Hi folks.
Italeri’s instructions for their 1/48 F-22 quote light ghost gray and dark gull gray as the camo colors. I seem to recall someone somewhere telling me this was wrong. Does anybody know for sure?
Thanks much 
Anybody? Anybody? Beuler? …
Okay I’ll step in. . .
I had also been under the impression that the “old” scheme was Dark and Light Ghost grey, Upper surfaces having both and lower being light.
The new scheme was, depending on who you heard, either entirely dark or entirely light, for ALL aircraft.
According to my Decal Sheet from TWOBOBS, the F15A still has the two color scheme while the F15E is all Dark, There to for, Watson, I dedeuce that the F22 would be all dark. . . I said dedeuce, not assume.
Don
Hey John;
The F-22’s colors are DK & LT Ghost Grey, It’s just they look a little darker because of the RAM (Radar Absorbant Material) ingredients in the paint and the shades look differant at different angles because of the RAM, the prototypes where painted like the F-16’s but the production models are painted like the F-15’s, as for the F-15E’s they are painted just Gunship Grey because of their Bomber role (ACC painted all Bombers Gunship Grey) and the fighters are multi colored Greys(Go figure)
To be perfectly honest, none but a few involved with the f-22 program really know, and of course they are not in the position to let anyone know. All the info we can get our hands on is photos from various mags, which I use Combat Aircraft because the photo images are probably the best of any aircraft mag. As for my opinion the f-22 is not the same combat scheme as the f-15A through D’s two combat schemes, (not including the f-15E’s gunship grey scheme) f-15’s in europe and eastern us still have a light grey combat camo and the f-15s of the pacific rim have been converted to a darker grey combat camo. The f-22 combat scheme seems to be in between, color wise, of these two f-15 combat schemes. My opinion is that the colors that they recommend are probably the closest you might get without giving yourself an ulcer. Good Luck!
If you look at the photos section of the USAF website, they have some decent file shots (no color numbers, but gives you the general idea)
Oh, I’ve been to the AF website! I work in the art dept at an avionics contractor, and I use official AF photos in presentations every day. Doesn’t help that much with the exact colors, though :).
(and it doesn’t help that italeri models have really ill-fitting parts, either. I HATE Italeri’s modern aircraft kits, but they’ve got the only production F-22 kit)
The current production aircraft being delivered to Tyndall AFB in Florida (the first active fighter wing for the F-22) are wearing the same paint scheme depicted for the Italeri model. Just remember that any aircraft fresh from the paint barn will be brighter than an aircraft with as little as a week or two in the air and on the line, so some darkening and fading will be immediately evident. Typically, air superiority aircraft have an overall light ghost grey or light gull grey base color, with some dark grey thrown in on the high spots. Our F-15C’s here in the UK wear that paint scheme. The E models are solid gunship grey. One thing to note: C models never wear the same paint scheme. Many of the birds to come out of corrosion control have slightly different paint colors. Some of the dark gull greys actually look to have a high blue content. Might be helpful for future projects.
Here’s a pic from http://www.f22fighter.com 
,F15C’S haven’t been ghost grey scheme since the early 90’s. They wear a MOD Eagle FS36521 LIGHT & FS36176 DARK greys. I haven’ t been able to get out to Tyndall to see the 22 yet, but from the pics on the web sight it look more MOD Eagle than Ghost. Bob
Well I had the advantage to see the F-22 at Lockheed’s Marietta Ga factory in all of its splender just prior to it’s first flight and IT’S DK & LT Ghost Grey trust me I work A-10’s and they both have the same shades of Grey’s at close range but when you move back then the shades get a little different
I saw a F22 at the air show a Nellis AFB a couple of months ago and it looked like one shade of ghost grey to me
I’ve got a couple of points on this.
First, I was at the Edwards AFB Open House, and the paint on the F-22 they flew was clearly two tone, and looks VERY similar in color and shade to the Air Superiority colors on the F-15Cs. I would say that from my observation the colors did seem a bit darker than on the F-15s, but just a very little bit.
In addition to this, the current edition of Combat Aircraft Magazine (January 2004. Vol. 5 Number 4) has a good pictorial article with a number of shots of the paint scheme of the first production F-22 delivered to Tyndall on 26 Sept. 2003. The pictures in the article are a very good representation of what I saw at Edwards.
My suggestion would be to go with the same colors as the Air Superiority F-15s, and don’t “scale” the color at all. (i.e. don’t add any white to adjust for color scale)
Best of Luck,
Jamie
Like everyone else out there, I’ve been trying to find this out ever since a 1/48 scale Raptor hit the market. Neither the Ghost Gray, the MOD eagle scheme or the kit instructions looked accurate. I even e-mailed Lockheed Martin directly and STILL didn’t get a straight answer.
Last November, after Tyndall got their first bird, I asked TwoBobs if a sheet would be coming soon. I figured that if anyone could get the right colors, it’s be them. According to them, “a couple of pilots at Tyndall that are modelers and are getting the goods for us as well so look for a Raptor sheet coming sometime in the near future!”
Of course there’s got to be a demand for a product , so let 'em know that you want Raptor markings!
I asked the project engineer for the F-22 at Tyndall AFB. The colors are, Light Gray, FS36251 and Dark Gray, FS36173. This is the official colors as applied at the factory. All marking are constrasting gray, light gray on dark gray, dark gray on light gray.
More proof to back-up Berny13s info ya’ll…
I double-checked with Lockheed Martin last week and this time i got an answer. Here’s what the sent back to me today:
Subject: FW: F-22 Paint Federal Stock Numbers
“NOTE: due to the stealth properties of the coatings applied to the F/A-22, the Raptor’s appearance in photographs is somewhat different that what might be expected based on the use of standard FS paint numbers listed here.” The topcoat’s color is a function of viewing angle; therefore, it cannot be represented by a FED-STD color. This is due to
its primary function which is not a color coat.
The generic Fed-Std-595 numbers of 36173, and 36251 are provided for painting an F/A-22 model.
Please check the F/A-22 web site as we will be posting the decal markings, etc. in the near future."
That’s why the colors look so out of whack - the different coatings.
All,
They all be painted in MOD Eagle colors.
I can’t speak for the F-22, but the company I work for provides parts to F-15E’s for the Air Force. All external parts are painted 36118 gray, per Air Force directive.
Anyone interested in properly marking their models should have a copy of AFI21-117 which gives detailed placement instructions for all insignia and also gives some paint directives.
Hmmmm… AFI21-117 What is this publication and how can we go about picking up a copy?
What about painting a “what if?” camo scheme on an F-22? Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe an aggressor pattern or the 3-color SEA camo?
Not only Italleri makes 1/48 F-22.
I have the Revell one, unbuild, looks nice…
But as always Revell sugests their colour mixes…
Cheers,
Jürgen