Hasegawa F-22 WIP

polishing time 

makeshift sanding stick 

SEXY 

excellent fit... but with a step 

weeeeee 

Tamiya cement and putty 

putty town 

fixing the nose part 1 

hopefully no more putty work on the intakes 

fixing the nose part 2 

The paint somehow makes super glue dry faster, it was hard to glue the PE parts 

The closed panels have near perfect fit, therefore make some convenient masking material 

First round of priming 

I used the photo-etch from Aires nozzles, sadly had to throw the afterburners and nozzles away... 

Sand it down with 2000 and 4000 grit sanding sponge 

Primed it the second time, the surface is now butter smooth! I have a good feeling about this one. 

All exterior primed 

Trying to match the textures extracted from the game, C315 with 25% of black seems to do it, I will try to mix this later. 

RLM66 as a dark base for light grey 

All light grey done 

This might be my best dumb idea ever, preshading the jigsaw panels with Gundam marker 

I need to preshade the panels black to give some color difference 

Oh no what have I started 

Please stop. 

I'll just do this for the top 

This looks oddly realistic 

After the second coat, still not dark enough to blend with the Gundam Marker 

All panels done 

Ready for the main color 

First and second layer: FS16440 plus drops of black 

Third layer: the base color plus equal amount of SM204 

I think it's a little dark 

Fourth and fifth layer: a lot of white, drops of black and FS16440, equal amount of SM204 again, sprayed wide and wet 

Unfortunately my pre-shadings are almost invisible, and there are some color differences on the edges, but the sheen is nice! 

I used almost an entire pack of blue tak 

FS36231 plus SM204 

I recreated the noticeable fade on the left wing 

Did a little freehand trace on the harder edges (right) 

Painted the faded effects according to game files 

Perfect size and placement, they are so thin I could just cut them off as one piece. 

Hasegawa decals are surprisingly difficult to work with. They are quite thin but don't conform to the surfaces well. And they don't like decal solutions either. I tried Tamiya Mark Fit and Mr. Mark Softer, both can damage the decals quite easily. 

There's no easy way to do this 

Ready for another coat of gloss clear, is it me or did the tone change a bit? 

I dreaded this moment for a long time 

First time trying Mig Panel Line Wash 

Current state after wash 

Unmasked the canopy 

Light oil dot filter 

A little darker on the vents 

Ok maybe not this much 

Washing the undercarriage 

I lost F59 somewhere in the process, and had to replace it with a spare piece. Hasegawa really over-engineered this thing. 

Painful to install 

All doors in place 

Installed the HUD 

After the final coat of semi-gloss 

Final assembly (without missiles) 

Test shot 

Test shot 

Test shot 

Test shot