RQ-9C Stalker

[Wardukw]

Right sometime ago while talking a looksie thru one of my model plane mags I saw the Kinetic RQ-4B Global Hawk in 48th scale and the moment I saw it my mind went into happy time mode.
My second thought was Kit is gonna love this with a wing span of 828mm ..nearly 33ins   
Now in happy time mode the soft bit above my shoulders goes off in directions I can't control and what happens from that point on is not my fault.
Now heres the idea..there's drones flying all over the place ..hundreds of em ..some at low altitudes and others at extremely high altitudes.
The extremely high altitude drones are big birds as the Global Hawk can contest to being ...bloody huge in fact with a 130 foot wingspan to give ya some idea of the size of this thing and this is what the brain went click.
If something is as big as the Global Hawk then there's room to do something else 🤔😉
Time to think slightly sideways gents 😅
Even got a bit of a back story for it ...so here goes 

It started as a normal day for Technical Sargeant Colin Samson ..who at this time was enjoying a break from teaching his latest class on the operational sub systems of MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4B Global Hawk drones .
Sitting in one of his favorite places..beside Hanger 7 at Beale Air Force Base watching the drones being prepared for flight and to his left taking off.
Today was like any normal day..drones taking off on their long lonely flight to God knows where ..information he was not cleared to know..his security clearance wasn't that high..yet.
He watched as a Global Hawk quietly lifted off the runway and once it hitting what he thought was a altitude of about 500 feet it banked slowly to the right to start heading off to its mission destination.
Then instead of leveling out it kept banking to the right and started to loose altitude..the banking then turned into a spin as the craft heading straight towards a small group of buildings towards the far end of the runway..these buildings contained the ground maintenance facilities with personal count of 45 civilian contractors .
Slamming into building C, the right wing  disintegrating as it came into contact with roof edge ..the fuselage crashing through the roof and ploughing into the vehicle bay, causing instantaneous explosions from the Hawks on board fuel and batteries along with fuel stored inside the building for the ride on lawn mowers and other petrol powered garden tools.
After taking 3 hrs to put the fire out to the point where the on base air technical investigation unit could work safely the investigation started as fast as could be expected.
In the Intelligence section ..where information from the drones comes in for decoding ..incoming information was being interrupted..cut-off or just stopping completely.
Then more reports came of total  loss of contact with the drones...not just one or two but all drones being operated by the USAF from all of its bases across the world.
Communication with the other bases worked as normal..zero communication with the drones ..even ones sitting on the flight lines..then information started to come in from the UK..Israel..Germany..Poland and the Ukraine to mention just a few that all the same problems the US was having was happening with these countries as well.
Total and complete loss of contact with drones of all kinds or all sizes..even store brought ones which children play with ceased to function.
With months of searching for an answer a virus was found in one drone control unit ..basically it's brain ..then another and another was tested..same result..brand new units which have never been installed in a drone carried the virus .
Even after investigating Elkinson Electronica who builds the control units for the Reaper and Global Hawk no sign of the virus could be found yet the moment the control units leave the factory the virus is detected in the units CPU ..after scanning..searching ..detecting and even lifting the rug to see what's been swept under it not one thing could be found to find where the virus originated from and even now 15yrs later no sign has ever been found yet the moment a control unit is plugged in..there's the virus.
Every suggestion imaginable has been put forward including alien intervention.. yet nothing has ever been found .
The need for surveillance and information has never left the operational needs of the Military so new craft have been built for the job of long range spying and information gathering on other countries military forces.
With all the Global Hawks just sitting there doing nothing.. with it not being able to fly as it was intended to a piloted version was built...called the RQ-9C Stalker .
The adding of a pilot changed the entire inside layout of the GH ..flight systems which were controlled by servos are now replaced with fly-by-wire systems..all cockpit information has been installed as pur any normal modern day military jet trainers...full fighter cockpits were considered a waste but a fire control / targeting system and indefinable friend or foe system been installed for self defense as the US are not the only country to go back to manned recon flights.
With the increased weight it's operational flight time has gone down from 35hrs down to 24hrs..operated now from bases in the UK.. Poland and in the US the Hawks still fly the world over gathering information.

Yeah that will do 

[comrade harps]

Aliens. Always, aliens.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Not sure how popular the 24 hour mission profile will be with the guys and gals in the seat.   

[Wardukw]

       

[Wardukw]

Ahhh I didn't say the missions where 24hr long but they can be ..especially if the pilot annoyed his commander once to often     

[Wardukw]

I'm almost wondering if a 24hr mission would be possible...taking the amount of oxygen into consideration that it can carry.
12hrs no problem at all.

[Old Wombat]

 

[zenrat]

Sukhoi Su-34 has a toilet and a kitchen in the area behind the cockpit.

Just saying...

[Wardukw]

Well its undercoated now and waiting to dry ..im enjoying this as it's not taken a month to build 
Should be colour tomorrow I'm thinking.

[Wardukw]

Update..well it was painted and decaled and the pin wash started ..now it's drowning in easy off heavy duty oven cleaner...not pissed off to any point really and definitely not to the point of the kits destruction.
Just forgot to gloss it before the pin wash..everything went bad after that.
While cleaning the wash off the panel lines the result was terrible...staining the white so much it couldn't be cleaned.
Shocking stuff laddies...was hoping I'd have this pretty much done today.

[Wardukw]

Ok the very first pics of this build and the final pics to as this done ...its ugly lads ,,its freaking huge for a drone but of course even tho the wings are over 800mm long ,,,i did make them slightly longer 
and without further a do ,,,here is is ..
The first pic is just the mods done to the fuselage to get the cockpit to fit ,,pretty easy stuff really ..
.DSCF4174 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Ive added extra blisters on this thing to make up for the loss of space inside this bird now theres a pilot sitting in it...but other than that this is almost OTB ..
DSCF4178 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4179 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4180 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4181 by Phill Harrison, on FlickrDSCF4183 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Ive got no idea what these missiles are but there are small and ill bet light which works for this as theres not a lot of space under these wings .
DSCF4184 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4185 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4186 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
I cranked the wings up a wee bit here so that the small fins would clear and it also makes the wings look better with less sagging of them .
DSCF4187 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4189 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4190 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4191 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4193 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
Now because of the size of this bird  i wanted to have something to define its size ,,,i know a ton of you guys know the Mirage III and being given one a while back thats what i used ,
DSCF4196 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF4197 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr

I enjoyed this ...simple to build ..ok having to repaint it was a bugger but oh well ...could have been worse i guess 

[killnoizer]

I think , äääähmmm . beautiful is NOT realy the right word for this ugly thing ... 

But very nice work and camo     

I hate this unmanned flying computers , but this went right !

[Rick Lowe]

Cool! Nice work on that. 

And yup - Always Blame Aliens.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Stunning build!!  Beautifully done. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Cool, I like that.