Rob de Bie Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 At Telford I bought the 1/72 BAe Mantis UAV by Combat Kits. I'm now gathering information to build the model. Some comments and questions: - The castings are very well done, but I haven't looked into the shape and accuracy. Did someone check the model's shape? - All photos that I found so far are just medium resultion, are there any hi-res photos? - It's not listed on the Freightdog Models site, making me think they already deleted it from the catalog? - The colour looks like a deep brown-bronze bare carbon fiber (maybe high-temperature epoxy?), with a black 'canopy'. The box art suggests black all over, but I haven't seen a photo of that. - The lack of decals makes life a bit difficult. I can draw them and have them custom-printed, but I would have prefered a kit-supplied decal sheet. - The Mantis logo: I can't find a decent perpendicular view. Did someone find something, maybe a PR brochure or a sticker? Anything is welcome! Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Rob de Bie said: - It's not listed on the Freightdog Models site, making me think they already deleted it from the catalog? Freightdog doesn't have all the Combat kits in stock, so not on their website. The Mantis was available at SMW last year and this year in very limited numbers, I think he's just moulding a few at a time. 1 hour ago, Rob de Bie said: The colour looks like a deep brown-bronze bare carbon fiber (maybe high-temperature epoxy?), with a black 'canopy'. The box art suggests black all over, but I haven't seen a photo of that. I'd agree with that. The "black" one was the flying airframe, the grey one was a dummy mockup. 1 hour ago, Rob de Bie said: - The Mantis logo: I can't find a decent perpendicular view. Did someone find something, maybe a PR brochure or a sticker? This is reasonably square one of the logo's on the mockup, the markings on the flying one look the same 1 hour ago, Rob de Bie said: The lack of decals makes life a bit difficult. I can draw them and have them custom-printed, but I would have prefered a kit-supplied decal sheet. I would have preferred a kit decal sheet too, but I suspect it won't be available - at least we've got the kit! If you get round to doing decals before I do, let us folks on Britmodeller know as I know of a couple of folk who would be interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 5, 2019 Author Share Posted December 5, 2019 Dave, thanks for your reply, and even more for the great Flickr photo link!! Here's my first version of the logo. I still need to fine-tune the design. The rest should be relatively easy, if I can read those white stencils. More later! Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 A couple of shots of the mockup which should help with some of the stencils http://www.flymefriendly.com/gallery/v/AirShows/avalon2009/100_2404.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/27448505@N04/7536079386 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Be careful which way the MANTIS lettering slopes..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kushan_Farsight Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Man, its really odd that this is nowhere to be found on the BAE pages, they have nothing more than a single page PDF download for it. Over the past 6 years, i dont think i ever saw this demo vehicle firsthand, although i saw Taranis and Tempest demonstrators at a few exhibitions. One of the very few BAE systems images i could find. Doing reverse image searches, its almost like the original HQ images have been deleted from the BAE servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 2 hours ago, Dave Swindell said: A couple of shots of the mockup which should help with some of the stencils http://www.flymefriendly.com/gallery/v/AirShows/avalon2009/100_2404.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/27448505@N04/7536079386 Thanks, more great photos! Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Keith T said: Be careful which way the MANTIS lettering slopes..... Thanks for the warning! I copied the design from the first mockup, the one without panel lines, and with blunt leading edge wings. But you are right: the second (or revised) mockup with panel lines and a realistic wing leading edge had the logo without slanted lettering. I just looked, and I do not have a decent-enough photo of ZK210 where I can see the lettering well enough.. grr.. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 44 minutes ago, Kushan_Farsight said: Man, its really odd that this is nowhere to be found on the BAE pages, they have nothing more than a single page PDF download for it. Over the past 6 years, i dont think i ever saw this demo vehicle firsthand, although i saw Taranis and Tempest demonstrators at a few exhibitions. One of the very few BAE systems images i could find. Doing reverse image searches, its almost like the original HQ images have been deleted from the BAE servers. Many thanks! Every photo is useful, especially a decent resolution photo like yours. In general terms I'm always amazed how well US companies 'milk' their projects PR-wise, and how bad European companies are at this. Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 (edited) One more thing. I tried to find the basic dimensions, and found only one number, a quoted length of 19.8 m or 65 ft. I guess this is an error (way too big) and probably it's the span. That leads me to the question how Combat Kits managed to make a model of the Mantis, if even the basic numbers are unknown. Does anyone know? Rob Edited December 6, 2019 by Rob de Bie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 Ever thought that there might be a reason they dont want you to know its dimensions etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, Julien said: Ever thought that there might be a reason they dont want you to know its dimensions etc? It's non-stealth, non-combat, medium performance, 10 year old technology prototype. I've worked on UAVs and I would consider the software the most valuable part. Therefore I don't see any problem in publishing the main dimensions. Rob Edited December 6, 2019 by Rob de Bie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted December 8, 2019 Author Share Posted December 8, 2019 A small update. I analysed the nice three-view drawing included in the kit. The wing span is 282 mm, or 20.3 m in 1:1 scale. The length from nose (excluding pitot) to trailing edge horizontal tail is 188 mm, 13.5 m in 1:1 scale. But I still haven't found any BAe dimensions. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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