Hai there,
I am considering to build an F-22 and an F-35 in 1/48 scale.
Are there any decent kits on the market WITHOUT those ridiculous raised panel lines in that scale?
I’m apologising to those who love this new trend but I just can’t stand it
Tamiya in 1/48 is pretty much the varsity, i’d argue. Stunning kit. I have it in the stash for a commission build I’m doing later this year - the detail and molding just has to be seen to be believed, and yes, recessed panel lines where appropriate and raised where they need to be.
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Tamiya’s F-35 is the closest you’ll get.
All the F-22 kits have pretty aggressive paneling. And given the age of the fighter I don’t think we’ll see another high-dollar kit. Hasegawa is the best one right now.
I have the same frustration. I really want a F-22 but all of the available ones are ridiculous on the paneling
My two cents….go with the 1/72 Academy kit. It’s such a huge jet that you’ll still have a sizeable model. But there are no raised RAM panels.
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My whole collection is 1/48 and am very keen to stick to this as the long plan is to occupy a complete model airfield.
It’s sad, we used to stress over raised panel lines or panel lines that were a micron to wide, and now the manufacturers make kits with massive bulges that are totally absent in real life and we are supposed to call that “quality”
Airfix, where are you?
This is never a popular statement when I say it….but I’ll say it anyway: 
Yes, the panels are way overdone. But how you paint the kit can have a tremendous effect on how exaggerated they actually appear. I still believe the Hasegawa kit is worth building.
Examples (not my work). And yes, Raptors do look like that second pic; just search for pics of Elmendorf AFB birds.
Just my two cents….
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I’m not a fan of either raised or recessed panel lines, but depending on the kit i’d often have to go with riased. Why? The gap in recessed panel lines is usually far too wide in scale, and not easy to fix. I have a Revell MH-47E that I still haven’t finished yet because the lines are so obviously out of scale that I’m filling them in with stretched sprue. My newly acquired C-46 Commando however, has very fine raised lines - easy to sand off and rescribe and/or add rivets to, or perhaps not rescribe. I’m a fan of drawing the lines on with a very fine No. 3 pencil. To me it doesn’t get more prototypical than not having any sort or non-aerodynamic feature all over the plane.
They are stunning. Thanks for sharing. Man I’d love to be that good.
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What matters to me is that the model ends up as a fair representation of the real thing;
That is why I, wihtin the limits of my modelling skills, try to remove seam lines that are not present on the real plane, or use the closest possible colors compared to the real thing, or place he correct decals where they belong.
With this ridiculous raised panels on those F-22 and F-35 kits, the manufacturers are nothing but insulting us and are reducing our hobby to a children’s game; Its similar to those Matchbox models of a few decades ago that were molded partly in dark green and brown.
I can’t understand how a modelmaker can describe those raised panel lines as “not that bad”. The real plane its whole reason of existence is to be stealthy with have a smooth skin not reflecting any radar signals, there are definitively NO raised panels on the real thing.
in fact, it appears that those “panel lines” in real life are special tape to enhance the radar absorbation.
Manufacturers could have presented these tapes by slightly changing the surface smoothness, or by using decals.
I know, its only plastic at the end of the day, but if one starts thinking like that, what is the point of this hobby then?
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The bane of model building if you ask me. Some folks embrace it. And as they like to say, “To each their own.” 
Far as I know raised panel lines have not been a thing since the late 70s. Way before the F-22 or F-35 were thought of.
In my earleir post I mentioned that I had purchased a Williams Bros. C-46 last week. The lines are almost certain to be removed. The original is from 1976, but the reboot from 2007 has not improved. Even so, a nice kit for 1976 tooling, especially given that it was from such a small company.
As far as recessed panel lines, I’ve actually spent some time studying this phenomenon. Even a .01 inch panel gap would be pretty sizable in real life. Divide that by say - 72. The resultant panel line would be .00013889 inches wide. I think you could safely say there’s no point in molding them - think of the savings in tooling alone.
And as for my 1/48 scale MH-47 - you can easily fit a fingernail into the panel lines. They are atrocious. If it were scale up to 1:1 you could porcupine all of your team’s M4’s through the lines while in flight, That would be a sight.
I’ve been seeing information that the F-22 could be utilized with 8 hard points. I’ve seen at least one picture of a model that someone built with two fuel pods attached. Has anyone else built this kit with the added hard points ? If so how did you do it ? I’m interested in doing this at some point.
Could you add 4 hard points for fuel pods and weapons? I’m thinking about building an F-22 with the hard points.
I’ll have to check and get back to you.
Edit: going off the Hasegawa instructions on Scalemates, their 1/48 kit does not have external hard points.
The Academy 1/72 kit has external tanks but no external weapons.
Thanks. I was thinking about the hasegewa kit. Modifying the wings (basically drilling holes to fit the new hard points) then adding the extra .H.P. from spare parts such as an F-15 or F-16. Weather that’s feasible or not is a whole different ballgame but that’s the direction I was thinking in.
That seems very feasible based on my understanding of the kit.
I can get pictures of anything you need.