1/48 Academy F-22I "Shamar"

Gallery Article by Chuang Xue Qian on Sept 9 2010

 

Hello all!  I present to you my latest roll-out.  A hypothetical F-22 of the Israeli Air and Space Force (IASF).  This whiffer was completely built in the name of fun.  This includes letting my imagination run wild into modifying the aircraft to suit Israeli requirements, hanging Israeli weapons and painting it in the desert camo that all IASF jets possess. 

I used the renowned Academy F-22A kit as the base and scratchbuilt my own mods.  I also used decals from the kit, old Academy F-15 decals for some stencil data and Kinetic F-16I Sufa decals for the Israeli roundels and Bat Squadron markings.  I'm fully aware of the flaws in the Academy Raptor.  But as I wasn't into accuracy and could live with the errors, I kept things simple and left off the issues but I did correct the nose a little to make it sharper.

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I went wild with my mods which included Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) sensors on the right side in front of the canopy which allows the aircraft to track enemy jets by their heat signatures without giving its position to them, DASH HMD sensors on the canopy, EW antennas below the canopy sill, advanced IFF antennas in front of the canopy and Radar Warning Receivers (RWR) on both wing tips. The F-22I was given an ECM capability to jam enemy radars and render them completely blinded to any attacking IASF strike package which could include non-stealthy jets like the F-15 and F-16. I gave her the Hebrew name "Shamar", which can be found in the Hebrew Bible and translates literally into Watchman or Guard.  Which sounds rather appropriate for an F-22 as its primary mission is Aerial supremacy in the defense of a nation which in this instance, is Israel. 

As for the loudout, I went loud too and armed her with 4 AIM-120C AMRAAMs, a single 1,000lb GBU-32 JDAM, 2 Rafael Python 4 short-range AA missiles and 2 600 gallon gas bags.  This is to fulfill the F-22's long range strike capability.  Even when carrying the gas bags, which could potentially compromise the F-22I's stealth characteristics, the F-22I could still remain invisible to radar with its state-of-the-art EW capability.  You know the one thing I like and find it really fun about what-if builds is that, the technical things all work because I say so! Which really makes it MY plane.

All in all, it was a fun 2 month build.  I'll be back with more Israeli jets in the future as I've come to love the attractive camo scheme after doing this F-22!
 
Thanks for watching and best regards! :-)

Chuang Xue Qian

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Photos and text © by Chuang Xue Qian