Leaderboard

Work continues on the fuselage of the Raptor. To start with the RAM panels on the fuselage are very thick. In scale they would be 4” thick! So I grabbed some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and went to work wet sanding all of them. The 600 did a nice job thinning them out. I then wet sanded with 800 grit, 1000 grit, and finally 2000 grit. This removed any sanding marks. Once the few photo etch vent panels were applied I looked into the paint scheme. Using some home experimenting mixology I ended up with the following colors. The lightest color is 3 parts light ghost gray and 1 part flat white. The median color is 9 parts dark ghost gray and 1 part gunship gray, the vent panels are gunship gray and I will be using neutral gray for the last color for the scheme. The final color “blobs” will be applied with an airbrush so I can get a good fade line between the colors. The paint on the actual F-22 has a color changing hue similar to a pearlized clear coat. This causes the aircraft to appear to lighten and darken depending on the angle of the light. I am still experimenting with different ideas on how to accomplish this. Once I figure out the process it will be applied as a final coat after the decals. I am now working on the landing gear. So far the nose gear is just about ready to install. I will attach the landing lights later so that the final pant coat doesn’t affect the clear parts. You can see this build from start to current progress in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-48-f-22-raptor/