Boeing's description says it all:
air dominance fighter. There is nothing else like it.
Academy's impressive 1/48 scale F-22A comes in a big box comprising 259 gray-green, individually bagged sprues of injection-molded parts featuring finely engraved panel lines and complex surface detail. Instead of the usual left/right fuselage halves, Academy molded the fuselage and wings together in top and bottom halves, eliminating wing-to-fuselage seams and any wing alignment issues.
Abundant detail includes full ducting for the air intakes, exhaust section, and the option of exhaust petals. Flaps can be displayed lowered, the arrestor hook can be be posed deployed, and all three weapons bays can be left open or closed. A bounteous assortment of ordnance includes AIM-9M and AIM-9X Sidewinders, AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and GBU-32 bombs. You can also attach underwing fuel tanks. The main wheel wells are nicely detailed, but there is no detail in the nose wheel well.
Closed gear- and weapons-bay doors as well as a pilot figure are included so the model can be displayed in flight. You can also pose the canopy closed or open. Two sets of clear parts are included, one tinted gold, the other clear.
Beginning in the cockpit, construction is straightforward. I deviated from the in-structions and painted the cockpit flat black, then dry-brushed it before installing it from below in the top fuselage half.
The cockpit is OK, with raised detail on the instrument panel and side consoles, and decals to replicate the "glass" displays. The ejection seat comprises six pieces but has only molded shoulder belts and no lap belts. The gold-tinted canopy is thin and crystal clear.
The landing gear has fine detail, but it's so close to scale that it's a little too delicate to support a model as big as this F-22.
I found issues with the intake ducts. To achieve a proper fit without filler on the lower surfaces, I had to lightly sand the lower front of parts D29 and D31 so the ducts would sit slightly lower and flush with the lower fuselage. Then, I had to cut the intake turbine face (Part D9) into two pieces and attach them to the mounted intake ducts. This small deviation from the instructions allowed a much better fit.
With my intake ducts "in a row," the fit of the upper and lower fuselage halves was outstanding!
In painting the plane, you'll find clear indications by color name as well as references for Gunze and Testors acrylic or enamels, as well as Life Color acrylics and Humbrol enamels. I painted my Raptor with Xtracolor enamels, going by the color names and not having to bother with a gloss coat afterwards. Once I had finally completed the rather complicated paint scheme, I began the decaling process.
The most impressive thing in the box is the Cartograf decal sheet, with markings for no fewer than 18 Raptors! Included are many of the small painted panels found in pictures of real Raptors, saving you a lot of masking and painting. The superb decals were thin with perfectly in-register printing. They performed flawlessly, needing only a small amount of Micro Sol to settle into recessed details. There were a couple of small errors in the decal instructions - national insignia were numbered incorrectly - but the error was easy to sort out, due to the size and colors of the insignia. Also the instructions showed markings for a Langley aircraft, but there were no such decals.
Once everything was dry I applied a black acrylic sludge wash to enhance the panel lines, following with a coat of Testors Dullcote to flatten the finish and seal the decals.
The model's scale is right on the aircraft's published dimensions. I spent 30 hours on it, mostly on the complicated paint scheme and multitude of decals.
For a kit with so much detail, Academy's Raptor is a relatively easy build that renders an impressive addition to my display case. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to intermediate modelers with a couple of years' worth of experience.
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