1/72 F-22 Raptor.

Italeri's tooling has beaten the competition to market by a considerable margin. The tooling's strong points include reasonably accurate contours, generally well-engineered part fit, and no sink marks on flying surfaces (due to separately molded halves). The kit includes wing pylons and JDAMS, a fully featured weapons bay with lots of options for displaying weapons, and super-crisp decals. The instrument panel coaming approaches scale thickness, the transparency is crisp & distortion-free, and some will appreciate the separate canopy frame. Panel line placement appears accurate at first glance, if a little overscale.

The kit is let down, however, in a number of areas. It has notional interior detail, particularly in the main weapons bay; and a poorly integrated transition between the circular cross section of afterburner and the square cross section of the efflux/nozzles. The knife-edge bevels characteristic of the real thing are clumbsily wrought, with radiuses where there should be crisp creases. The fuselage lateral break line at leading edge of the wing is placed badly- it creates a kink on the fuselage spine (when viewed side-on) where there should be a smooth curve. The joint is awkward to assemble and will require great care in jigging/aligning to ensure the correct 'sit' of the front compared to the rest of the fuselage/wing. Intakes and intake tunnels are very crudely rendered. There is no scalloping of the control surface ends, no AIM 9X's, and no wing tanks. The sprue mounting for the wings is right on the hinge line for the wing flaps, and will be a chore to clean up. The formation strip lighting decals are printed in the wrong colour.

This kit is crying out for some aftermarket resin detail parts, particularly for the weapons bay, cockpit, jet nozzles, and wheel wells.

Kits
F-22A	Revell 04386
YF-22	Italeri 194 , Revell 4314, Testors 0194, 656

Cast Detail Parts
Wheel hubs & rubber tyres	Equipage 72268
ACES II ejection seat	Neomega EJ72011, Pavla S72012, True Details 72406, Verlinden 0226

Etched Detail Parts
F-22A	Eduard 72375, SS181


Decals
USA
F-22A	00-016/OT Nellis, Edwards: 91-4002, 91-4006	Two Bobs 72056
F-22A	Langley FF: 03041 1 FW flagship, 03044 'Fightin Eagles', 04062 or 04068 'Spads'	Two Bobs 72057
F-22A	Tyndall TY: 024040 325 FW flagship, 014018 43 FS flagship, 02-034	Two Bobs 72059
F-22A	Elmendorf AK 90 FS: 05090 flagship, 05093, 05096	Two Bobs 72071


Kit Review
Italeri F-22A		Revell 04386
Italeri's tooling has beaten the competition to market by a considerable margin. The tooling's strong points include reasonably accurate contours, generally well-engineered part fit, and no sink marks on flying surfaces (due to separately molded halves). The kit includes wing pylons and JDAMS, a fully featured weapons bay with lots of options for displaying weapons, and super-crisp decals. The instrument panel coaming approaches scale thickness, the transparency is crisp & distortion-free, and some will appreciate the separate canopy frame. Panel line placement appears accurate at first glance, if a little overscale. The kit is let down, however, in a number of areas. It has notional interior detail, particularly in the main weapons bay; and a poorly integrated transition between the circular cross section of afterburner and the square cross section of the efflux/nozzles. The knife-edge bevels characteristic of the real thing are clumbsily wrought, with radiuses where there should be crisp creases. The fuselage lateral break line at leading edge of the wing is placed badly- it creates a kink on the fuselage spine (when viewed side-on) where there should be a smooth curve. The joint is awkward to assemble and will require great care in jigging/aligning to ensure the correct 'sit' of the front compared to the rest of the fuselage/wing. Intakes and intake tunnels are very crudely rendered. There is no scalloping of the control surface ends, no AIM 9X's, and no wing tanks. The sprue mounting for the wings is right on the hinge line for the wing flaps, and will be a chore to clean up. The formation strip lighting decals are printed in the wrong colour. This kit is crying out for some aftermarket resin detail parts, particularly for the weapons bay, cockpit, jet nozzles, and wheel wells.		We have just seen pics of test shots of Revell's new tooling as displayed at IPMS Telford, and although it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of the kit, it does have the following features: cut down AAMRAMS, AIM-9X's, 2 drop tanks, an attempt at air intake trunking, and small diameter bombs. The contouring on the top fuselage half looks a little dubious (too pronounced) but we will reserve our judgement until closer inspection.

72scale detail entry
	Lockheed YF-22 Lightning II, F-22A Raptor.
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