1/48 Bronco MQ-1 Predator

Gallery Article by Fernan de Gannes on Aug 31 2010

Trinidad and Tobago National Day 2010

 

I always wanted to model the Predator in 1/48 scale.  When Bronco released their version, I snapped up a copy and build it almost immediately.  The Kit can be built as the RQ-1 or the Hellfire-armed MQ-1.  I chose the latter.  The model is built OOB as it is a very close replica to the real thing.  One could argue that the wheel wells are too shallow, but this will only be an issue if the model is portrayed in flight.

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Everything went together without a hitch. The front gear strut is overengineered and needs to be assembled with care as the parts are small and fiddly.  Where I took extra care was getting the angles of the anhedral tailplanes right and installing the main gear. Because of the length of the wings, any misalignment will result in a very obvious tilt.

I painted the Predator with Light Ghost Gray lightened with white and ran a gray wash into the panel lines.  Reference pics showed that these aircraft were kept clean so the weathering is very subtle.  Decals were from the kit and went on without any problems. Enjoy the pics.

Fernan de Gannes

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Photos and text © by Fernan de Gannes