ChernayaAkula Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 After some delays, the kit was finally released in mid-March. Got the kit a couple of days ago. :D Here’s what’s in the box… Box-art: Sprues: The sprues have a slightly rough, orange skin-like finish. Not as bad as some Dragon kits, though. Weapons supplied are 6x AIM-120 AMRAAM, 2x AIM-9M, 2x AIM-9X and 2x GBU-32 JDAM. Two external tanks are supplied as well. Transparencies: It’s almost perfectly clear. There isn’t much distortion, but the canopy has an ever-so-slightly pebbly finish. Like the orange skin of the fuselage, it’s hardly noticeable, though. The decals: Printed by Zanchetti, they look pretty nice and are all in-register. The painting instructions: There are marking options for a total of 7 Raptors, mostly for commander’s aircraft (CA). F-22A-20 AF 03061 (CA)1st Fighter Wing, Langley AB, Summer 2007 F-22A-20 AF 04067 (CA) 94th FS, Langley AB, 2006 F-22A-30 AF 05094 94th FS, Langley AB, 2006 F-22A-20 AF 03047 (CA) 27th FS, Langley AB, 2006 F-22A-30 AF 05090 (CA) 90th FS, Elmendorf AB, 2007 F-22A-30 AF 05102 (CA) 302nd FS, Elmendorf AB, 2007 F-22A-10 AF 01018 (CA) 43rd FS, Tyndall AB, May 2007 I don’t know whether the other names are right, but they got Dozer’s call-sign wrong. He’s Decker now. Lo and behold, camouflage colours are called out in FS! :o Main colours are given as FS 36375, 36251 and 36176. No hint is made at the “metallic†finish of those colours. Somewhat funny, RoG has a painting diagram of an AGM-88 HARM instead of the AIM-120 AMRAAM. :lol: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 Assembly instructions: The tailhook can be displayed deployed. Some detail shots: The wheel halves, AMRAAM launcher, flank weapons bays, central weapons bay cover. The weapons bays and their doors have some ejector pin marks, though they’re not as pronounced as on the test shots. Intake trunking, deployed tailhook and AMRAAM launcher. The central weapons bay: Central weapons bay doors: Note the sink marks. The fuselage halves: The engraving on the nose sides seems a bit heavy, but the remainder of the panel lines are nicely engraved. The wheel wells are pretty much devoid of detail, although the doors and gears themselves look nice. The cockpit panels are decals. You get full intake trunking, as well as reasonably deep exhausts, including exhaust petals in both parking as well as powered-up stance. The kits is moulded in Poland. Lately, kits moulded for Revell in Poland have shown a surprising amount of flash, considering they’re new moulds. This one doesn’t suffer from flash. But you get some sink holes. See the back of the cockpit tub and the central weapons bay door, for example. The ejector pin marks as seen on the test shots are still there, but not quite as pronounced. Still, they’ll need some attention. I can’t say how accurate the decals are, but I did notice they got Dozer’s call-sign wrong. In any case, TwoBobs have (at least) four sheets for 72nd scale Raptors, although those are probably scaled to fit the Italeri Raptor. Recommended retail price in Germany is 14.99 EUR. All in all, I’d say it’s a nice kit. Can’t say anything about fit, but the detail should make this the best (yet) kit of the F-22A. Hope this was at least a bit helpful! :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AnthonyWan Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Very nice review Moritz :) Can't wait to get one of these and try it out...first 1/72 model :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Wow Moritz, nice IBReview ! We ll written and detailed photos ! I particularly liked your photo showing the clarity of the canopy, nice touch ! :D The Raptor does look to be a nice kit at a nice price ... Thanks ! Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Supertom Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Ahhh! And I was just about to go out and get the Trumpeter Su-15!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Midnight Storm Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I just got mine, but I didn't look for any orange peel on the surface. I'll have to check! This is my first 1/72nd scale kit EVER! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Welcome to the Gentleman's Scale Fellas ! Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GoBlue96 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 (edited) Outstanding review, thanks for posting it! I've had a couple of silly complaints about this kit on here before but the truth is it really looks like a great kit and I can't wait to get my hands on one. Hmm... deployed tailhook, eh? Okaaaay. Pretty funny about the HARM painting guide. I suppose that'd be a pylon carried weapon. ;~) Edited March 22, 2008 by GoBlue96 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rjwood_uk Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 very nice review and on what looks like a nice kit. the decals on revells recent re-issues and new kits have been outstanding in my opinion. going to have to ge this one. it will be my 2nd 1/72 kit. the crusader im about to paint being my 1st Richard Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kalashnikov-47 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 That one's definitely on my WANT list!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mario krijan Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 (edited) excellent review!! and great model, i will buy one, you just say important facts about this kit, in short words, and thats nice way to see in box reviews! Edited March 22, 2008 by mario krijan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
otis252 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Nicely done review. Seems like a pretty decent kit. Lot of options for 72nd scale fighter. Wonder if they got any plans of scaling it up? Chuck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gene K Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Excellent words, as usual, Moritz. The kit looks great. The weapons bay doors look like they'll need some work, though. Are the sink marks that pronounced, or is it the photo lighting? Thanks again for the outstanding review. Gene K Quote Link to post Share on other sites
volzj Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Look at all the converts to 1/72! Welcome to the "one true scale" guys. See Scott, there are a lot of 1/72 modelers!! Thanks for the review.. Those weapons bay doors look like they'll require some serious filling. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Iron Eagle Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Anyone know who carries this? I've tried Great Models and Luckymodel and they all seem to not have it... yet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trigger Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 Anyone know who carries this? I've tried Great Models and Luckymodel and they all seem to not have it... yet. I might be wrong, but I don't think it's available here in the states just yet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MickeyThickey Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 It would be very, very interesting to compare this kit to the Italeri F-22 to see what exactly Italeri screwed up, and why. And to finally nail down precisely what the issue is with their nose. Now the big question is, I will be buying one of these kits. Do I dare try using it as a 3-D reference to finally finish accurizing the 1/48 kit? ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted March 22, 2008 Author Share Posted March 22, 2008 Thanks for the kind words, guys! <...>The weapons bay doors look like they'll need some work, though. Are the sink marks that pronounced, or is it the photo lighting? <...> Well, I did set up the lighting so it would come out better on the pic, but the sink marks are certainly visible to the plain eye. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Josh1971 Posted March 22, 2008 Share Posted March 22, 2008 I think this thing looks like will be a great addition to the pile! Bring it to the states, already! JB Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrvark Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 It is, in general, a very nice kit. I'm nearly done with the test shot that I received a couple of months ago. There are a few minor problems: 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 that area.. 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. 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 are the wingtip lights. It would have been nice if they had been molded in clear (and been more streamlined). The sink marks on the weapon bay doors are no big deal--a coat of Mr. Surfacer takes care of them. BTW, I don't know if its mentioned in the instructions or not, but the nose pitot tubes are parallel to the ground, not perpendicular to the fuselage. The masking and painting are the most challenging part of the kit. The decal sheet RoG has put together will be a HUGE help with that. A tip on masking the wing edges. Start with the wingtips. The outboard edge comes right up to the scribed outline of the wingtip lights; the trailing corner reaches the aft point of the wingtip light. That will give you the correct width. Tamiya 5mm tape works great for this. The biggest omission is that there is no scribed line for the very complicated radome. To fix this and the lack of scribing on the exhaust petals, I've come up with 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'm using the technique developed by Mark Bilas to paint it. Looks great, but I was so scared about painting silver that I cleaned my study and did my taxes before taking the plunge! In the end, the actual painting only took about an hour, start to finish! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andre Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 I'm using the technique developed by Mark Bilas to paint it. Looks extremely good. Would you happen to have a link to that technique? I've got the Revell kit, but will first do a test run with the Italeri one I have in the stash (with some surplus Revell parts - the new kit will be all buttoned up) and an article would be a great help. Cheers, Andre Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrvark Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Looks extremely good. Would you happen to have a link to that technique? I've got the Revell kit, but will first do a test run with the Italeri one I have in the stash (with some surplus Revell parts - the new kit will be all buttoned up) and an article would be a great help. Cheers, Andre Try this: F-22 Painting Technique Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andre Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Try this:F-22 Painting Technique Thanks, extremely helpful! I just hope to get a good match with the Revell decals.... Cheers, Andre Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DutyCat Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Ahhh! And I was just about to go out and get the Trumpeter Su-15!!!! Well, what's stopping you from getting both? I certainly am! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Viasistina Posted March 24, 2008 Share Posted March 24, 2008 Has anyone figured out the paint callouts for the F-22? Are they assigned FS numbers or new mixes? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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