Product Update-Raptor Sheen
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Academy 1:48 F-22 Raptor built by Chris Oglesby to test Raptor Sheen.
First my appreciation to Chris Oglesby and Paul Boyer for taking the time to be field testers to evaluate the beta version of this product. Their suggestions are valuable in the development of this product.
This is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news first. Raptor Sheen has still not been perfected. The good news…we’re not yet giving up. The main hold up is getting consistency…that is everyone who uses it has the same or nearly the same results with the product. So I’m working the formulation of the product to deliver consistent results when mixed with the appropriate gray shades of enamel paints and applied to the surface of the model.
I believe the product is viable, it is just a matter of working out the optimum mixture ratio to get sufficient metallic sheen without washing out the grayish color.
The real Raptor can take on a very dull gray look in certain lighting conditions, as well as a brilliant metallic sheen in bright sunlight. We’re striving to achieve just that.
There are a couple of other field testers I’m waiting to hear back from. Hopefully they’ve had positive results, but regardless their feedback is critical and appreciated as well.
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I am glad to see you guys trying to get it right. The F-35 and some of the V-22’s have the same coatings on them as well. I look forward to seeing your results.
I wish you would do more than the JASDF and front quarter Academy kit shots to illustrate the ‘ideal’ of what can be achieved, an expert tutorial on Youtube could take care of the idiots-and-experts differential.
I myself don’t like Mark S’ ARC approach because it is too mirror-bright in all but the most fixed of lighting angles, making the Raptor look like a dirty natural metal scheme rather than truly exotic-camouflaged.
I would be more satisfied if you could get the countershade colors to hold a constant value relative to the base tone. Whether Dark Gull Grey, Dragonscale Purple or that funky looking Mediterannean Powder Blue tone you sometimes see, what matters is that the colors match each other and are not overwhelmed by the metallic effects.
About the only way I can see of getting this, is to do what Boeing did with their ‘Topcoat’ and put tints (instead of electrochromic micro filaments) into a clear varnish that levels the specular reflectance values.
Anyway, with the Hasegawa kit about to provide a decent outline jet at a premium price for the first time, please get your formula and application drill down so that we can know if your product will be available when HLJ starts leaving drop shipments on our doors.
Thanks for your time. KPl.
All the best in this effort. While I find Mark S’ use of metallic shading perfectly adequate (and easy to do), clearly not everyone shares that opinion. What I would very much like to see are other Have Glass shades, like those used by Greek F-16s. Trying to match those pastel shades using metallic paints is going to be a very tricky proposition.