I have a 1/48 Hasegawa F-22 Raptor waiting to be built (it’s been waiting a long time), but I’ve been holding out on it because I love the plane and want to be sure I do it justice. Now, it’s getting close to building time and I still haven’t figured out how to get the right sheen the real plane has. I know Hawkeye’s made a paint additive to get the right look, but I’ve also heard it looks quite overdone and toy-like, plus I don’t believe it’s still in production (correct me if I’m wrong). So if any of you have built a raptor and had any success in painting it, let me know your method. If you haven’t built one, I’d still like to hear any ideas or guesses for adding a metallic shine to paint while achieving the appropriate color. If you know of a thread or article that might help me out that would be great as well. Finally, to give you guys a reference of what level of sheen I’m trying to get, take a quick look here:
Sorry for not directly displaying the photos inside the thread, I don’t know how so just bare with me here. Thank you for your time, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
yeah, it didn’t work at all for me. I sprayed test panels with and without the sheen additive, and they both looked identical. I ended up using MM light ghost gray for the top, dark ghost gray for the bottom, and some light ghost gray with a bit of blue added for the trim around the edges of the wings. Looks fine, but it’s not metallic.
Yeah I’ve been reading some pretty negative opinions on the Hawkeye’s sheen. I’ve seen some great looking metallic sheens on the internet, but most don’t tell you how they got it. If they do, it’s very vague and doesn’t get me very far, because I’ve never experimented in mixing paints.
I have the 1/48 Hasegawa Raptor as well and I’m gonna use the paints that are called for in the instructions. I already bought them and the F-22 is next up after I finish the 3 models on the bench now.
I mixed up the darker camo color to use on another model and It looks like it will have a nice enough metallic sheen to it without being too shiny/toy like.
I found a blog on the web by someone who used Citadel paints (can be found at any gaming/comic stores) I tried them on my 1/72 Raptor and was very pleased with the results! Tho I did have to find the new names of the colors, Citadel changes the names about every 3-4 years! The ones I found are:
Ironbreaker
Dawnstone
Leadbelcher
And abaddon black
The recipe is as follows:
Light metallic grey: ironbreaker + dawnstone. 3-1 ratio
Dark metallic grey: leadbelcher + dawnstone similar ratio and a few drops of the black
Thinned with water for use in the air brush
Used dark ghost grey lighted slightly with light ghost grey
As I said, I was very pleased with the outcome of the paints, gave me exactly the metallic sheen I was wanting on my model! Even keeps the sheen with the application of future coat and then the dull coat!
As far as I have ever seen the very best replication of the F-22 finish was a guy who used metallic grey and changed the shades of grey with silver, subtly but it looked really really close to the real colour.
Thanks all for the help! I might actually use the paints from the instructions, I found a build done with them and it looks really really close. Then again I’ve also seen that Citadel mix used… tough to decide which is better. I think those two options are the best so far from what I’ve found online, so either way I go it should look good. Thanks again you guys
Yeah that looks amazing. Thanks for the reference pic I appreciate it. You should really do a WIP thread when you get to your Raptor. I’d love see how it goes for you.
Thanks. I might do an In -Progress thread. I’ve actually started it already. I’ve assembled and painted the intakes and painted the Wolfpack resin wheels that I bought for it. And I’ve done some other little stuff to it. But I’ve been taking pics as I go.
