Kinetic MQ-9 Reaper
Sometimes all it takes is a little international incident to remind you of what's in your stash. On March 14, 2023, two Russian SU-27 aircraft intercepted a USAF MQ-9 patrolling in international airspace; they dumped fuel on it and ultimately impacted its propeller, forcing it to crash into the Black Sea. I felt like the poor MQ-9 could use a little love so I dusted off my Kinetic boxing of the Skunkmodels 2011 release.
It includes 44 pieces in soft gray styrene (two of which don't appear to be used). The decals are sharp, accommodating two different USAF reserve units and six foreign versions:
Ordnance includes four Hellfire missiles and two well-detailed GBU-12 Paveway IIs. Assembly was straightforward with no snags. Base color is Mr. Color 308 with a Tamiya Dark Gray Panel Liner pin wash to bring out the nice rivet detail. The only nit is that the rear wheel housing is only closed on two sides, so that you can peer inside the rear fuselage. This is easy enough to fix with some plasticard if you know about it ahead of time, but alas I did not. Other than that, a breeze to put together.
Here she is next to her rather diminutive MQ-1 cousin:
Very neat work on what must be a diminutive model in this scale, Brian. An accurate reflection of what a sad world we live in today.
Thanks George. It’s actually not too small, wingspan is about a foot in this scale.
If you wanted to make it look diminutive, you could put it next to a RQ-4 though...
That’ll be next!
Nicely done Brian!
Very nice Brian! I chose this scheme too for my 48er. Even in the smaller scale, it presents very well. It looks great with the MQ-1 too.
An amazing result, Brian! For some reason I have been not too fond of UAVs, but your superb build made me change my mind.
Great write-up, as well.
Well done!
Awesome. They’re a fun change of pace.
Great result, Brian @bapowellphys
The wingspan of those UAVs is quite large indeed.
Well done.
Nice work, Brian. We don’t see these built enough.
Very good job, Brian.
As part of my series of RNLAF aircraft I plan to build this UAV too. So, good to hear it’s a straightforward build. However, I am not sure what you exactly mean with the nit you encountered with the rear wheel housing. Could you elaborate a bit on this pitfall? Many thanks in advance. 😊
Sure thing. See the circled area in the attached pic. You can see straight into the interior of the fuselage through the rear of the wheel housing (and even catch some daylight through the engine exhaust on the top of the aircraft). But this is of little practical importance, since it's quite dark in there and only noticeable if you go looking. I probably would have just put some plasticard in there (cross-sectionally) to close off the wheel housing had I known. Best of luck with your build!
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thanks Brian. Much appreciated.