Drones, The New Generation

[NARSES2]

Ah old school filler - Always have a small jar of sprue melted in liquid cement on the shelf. Don't always remember it's there though 

[MichelC]

Ah old school filler - Always have a small jar of sprue melted in liquid cement on the shelf. Don't always remember it's there though 

Yeah, an old trick but one worth repeating. With the profusion of specialized products it tends to stay...on the shelf.

M

[NARSES2]

Ah old school filler - Always have a small jar of sprue melted in liquid cement on the shelf. Don't always remember it's there though 

Yeah, an old trick but one worth repeating. With the profusion of specialized products it tends to stay...on the shelf.

M

Absolutely the old knowledge needs to be passed on 

[Weaver]

Dorsal antennas (lumps of plastic, yak!) were removed and replaced by new ones fashioned out of soda can. Very useful, soda can. Beer can works to. Or any other beverage provided it comes in a can. lol

The problem with using beer is that by the time you've drunk the beer to make the can available, you're no longer capable of using it....


Great model! 

[Jkob]

Really nice job

[Gondor]

What, no dreadlocks     

Gondor

[MichelC]

Thanks all for the nice words. 

Gondor, I just finished watching 'Prometheus.' I ain't kidding. Good movie. Didn't see the Predator in it, tho. lol

M

[MichelC]

Tests with the landing gear in place showed that it would not be a tail-sitter. But only just. Other modelers advise to use a weight. To be on the safe side I inserted a sinker into the nose, fixed with candle wax. If you are wondering why candle wax, the answer is why not?  



Then it was time to button this thing up. Some filler was needed in the rear section due to the way the kit is engineered. I used Tamiya light-curing putty. Daub the stuff on, leave it in the sun for 1 minute and it gets as hard as stone.



Whoever said that good weather is the modeler's worst enemy? I just put the lie to that, didn't I? LOL In case it rains where you are or you leave near the North Pole and nights tend to be long, just hold the filler close to a fluo light and you're good in about 2 minutes.

Next I scratched new ruddervator counter-weights with some wire and more of the liquid plastic stuff.



As there is quite some bits of metal on the kit by now and as I won't prime the model I used metal primer from Gunze on the metal bits, applied with a brush.



Ready for painting!





Thanks for watching!

M

[MichelC]

OK, time to add some color to this bird, if gray can be called a color.

First some pre-shading with dark gray (Tam NATO Black was on hand).





You know the post-it trick for shading control surfaces, right?



As the closest approximation to the gray that can be seen on Predators and not to stray from my trusted Gunze paints I used their light gray H308. I sprayed it straight from the bottle onto the underside. Careful not to cover entirely the pre-shading (not much of the pre-shading effect can be seen on the pix but the effect is there, although subtle).



Now, for the upper side I used a lighter shade, lightening the gray with white at 30%. No masking needed, the demarcation line between upper and lower fuselage parts being so sharp that all you have to do it spray from the top down and be careful not to overspray while doing the sides. Piece of cake.



Color modulation is an armor modeler trick but it applies well here, because of this sharp separation of the fuse upper and lower halves. Every pic of the Predator I have seen shows this sharp demarcation between light upper and dark lower fuse halves although its the same color, just lighted differently.

The result:



Some pre-shading and color modulation are all I'm gonna do with the paint job. Quite enough for such a small model. Plus all pics show the drones to be extremely well maintained with almost no weathering effect apparent anywhere. As gray as they come. So there.

M

[NARSES2]

Great watching all this come together

[silverwindblade]

Wow, this is looking excellent for such a relatively plain aircraft, and a subject that's always been a bit 'meh' to me.
I really like how you've detailed up such a subject, and I've learned a few things I'll have to keep in mind for my builds in future too!

[MichelC]

Thank you both. Glad you find some of this stuff useful, Silverwindblade.

I'm pushing this one through to a done. You'll soon get an update.

M

[MichelC]

Sorry people for not updating earlier but I'd fallen prey to 'home stretch fever.' lol I'm finishing this one the same time I'm finishing my figurine. Now, that doesn't happen every week!

OK, let's try to pick this one up where I left off. Last painting step: I sprayed a darker shade of gray (same was for the underside) onto the engine access panel, as can be seen on reference pics.



Two coats of Future and decals were applied. These responded well to Micro Set & Sol.



I always trim the carrier film off as close to the design as possible.



Much better without the unsightly film sticking out around the edges but one word of caution: be careful not to have bits of film slide under the decal unseen. They'll show once the decal dries and then it'll be too late. Don't ask how I know. lol



Another coat of Future over the decals and then time for a nice lil' wash.



I used oils for the wash, starting with a light gray and darkening it gradually till I got the shade I was looking for: one that shows the detail well without contrasting too much with the overall finish. I added some Payne's Gray to give the wash a bluish tint that suits the cold tones of bird.



The wash was thinned with lighter fluid. This stuff evaporates instantly, doing away with the waiting time you have with other solvents.



I'v mentioned this before: where the engraving is too shallow for the wash to get a hold, wipe with a piece of latex from your glove (a latexed glove work perfect) and the stuff will stay in the groove.



Wash is one of the most fun part of the build!



Next I detailed the landing gear. The front gear is amazingly well detailed. I only added a brake line and redid the oleo.



In contrast to the nicely detailed front gear, the main gear is rather bare with only the disc of the disc brake and nothing else. I added detail to the brakes...



...and scratched the retraction system.



The front oleo was redone with a piece of hypo needle and wire.



I primed it with Mr. Metal Primer. Love this stuff. You can just daub it on and it'll be invisible. But it really gives something to the paint to grip and painting the spring black was a piece of cake by touching the brush side-on to the wire.



The gear was painted with different shades of gray and the tires (not on the pic) with Gunze Tire Gray. The lower part of the gear received a brown wash.



You must be wondering by now, what the heck! Why is he even posting this stuff on the forum? No wild alterations? Standard camo scheme? Existing markings? WTF!

Well now, calm down, OK? This ain't the end of the build yet! There's a surprise coming. Just wait and see! 

M

[NARSES2]

Wonderfull build again 

[MichelC]

Thank you Narses2!  

The beast is on its last legs. Well, not exactly but at least it's on its legs. And that was no easy task, believe me! In spite of the test-fit I did earlier there were serious alignment issues. The aspect ratio of the MQ-1 and its V-tail really make things hard for the modeler. Any error with the tail shows right away due to the fact that the ruddervators are just a couple mm off the ground. I decided to get those right and let the error end on the wings. As a result one wing tip is 2.5mm higher off the ground than the other one. It's not that bad and can be seen only in a front view, which explains why you won't get any such piccie from me! To hide the fault I'll cheat and pose the model on a round base that's smaller than the wingspan. lol

I did what I could. Anyway, who am I to take on the Predator? My name ain't Arnold... lol

Here're the pics.













Just the antennas and the Hellfire missiles are left and it's a done.

M