, but *why* do you have absolutely no interest in it ?

This thing is going to be your grandchildrens' "Phantom".

That's like asking why I don't find your sister attractive. I just don't.

And the F-22 is never going to be *anyone's* Phantom. Less than 200 built (and no more likely to be) vs. 5057 from St. Louis alone. Don't see a comparison at all...

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.... I've always been a big proponent of companies updating and correcting old molds, and I really applaud Academy for doing it with the F-15's and F-111's (among others.) I'm just wondering if a company would go back to correct a mistake in their kit, to make it sell.

Thoughts?

I am too a big proponent of this and, in the armor world, companies like Dragon and a few others have to commended for doing this regularly with their AFV/armor kits.

Oh, and I too bought one of these Hase Raptors for $40 shipped a couple of months back. Never been really interested in the Raptor but at that price, I couldn't pass it up. I'll look nice on the shelve next to my other Air Force jets.

Rob

Edited by TOPGUN
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2.) It is ugly. Really ugly.

I think this might be part of the reason the kit isn't selling. Yes, taste is subjective, but still, I believe quite a few people nowadays (myself included) think that these new generation super modern stealth jets (Raptor, F-35, Chinese J-20, PAK FA) are in fact ugly and boring from a modeler's point of view.

I know that americans probably love the Raptor (it is the "Spirit of America" and all that), but personally I agree with Ventris in that it is ugly and not something I would like to be part of my modeling collection.

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Not being American, and therefore in a unique position to offer a strictly neutral point of view ( ;) ), I can't really call the F-22 ugly. However, due to the reasons I stated before:

The Raptor on the other hand is built in just one single variant, flies in one single paint scheme which is generally kept spotless, has yet to fire a single shot in anger and has only an extremely limited of external stores available to add interest to the model.

About all that varies are the lo-viz tail code, serial and badge...

I probably won't add any more to the one Italeri-in-a-RoG box and one RoG new tool I now have in the stash.

The X-32, on the other hand... now *that's* ugly. ;)

Cheers,

Andre

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