Kinetic MQ-9 Reaper UAV 1/48th

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
Another change of tack. I thought of having a go at a more modern offering and have always wanted to do a Drone.
So I bought the Kinetic MQ-9 Reaper kit, which I think is actually from the Skunkworks moulding, and was also re boxed by Revell.
This Kinetics go at it and is nicely moulded in Grey and Clear plastic. It also has a really nice decal sheet with lots of options for Reaper UAV's operated by numerous countries. 
The wingspan is quite impressive, being about two and a half times that of a single engined WWII aircraft. At the moment I have done some basic assembly of the wings and navigation lights. I have also added the undercarriage bays and some plasticene/lead pellets to the fuselage bottom.
The way the model is moulded you would be able to see up and through the engine intake/exhaust, so to prevent this I have blanked off the rear of the undercarriage bay with plastic card and painted it very dark grey, no other detail just the blanking plates on the fuselage and engine assemblies.
The engine intake has some mould sink marks on the inside, both upper and lower. To fill these I used thick superglue and talc mixed together, allowed to harden naturally then it just sands/carves down as plastic to leave a nice smooth blemish free finish.
Prop goes together nicely, just a minimum of filling to do here. The engine pod needs a little work the upper seam needs to be tidied up with some filler and some panel line added where it fades out across the uppers.
Have done a quick dry fit and all looks like it will go together happily with little need for filling.
Some pictures follow:-
Thanks for looking.
Kevin

 

[chriswil42]

Nice start Kevin. Certainly a different model.

[cph64]

Coming along nicely. Are you fitting a weapons load?

[Bigkev]

Thanks Chaps,
In answer to your question Chris, Yes, I will be adding 500lb Laser Guided Bombs and Hellfire missiles.
Kevin

[Bob C]

That?s a quick build so far, looks nice.

Bob c

[Bigkev]

Thanks Bob.
I have now got the airframe together, and just need to do a little filling on the wing roots, but nothing serious, rest of kit went together very nicely.
Soon be time for paint at this rate.
Kevin

[MSea]

So soon be in the air - I will have to keep an eye out on the sky from now on 

[cph64]

I like the comment 'just need to do a little filling on the wing roots, but nothing serious'. If only I had that problem######.................

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
Filling now done and rubbed down.
To reduce the amount of filler, I added thin strips of tape either side of the join line I wanted to deal with, also tape to the end of the join to prevent in going where I did not want it. I then applied Mr. Surfacer 500 with a small brush , brushing an even layer along the seam.
Left to dry overnight, then tape removed. The seam around the engine was a little too deep in places, so the filler was intended to reduce this. Rather than rubbing down with wet'n'dry I used a cotton bud and some Mr. Hobby thinner. Rubbed over the area, it removes any excess but leaves a thin amount in the seam line.
The wings were drubbed down in a more normal manner using two different grades of wet'n'dry.
The propellor was rubbed down where the blade assembly met the spinner, to smooth out this area.
The wing lights were polished after drilling them to create a recess where red and green was added to replicate the bulb. I glued them into place using thick superglue, and dipping them in baking powder. This make the glue go off and hard, and makes a hard filler if there are any gaps.
Thanks for looking,
Some pictures follow:-
Kevin
Ke

[zak]

Very good.
Did you build a drone in the past?

[chriswil42]

Very good Kevin.

[Bigkev]

Very good.
Did you build a drone in the past?

Hi Zak,
Yes you have good memory. It was a vac form of a Ryan Jet powered drone., painted mainly white with red areas on the wings nose and tail.
I no longer have it, but remember that it too had a huge wingspan.
Cheers
Kevin

[cph64]

Nice work with the seams and I like the baking powder tip.

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
Well moving on. After a quick blast of Mr. Surfacer 1500 from an aerosol, I found that there were a few areas that still needed a little more attention. On the wing roots, there were a couple of dimples in the filler, on the fuselage sides a couple of moulding sink marks I hadn't noticed, and on the fin/rudder a couple of gaps where it didn't seat quite properly. Some Mr. Hobby filler was soon applied and when dry gently sanded to rectify.
Whilst the putty was drying, I assembled the weapons, and pylons, the undercarriage components, ready for painting.
Back soon after some paint on.
Thanks for looking.
Kevin 

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
Airframe now sanded smooth after its Mr. Surfacer primer.
The parts that are natural metal have been given a coat of Tamiya Gloss Black sprayed with Mr. Hobby Self Levelling Thinner. This leaves a nice gloss finish in readiness for the AK Interactive Polished Aluminium/ Dark Aluminium top coats.
The sensor pod was also painted at the same time, the Black being on the reverse of the clear part. The clear part will be polished near the end of the build.
Whilst the airbrush was out, the bombs/missiles/launch rails given an initial coat of Olive Drab and Olive Green.
Some pictures follow:-
Thanks for looking,
Kevin