Starting with the kit
I thought it would be easy and quick to build this kit when I opened the packaging – I wanted to build it straight out of the box, only with the pilot’s seat replacement.
The original seat looked too simple to me. It is well visible also when the canopy is closed. I did not want to leave the canopy open, having only little relevant information how the inside of the cockpit looks like. I also like this nice plane with its canopy in the closed position, its smooth and elegant lines are enhanced this way. So I threw away the original seat and replaced it with the Quickboost resin No. 72022 adding some minor details according to the photographs.
Fixes and replacements
One of the kit inaccuracies I was not able to live with is the thickness of the front edge of the main wheel well. But it was really simple to fix – I had to cut off the zig–zag-shaped panel, covering the front edge and sand it smoothly. Then I added a new plate made of a thin metal sheet (You can use a soda can or a very thin Styrene sheet too).
Very similar design, helping to make the airplane to be stealthy, is on the canopy edges too – front and back. This “teeth” are a bit too thick on the kit’s front canopy edge and you will probably want to make them more subtle by paper-sanding.
The kit has no air intake ducts – only two large openings going nowhere. I put a Styrene sheet inside the intakes to simulate the intake covers. I had airbrushed both covers red and the inner air intake walls Lt. gray before placement (it would be quite difficult to do this after completion).
Geometry
The real test of a modeler’s skill and patience is mounting the vertical stabilizers onto the fuselage. There is no slot or anything to hold the stabilizers in proper position and to keep the geometry.
The stabilizers are to be glued onto fuselage top using these surfaces (see below):
I particularly did not know the angle in which to glue them down. I tried to do it according to this photograph:
Picture Source: Aerofax Lockheed Martin F/A 22 Raptor stealth fighter, page 21, © 2005 Jay Miller, published by Midland Publishing, photo via Lockheed Martin.
Camouflage, decalling and weathering
I used Gunze MrColor 1000 base first and then the Testors ModelMaster colors, adding drops of white. Knowing the YF-22 was a test platform and not a war bird, I used very low weathering – on the undercarriage and some outlets only.
I started with applying the lightest color and finished with applying the darkest one.
In order to achieve the uneven look of the color fields, particularly the darkest gray,
I airbrushed the surface this way:
I begun airbrushing along the panel lines at first. Then I added several very faint spots on random and finally I continued to apply the camo color over it.
The Testors ModelMaster Metallizers were used on the exhaust surfaces. I started with testing the effect on the abundant spare parts…
After applying camo colors, I oversprayed the whole surface with Gunze MrColor Super clear Gloss. The original ITALERI decals were used with Micro-Set Decal setting solution. I finished the overspraying with a thin Gunze MrColor Super clear Matt coat.
Box photo and the sprue tree diagram:
You can see all the parts on a sprue tree here:
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Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2010 by Marcel Meres