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Hi. I'd like to show you Part #1 of my theme project Slava Ukraini. During last year I've accumulated in 1/48 scale an Su-27P Flanker, a MiG-29 Fulcrum, a Su-25 Frogfoot and a TB.2 Bayraktar, all will be built in the colours of the Ukraine Defence Forces. My first part of this theme build will be Clear Props TB.2 Bayraktar in the colours of the Ukraine Navy. Information regarding the TB.2 can be found here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayraktar_TB2 The kit come in a small box around 20x25cm and the box art show an Ukrainian TB.2 flying in the twilight. And it contains three sprues in grey plastic, and one small in clear for the optics. 001 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The TB.2 is quite small. I guess the wingspan is around 25cm in 1/48. 002 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 003 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And the fuselage is around 6-7cm's long. 004 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr 005 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr One sprue contains the ordnance, pylons and the propeller. 008 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr You get full ordnance in form of two types of the MAM glide bombs. The larger one MAM-L has a range of 15km, length 1m and weighs 22kg according to Wikipedia. 006 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The smaller MAM-C has a range of 8km, a length of 97cm and weighs 6,5kg according to Wikipedia. 007 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The clear sprue contains the optic sensor and some navigation lights. 009 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr Decal for the Ukrainian Navy's TB.2's I really fell for the Cormorant nose art. 010 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And I've started the build with gluing the wing halves together. 011 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr And I've put the nose wheel bay together. 012 by Bosse Persson, on Flickr The instructions says the interior should be painted all black, and a nose weight of at least 1g should be placed on the optic sensor mounting, a guess a pair of washers will be sufficient for that. I hadn't time for more yesterday evening, but I'll come back to this one later today. My Flanker has to have some time for the paints to harden enough for me to continue with the masking of the engine nacelles. To be continued..... /Bosse

We got this in to review the other day, and I fancied a quick build, so left the box open after I posted the review here, and knocked it together pretty quickly, although it was done in between other things, such as fixing my old folks' faulty radiator and annoying phone system, plus the usual It goes together nicely with very little effort, other than trying to keep my sausage fingers from breaking bits off it of course I painted it with some Alclad white primer with a touch of grey added to give it an off-white look, then gave it about half a dozen coats of Alclad Aqua Gloss, applying the decals about three coats in at about the same time as a mixture of Ultimate's Concrete and Dark Dirt washes to the panel lines. I picked out the rivets in mid grey with a dot of off-white on top so they didn't look too prominent, slapped some metallics on the motor, added a beige colour followed by some brown oils on the prop, and grey over a black undercoat on the stand, using some Green Stuff World Chrome for the castors, and highlighting things as I went. Here she is. Target practice for the Ukrainian troops. ...and the underside: It's 8cm from nose to tail, so not a very large model. I'm gonna glue the frame to the underside now I've taken the pics, and as it doesn't take up much room in the cabinet, it'll get in there pretty soon now

Hi everybody UAVs are back!! After abandoning this type of models for three or four years, they're making a strong comeback with this unusual machine. Europe has been searching for its place in the world of drones for quite a few years now. In the early 2010s, numerous prototypes emerged in Europe, including the BAe Mantis, a machine that would later give rise to the Telemos in partnership with Dassault. It made its first appearance at the Farnborough Airshow in 2008 with a mockup. The version shown here is the one that flew flight tests in 2010 in the Australian desert. The model used is one that I searched for a long time. It is a pure resin model from the English brand Combat Kits. The molding is pretty good, but the engravings need some work, and all the assemblies need to be reworked to obtain a decent result. Nonetheless, the model is still very good and accurately represents the real thing. A lot of work is needed to engrave and refine the details of the nose. The painting was quite complicated. Most photos show it backlit and almost black. The few indoor photos show it more brownish. I decided to use this shade for my representation, with a hint of copper and a lot of weathering. The kit decals are of good quality. In the end, it's a machine that I really like, and it enhances my collection of drones. Photos : I hope you will like it. The complete WIP can be found there See you soon with a complete new project. Very different, still resin, and still a flying machine ! Alain.

I've had this in the stash for a long time and this GB gave me motivation to build it. Not the biggest model.

I guess most of us modellers prefer good, old piloted aircraft, but, like it or not, UAV or drones are here to stay and we will see more and more of them. However, I am a bit perplexed by the apparent success of relatively slow propeller-driven drones in recent conflicts like the now famous Bayraktar TB2 in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan 2020 and currently against Russia. Another case are the (supposedly) Iranian drones used by Houthi rebels against high-value targets deep inside Saudi Arabia. I can understand that slow, propeller-driven drones (like MQ-1 and MQ-9) were effective when used over Afghanistan where there was next to no air defence, but I wonder how similar slow UAVs can survive against (ostensibly) more sophisticated air defence systems like those of Saudi Arabia or Russia. Of course, these drones are small and made from composites, but they are not that tiny. In addition, I wonder why the data link connecting the drone to the ground station does not seem to be vulnerable to jamming. Can anyone shed light on this matter?

With the Nighthawk and the Kittens well on track and March 7th seeming a long way off I thought I’d add one more oddity to the GB I read somewhere that all of the technology of modern airwar was devised during the first world and this little plane is one of those weird, before it’s time technology experiments from WWI. In the same way as the term tank was used to describe the land battleships to confuse German intelligence. The project was officially known as the RAF Aerial target, however it was actually in tended to be catapult launched and flown by remote control into attacking Zeppelins and then detonated. Which makes it the first military UAV and also the first guided missile.

This is the third kit I've built from this manufacturer. For limited run resin, their gems. They do a nice job of using different types of resins to accommodate the build of the kit; hard with fine lines for certain parts, softer to allow for some flex on others, etc. Unfortunately, one of the landing skids was broken from the start. So I tried soldering on this kit. I think my results were a bit mixed from the perspective of fine detail, but no doubt the parts are much stronger and able to absorb handling. BTW - all these pics were taken with a Galaxy s9+ phone and several photog lights. In less time than it usually takes me to set up one shot on my Canon DSLR?!? I'm either dong something right with the phone, or VERY wrong with the Camera. this is a jig I used to get the rotors lined up. It was a scrap piece from a previous project, and made lining up the blades pretty easy. Drilled holes for the brass rod in preparation for the new landing gear Getting the angles correct for the legs. you can see the solder at the bottom. You can also see the the one good skid just to the right. Test fitting the struts to the airframe. You can see the high quality finish on the resin parts (I have no affiliation with the company, I'm just impressed with the finish and fit of these kits) Skids are bent and matched for solder Still some final sanding and shaping, but not too bad for my first try!!! Cheers, Mark

Hallo again The Hermes 450 is my first UAV. I have seen it flying many times. In addition, the resin kit from Isracast was nice to build. This model I build actually for the big airshow in Austria, the Airpower some years ago. IPMS Austria was asked by the organization to make an exhibition. In these days, Austrian UNO Forces spent their last days at the Golan. Happy modelling

Bayraktar TB2 Tactical UAS 1:24 Tanmodel The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle/unmanned combat air vehicle developed for the Turkish Armed Forces. They class it as a Tactical UAV in order that it is not seen as a competitor to the Turkish Aerospace Industries Anka UAV. The vehicle has been jointly developed by The Kale Group and Baykar Technologies. The UAV can fly up to 22,500 feet and loiter for more than 24 hours. In trails it reached a record 27,030 feet with a full payload. As well as sensors the unit can be armed with the ROCKETSAN smart micro munition, The UAV has a blended wing/body design with an inverse V tail, and a rear mounted pusher engine. The structure is primarily carbon fibre the machined aluminium parts. There is a triple redundant flight control system with autonomous taxi, takeoff, cruise, landing and parking capability. As well as units produced for Turkey Qatar has signed a contract for 6 units. The Kit This is a new departure for Tanmodel but as they are a Turkish Company it is no surprise to see them working with Turkish Industry to produce a model of this new UAV. Indeed the scale is reported to be the choice of the industry partner. The kit even though 1.24 scale is not too large, it arrives on 4 sprues of grey plastic with a clear spure & a display stand. A good inclusion for the kit is a full size clear spure Construction starts with the rear mounted engine, The radiator is built up and installed in one half of the engine casing, the rear bulkhead with the engine face has the propeller and spinner attached and this is also inserted in the half of the engine casing, Once in the casing can be closed up and put to one side. Construction then moves to the inverted V tail. The sides are put together then the A shape at the top is made, these join to form the tail. Once together the tail booms can be added. The wings are they made which consist of upper & lower halves for each side. These sub assemblies are then put to one side. The sensor ball is the made up with decals providing the sensor surfaces. This is then encased in its turret, and the turret then mounted into the main fuselage bottom half. The turret can fully articulate once in place. The tail booms and tail are then added to the main upper half of the fuselage along with the wings, following this the fuselage can be closed up. If you are going to have the model freestanding then 15 g's of nose weight will be needed. The engine casing can the be added onto the fuselage. Next up the missiles and their pylons are made up and added to the airframe. The landing gear is now added. The nose wheel has a conventional gear bay where as it looks like the mains stay fixed. The wheels are well detailed with brake hubs on the wheels. If the modeller wishes the UAS can be displayed on the excellent stand contained in the kit. Decals The decal sheet is small as they dont carry much in the way of markings. Mainly national insignia and a company logo. 4 different serial numbers are available. There is no idication of where they are printed, but they look to be in register with no issues. Conclusion Without the participation from industry its doubtful this kit would have come to market. However I am informed its been selling well in home market and abroad where sold. It is definitely something different and well worth hunting down. Highly recomended. Review sample courtesy of

This is the next to last installment of my "Large" drone project. These are the smaller large drones and since they are so small and they all get the same color I built them all together. They are the RQ-2A Pioneer, RQ-5B Hunter, RQ-7B Shadow, MQ-8B Fire Scout and the MQ-8C Fire Scout. The first 2 are by Unicraft (spit) and the last 3 are from Attack Squadron. To keep any post from getting too big I will add a post for each model to this thread. Starting with the RQ-2A First some general comments. These range from really tiny to just small in size, they are pretty monochromatic, and they are all resin. Given that they were very quick builds. I am not going to belabor the poor quality of the Unicraft kits other then to say that as far as resin kits go, they are the bottom of the heap. For more details seem my WIP thread on their YO-3 at In stark contrast the Attack Squadron kits are really excellent and a pleasure to build. They had real detailed step buy step instruction and great decals. It is just a pity they are no longer in production and I just hope that their new owner, Brengun, can keep up the quality. But enough droning on and on to the pictures.

This is my 1/72 Platz Northrop-Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV. This was supposed to be a another quick build, but because of circumstances, some of which were under my control, it took a lot longer. This is my second Platz kit, the first being their X-47B. Based on that kit which had excellent fit and decals when I looked for more UAV kits I eagerly bought the Platz rather then the Italeri ones. Unfortunately this kit was a bit of a disappointment and while the decals were still excellent the fit was only so-so. The fuselage came in 3 pieces; right left and bottom. I guess they did this so they could have a separate bottom for their RQ-4N, AKA MQ-4C, kit. Because of this the right and left halves were warped. They met at the from and back but not in the middle and because there was no bottom to them it was difficult to get the middles to meet, but with patience I was able to get it glued up. Each wing, and they are huge, was made up of a top which wrapped around ~1/3 of the bottom and a bottom insert. This this type of construction seems to be common, but I don't know why they do this since it usually leaves an ugly seam to fill. All this and the fact that the wing tops get painted white added to the build time. But the real desater was after applying the decals and spraying the final flat coat I discovered a blob of super glue one the right wing top close to the tip . How do I fix that without ruining the decals? I will spare you the details, but a week later I am declaring it finished. So enough wining and on the the pictures. At this point I should mention that while they supply the decals for the right and left rudders the instruction show only placing them on the left side and just the serial number on the right. I wasn't happy with this so I searched the internet and found picture that show them on both sides. The pictures also showed the various antennas painted white which the instructions fail to mention. Did I say the wings are big? 130.9 ft (39.9 m) Despite all the complaining I still ordered their RQ-4N kit. Next up is the Welsh Models P-8A Poseidon, which could end up as an expensive disaster since it is my first vacu-form in a while. I gotta get a different hobby. Enjoy

I'm great at starting build threads, less good at finishing them. @Procopiusand @CedB have been muttering (politely) about my being seduced by larger scale modelling and even earth bound stuff. Sadly this thread is not going to make them much happier! Up even further in scale, to 1/35, this is the tiny Academy RQ-7B drone, or UAV. 1/35 RQ-7B UAV by jongwinnett, on Flickr

So despite emptying a tin of enamel paint over my leg while doing so, I ended up finishing this rather small build, an Italieri RQ-1 Predator UAV. Parts of the kit lacked a bit in quality (looking at the propeller blade) but still, could have been worse and I'm quite happy with the neat way it has turned out. Was painted with Humbrol 127 Ghost Grey enamel, tamiya acrylics and Citadel Devlan Mud wash.

The Turkish Aerospace Industries ANKA-A is classified as a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV. The ANKA series of UAVs are being developed by TAI for the Turkish Armed Forces. This makes Turkey only the third country after The USA and Israel to produce this type of UAV. Pics thanks to Martin from Freedom Models.

Chaps, I am currently building three UAVs at the moment, the italeri RQ-4 global hawk, MQ-1 and Skunkmodels MQ-9 Reaper, and was wondering how many other unmanned vehicles are out the in this scale? I see italeri are also doing the MQ-9 but I imagine it is a re boxing of the skunk, which I have already. Unicraft do a few, the X-50, Boeing A160, RQ-8, and Attack Sqn do an RQ-7, but does anyone know of any others? I've seen an X-47 somewhere but can't remember who did that.