Italeri 1/48 F-22 Raptor kit# 850

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Folks,

Have any of you built this kit? I got it today at Hobby Lobby’s 1/2 price sale for $12.50 (couldn’t pass it up). What are its good points and bad points? Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of parts in the box, so I’m assuming that it’s gonna be a relatively easy build. Bad assumption? Any critiques and comments are most welcome!! Semper Fi!!

2

Intake fit is tricky at best. you’ll also have a seam on the fore and aft upper fuselage havles. Bay details are typical Italieri, but then there wasn’t much info on them when the kit was made.

Painting instructions are most likely wrong. There’s been a lot of debate on the boards here about the colors. The lighter color is very likely a match for the light gray in the F-15s Mod Eagle scheme, but the darker gray is not the same (the Mod Eagle dark gray is way bluer http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/031216-f-2295b-012.jpg, http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/020202-F-1562A-003.jpg and http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/030929-F-0000J-003.jpg).

I checked with Two Bobs about Raptor markings (It’s in service at Nellis and Tyndall now too) and they’re working on it. They’ll have the best info on colors if and when they release that set.

Hope this helps

3

Trigger,

Thanks. What part of Tennessee are you from? I’m from Memphis myself.

4

Chattanooga. Right on the TN/GA line.

5

Been through there MANY times myself. Pretty country. Anyway, how did your Raptor build come out? Were you satsified with the results? It’ll probably be awhile before I get to mine, but it’s always nice to be forewarned about things. Thanks for the info!!

6

First one (3-4 years ago) turned out alright. Was never satisfied with the job I did filling the areas around the intakes and the top fuselage seam. I didn’t do a good job with the weapons bay doors either (they don’t fit great closed).

Now, that said; I took picked up an F/A-22 at Hobby Lobby for dirt cheap. It’s still a great subject and with time and patience, you can get good results. Look up the F-22s under “Gallery” over on aircraftresourecenter.com.