Friday, July 13, 2012

The F-22 Raptor

Well met again, Fellow Nerds and Geeks!

I trust you are all well? This week's modern model kit feature would be the F-22 Raptor that I finally completed. (For those who may have noticed, I featured it under construction in my previous post on crazy intense model-making) It is also noted that this would be my second kit that was made using the airbrush technique.

F-22 Raptor Cruising..

In terms of 1/144 scale (My preferred choice) F-22 Raptor model kits, Trumpeter is the only maker that I know of. The kit is simple enough to fix without compromising detailing on the aircraft.


A closeup on the cockpit. (Made the Pilot all by myself using putty.)

As I am still learning about airbrushing, every hour spent on doing this kit was a learning experience. unlike the T-80B, I decided to use masking for this kit as I was required to airbrush using more than just one single uniform colour.

Looks quite plain but it was no easy task painting this fighter jet.

The difficulty in painting started due to my inability to utilize pre-shading and post-shading technique to bring out the detail in the various grooves and rivet points on the aircraft. It was terribly frustrating having to spray coats over coats and redo certain parts all over again because I was not able to come up with the proper definition and detailing.


Faceoff with the Raptor

In the end, I settled with a black wash to detail the various lines on the plane. Masking was also a big handful of a task as there were certain small areas that I could not possibly shape my masking tape to make the airbrushing effect go well. In the end, I had to contend myself with using the paintbrush for certain areas.



There were many issues I had to face with regards to this second model. While admittedly, I am still a big novice in this style of painting, I am pretty satisfied with my work. From airbrush faltering, uneven coat and sputtering paint, to the accidental spillage of thinner on my model that made me redo a big part of the raptor, there were many frustrating issues but the final product looked great and I learnt alot. I do hope to get better at this on my next few models that I intend to paint.

Side Profile
 With regards to the F-22 actual, at the cost of US$ 150 million, the F-22 is the most costliest fighter jet for its time. However, based on what I had seen in wikipedia, the F-35 per unit cost have surpassed the F22 and become higher. While I am not sure why, I opined that it is due to the length of the programme and the developmental cost that is tagged with the plane.


Underside of the F-22

The F-22 has three internal weapons bay capable of carrying an air-to-air loadout of 6 AIM-120 and 2 AIM-9X. It could also be customised to carry air-to-ground loadout of 2 AIM-120, 2 AIM-9 and 2 JDAM or 8 GBU-39 small diameter bombs.

Dashland Airforce F-22 Raptor with Insignia from the Airforce base of Danilton

Not sure if I had talked about this before but what makes the F-22 a leap over current day conventional fighters is it's super cruise ability which allows it to travel at Mach 1.5 without using afterburners. It is widely known that afterburner feature of a fighter jet consumes a lot of fuel, but it is the feature that enable most jets to travel at their top speed.

The Dashland Airforce Insignia

During the F-22's IOC or Initial Operational Capability, the F-22 was able to down its superior number adversaries.  F-16s and F-15s that went up against the F-22 on a 8:1 ratio still lost in aerial combat.


The rearview of the mighty stealth F-22 Raptor.

The Aftermath Action review from pilots who were the Red force aggressors explained that they could not detect the F-22 and during BVR combat, it was like getting attack before you could even react against it. The superiority in capabilities of the F-22 were haunting.

With such capabilities for a stealth 5th-generation fighter, I wonder what it would be like if the F-22 fought against a similar type of aircraft. Will there be the possibility of a dog-fight scenario? How would an aerial battle look like between a F-22 and a J-20 or PAK-50?

Do give your thoughts.

Till then, I hope you are please with the new regular updates and extra goodies on our Toyconstruct Page. I have also been the creating albums for the various works and photoshots from each blog posts that I post up on the Toyconstruct page too.

Aside from that, do let me or Josh know if you want any new features or improvements to our blog and FB page.

Cheers!

13 comments:

  1. Wow, So many posts.
    It is great to see you guys do many stuff now.
    Happy to look at all your works.

    Great F-22 man. Your airbrushing for the first time and the quality is just amazing.

    Awesome man! Two thumbs up!

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  2. That is a great job on the F-22 Raptor! Well done man!
    My two cent worth on future combat would be pretty much dogfight as BVR would be equally difficult for both sides to detect one another. It would be quite cool to see how that pans out.

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  3. Bless me.. This is great work Jiaqi! Really good job on your first try!

    As for air to air with a F-22, the case scenario can vary from plane to plane.

    Here is an interesting article, http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-300309-1.html

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  4. Wow, that is a refreshing article on a futuristic dogfight. I must say it has brought me some greater perspective on Hi-tech 5th generation fighter jets.
    I wonder what would it be like if the J-20 took on the F-22 or F-35.

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  5. Very very great looking F-22! I like how it looks! Good JOB!

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  6. Brilliant F-22 Model picture. I think it is really awesome to see what you have been doing Jiaqi!

    My suggestion for the blog is to have more pictures of your creations and more current news about wargaming and model stuff.

    Other than that, Great article!

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  7. I think more updates on things associated to your major collections and interest on the facebook page would be good along with updates on your own collection on both sides. The new edition of albums of your models on your fb page is great.

    Other than that, A very nice make of the F-22! A star quality.

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  8. No problems, Jiaqi!
    A suggestion for the page would be to come up with more discussion boards? Perhaps give your blog more exposure and then we can talk more on these comment sections. :p

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  9. Sweet Louise.. This is a great completed model kit! Really good for a first timer!
    Your inking is done real well. And Shen's article about the apocryphal situation of the advance fighter jets was interesting!

    Always a joy to see this stuff!

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  10. A great make of the F-22> I do hope for you to make more of these models. You are quite good at it.

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  11. I really like how you take pics of all of your stuff. Great model!

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  12. Wow this thing is fantastic! I want to get one just to have one. Gorgeous.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the compliments Ben! Be sure to try it out when you can get your hands on this kit. However, be sure to pick it up via ebay or online hobby shops as there aren't really widely available!

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