Italeri 1/48 F/A-22 Raptor Full Build (by Trevor) 

Hi Peter 🙂Welcome to the hobby! It can be frustrating at times, but mostly each model build is a rewarding experience. It's the highest compliment for me when someone finds something useful in one of these videos, so thank you for your kind words. Just a thought: on this particular model, the joint of the two halves of the upper fuselage isn't very good, so you might want to add a strip of styrene or bits of old sprue to the inside of one of the halves, to reinforce the joint - I wish I had. Good luck with the build. You chose a very nice model of a truly iconic aircraft, so I think you're really going to enjoy this one!

Thanks Joe :-) Yup, I was also surprised that they were originally designed for 8,000 hours flying time. It's a good thing they're super fast, haha! They have a long way to go, and not much time to get there! Thanks for checking out the video! I always appreciate your kind comments!

@@OstrichLongneck Anytime Trevor, love sitting with a cuppa watching plastic get transformed into art, my mates brother in law spray painted for the RAF, The friction would always damage the paint work when the pilots hit crazy speeds

@@joescustoms8321 Wow, the poor guy had a full-tome job, then, with those crazy pilots. I know the Valkyrie used to lose almost all of her paint by the time she landed. It kinda takes the pressure off when building that model. The worse it looks, the more accurate it is, haha!

@@OstrichLongneck lol very true, When I painted my model planes as a teen I would always undercoat using silver, The more I handled the finished plane the paint would scuff to reveal the silver underneath, it makes for realistic paint loss

@@joescustoms8321 That's actually quite brilliant :-) It's a great way tp get a more natural appearance in the weathering.

Thank you kindly :-)

Thanks very much, Oron! I was a little afraid I'd mess up, so it took me ages to get around to building her :-) Luckily she turned out more or less okay!

Thank you kindly :-) Good luck with your build. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did :-)

Thanks very much, Roberto. She's a formidable aircraft!

Thanks very much :-) It is, indeed, a very nice kit with heaps of detail. I'm sure you'll enjoy the kit as much as I did! Thanks for watching and commenting! Much appreciated!

Thank you so much 😁 I really do appreciate it!

Thank you :-) It's truly an amazing aircraft, and a very nice kit!

That's an excellent tip! It took a lot of work to make the seam look halfway decent, and I'm still not too happy with the result. I'll definitely add some extra tabs next time.

@@OstrichLongneck I have never liked the tailfins on the Raptor and think it spoils the look of the plane . I have built 3 Hyper Raptors, with canards and different tails . I like the What If ?? style . ( I am 69 and have got over rivet counting !)

I love the shape of the Flanker (and all of her later variants!) Good luck with the build. I'm sure you're going to create something awesome!

Yup, guilty as charged 😁 Thank you very much for watching! Much appreciated🙂

Thank you kindly, Pete!

This is one amazing aircraft! I think the flight simulator for the F22 must be out of this world! I'll bet you have heaps of fun with it!

So true! I remember the first time I saw footage of an F-22 using thrust vectoring to go vertical directly after takeoff, and I was completely blown away! To see that in real life must be incredible! It's amazing what this aircraft can do, especially in the hands of an experienced pilot.

@@OstrichLongneck Exactly, I gotta tell ya, if you EVER get a chance to see one in person it's a whole different experience. I would drive five hours if I were you for a chance to see a demo flight. I think the only reason we got to see one was because they were trying to keep them in production though.

@@beanhavok2287 I'll probably never get to see one in our neck of the woods, but I would definitely be up for a 5-hour drive, given the opportunity. I've probably mentioned it before, but the closest I've been was on a ferry to Liberty Island, when a couple of Raptors did a quick fly-by of the harbor. For me, it was a bigger highlight than Lady Liberty herself :-) Oops Edit: I just checked the pics that I snapped - They were F-16's not F-22's. Bummer! :-(

Thank you for your kind words, Jayro 🙂I agree completely - the F35 isn't nearly as elegant as the F22. It's still my favourite aircraft, especially from an aesthetic point of view. I had to Google the Quetzal bird - and all I can say is, no matter how beautiful our human creations are, the beauty and colours of nature will always be the best. That is one beautiful little bird! Thanks very much for visiting our channel and leaving a kind comment. It is much appreciated!

Thanks to you, Ostrich, for your special way of Modelling, and my respect to you, an authentic "Master Modeller". I will see every video, to learn and replicate, your amazing skills un my own models. For your information, the word Quetzal, come from the ancient Náhuatl word "Quetzalli", and it's meaning Is: "Beautyful feathers", (Bellas Plumas in spanish). I will see your next amazing and very instructive, step by step, videos, God bless you Ostrich, and happy Modelling.

Darn, sorry to hear that. It's so frustrating when the companies have poor or incomplete instructions. The Zvezda kits I built were loaded with printing errors and half-baked instructions, too. I hope you managed to find some good reference pictures online!

Thanks very much, Steve :-) The Italleri Osprey kit is awesome. I'm sure you're having a blast so far! Thanks for dropping in, and good luck with the Osprey! She's a big, beautiful lady!

@@OstrichLongneck Just the cockpit so far it's a big kit like your Raptor . Between life and work I hardly have time I need to dedicate a day just to build ..

Well done, Mike. I think the PE is going to turn your model into a show-stopper. Good luck with the build, I'm sure it's going to turn out awesome!

F/A-22 was a reference to the prototype during the ATF program as well the YF-22 reference before it was officially known as the F-22A once the contract was signed for full production.

Hi, the photo etch was something I bought as an add-on. I found it on Ebay at the same time I ordered the model, and they've both been in my stash pile for a few years now.

The Tu-160 definitely qualifies as a lethal beauty! It's a gorgeous aircraft. I must try to find a kit to build! Thanks for visiting us :-)

Hi Phil, yup, joining the front and back halves of the fuselage was a nightmare. It was almost a deal-breaker for me. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the video 🙂

Hi :-) I would guess at, probably, around $100. There are some nice, fairly cheap starter sets for model builders on Amazon for around $25, then your glue, paints, masking tape, filling putty and varnish should be another $25, and the model itself is around $40-$50. If you want to go high-end and get airbrushes and compressors, then it gets a bit more expensive. I hope this helps 😁

Hi Brad, darn I'm so sorry, I honestly don't remember. I do remember printing it out a few times until it looked more or less okay, but even then the masks weren't a perfect fit. Originally, I think I measured the length of the picture in the instructions and the length of the model, and enlarged the picture proportionally. But even then the wings weren't right at all. I ended up using ad hoc masks for a lot of parts 😲

@@OstrichLongneck Thanks

Hi :-) Sure. I loaded the reference picture with Photoshop and printed it on my printer. I measured the length of the printed picture and the length of the model. I divided the length of the model by the length of the picture I printed, and checked the size of the image in photoshop. I multiplied the size by the answer I got from dividing earlier, and changed the length of the photoshop image to this result. I then cropped the picture and printed it out in two sections (it was too big for one page.) It's not a perfect fit, but it does give a good guideline.

Camouflage

Which light ghost grey lower or upper body

I used the picture in the instructions :-)

drive.google.com/file/d/1c5QbbJOoVGPH-SCTNiinMH1WzncuOigc/view?usp=sharing You might need to print it in two parts, as the model is quite large

@@OstrichLongneck thanks it is very much appreciated

@@OstrichLongneck can you give me the ones already split and enlarged I don’t know how to do that

Or for the scanner is it just the copy feature on a printer?

No problem :-) I actually still have the picture I resized for the model. I remember the scale of the diagram was a bit off, but a person can manipulate the template a little to get a good approximation. If you drop me an e-mail on ostrichlongneck@gmail.com, I'll reply with the resized image 🙂

@@OstrichLongneck sent! thanks a lot! That Saves me a bunch of time instead of trying to make them by hand.

And great video especially for reference you pointed out everything you did aswell as the stuff you did to make it look better and that helps a lot for me who is newer to scale modeling, editing and the intro was amazing aswell.

@@aw4k3n25 Thanks very much for your kind words :-) I'm always glad if I can help someone in some small way. It's a wonderful model to build, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I sent the picture - it's very large, though (5.9K) so I hope it gets through okay. If not, I'll try to scale it down and send it again, then you can just re-size it 🙂👍

Thanks, Travis! I'm glad she's finally done :-)