1/48 MQ-22 Protector UAV

Gallery Article by Mark Atkins on Jan 10 2010

Silly Week 2010

 

This is the second of two models that came about as a result of my job. See my previous submission of the MQ-10 Firebat if I have peaked your interest. I’m a UAV pilot/mechanic by trade with a private company. In the spring of 2009 my company sent me and my good friend and fellow co-worker Bronson Ignacio to a UAV flight test course taught by American Aerospace Engineering (AAE). AAE is a small aviation engineering consulting firm. The company is owned and the course is taught by Mike Bartlett a former South African military test pilot and all around great guy. Part of the syllabus involved designing a UAV around a specific mission and writing a test plan for our designs. This gave us some rudimentary exposure to aircraft design, aero performance engineering and the opportunity to apply our newly acquired flight test skills. This was a introductory course and in no way made us test pilots or engineers. What it did was give us a set of skills that would allow us to be more effective members of a UAV flight test team. Our designs were for academic purposes only.

When we graduated from the course Mike took CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings of our UAVs and ran them through a machine that can cut plastic sheets into the shape of our designs. The one I’m presenting in this article is Bronson’s design. His design was really unique, it was intended to be a lifting body/tilt rotor design (like the V-22 Osprey) and as a result it looks very interesting from all angles. For your viewing pleasure I present the MQ-22 UAV in 1/48 scale!

Here are portions of the Aircraft Description section of Bronson’s test plan to give you an idea of the capabilities the Protector would have…

The MQ-22 Protector is a Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capable of operating from environments with no runways utilizing a beyond line of site capability. The main functions of the Protector will be to provide Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR), Light Strike and Search and Rescue (SAR) capabilities to both land based and maritime assets.

The ISR capability of the Protector includes sending EO and IR video via a secured video link providing real time actionable intelligence. The light strike and SAR capabilities are made possible through a reconfigurable internal mission payload bay. This payload bay allows the Protector to carry a variety of missiles and precision guided munitions for light strike and deliverable rescue equipment in the SAR mission (life vests, rafts, beacons, rations, water etc.)

Performance: Service Ceiling 12,000 feet, Maximum Speed 140 knots, Cruise Speed 90 knots, 15 hour operational endurance, internal mission payload bay capacity 150 pounds, maximum launch weight 500 pounds, empty weight 250 pounds, unlimited beyond line of site communication via satellite link. 

A “before” picture. This is when the machine cuts plastic sheets to the specs of a CAD drawing program.

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The Build. As you can tell this is not a typical out of the box model. It was formed by horizontally stacking sheets of thin pressed plastic that are then cut by the machine based on CAD design specs that are uploaded into the machine’s computer. The end result is a hunk of plastic that roughly resembles your CAD design. I guess you would call this a modeling “rough draft”. Not award winning but still interesting. Since this is a one of kind model I did not want to get carried away with sanding and scribing for fear of messing it up beyond repair/recognition. I decided to leave the body as is and only to paint and decal it as accurately as possible. The model was airbrushed with Testor's Model Master paints. I was very pleased with how the camouflage scheme turned out! I wanted to do camo. instead of the functional (and at times boring) gray schemes that adorn all U.S. UAVs. Who knows maybe this UAV will be flown over the jungles of a foreign country on covert missions and the camo. scheme will keep it hidden from high flying fighters looking to shoot it down! The only new technique I tried was to airbrush black lines to represent the ailerons, flaps and rudders. Not the neatest line painting job but from a distance it makes for a nice effect. The black leading edges of the wing are meant to represent de-icing boots. The anti-collision and position lights were clear parts I found in my spare parts box.

I nervously drilled a hole in the belly of this one of kind model for mounting.  The plastic was really thick and I had to use a larger drill bit than I’m accustomed to and unfortunately the resulting hole was not exactly centered. Even though I measured and marked a dead center hole my nervous hands let me down, luckily it still looks balanced on the stand. I bought a wood dowel, finished wood plaque and a can of glossy black paint from Hobby Lobby to make a display stand.

The decals are left over from a Super Scale 1/48 US Marine Corps Harrier sheet (48-1207) I had used for a Monogram Harrier I build last summer marked up as a VMA-311 Tomcats plane. The aircraft represents a UAV that would be owned and operated by an operational Marine UAV squadron. These what-if markings are made to show how a USMC UAV would be marked if VMA-223 converted from the AV-8 Harrier to the MQ-22. I customized the VMA-223 Bulldogs markings into the fictitious VMU-223 by cutting away the A from VMA-223 and adding a U from the Bulldogs decal that would have gone below the VMA-223 decal on the Harrier. I also used a variety of spare decals from my stash to represent access panels and no-paint antenna areas. I then gloss coated, Microsol set the decals, applied a second gloss coat and a final dull coat. I was a little concerned about how this plastic would handle decal adhesion. In the end the decals adhered to this plastic the same as they would to any other kit you would buy at the local hobby shop.  

I built this one up for Bronson and will be shipping it to him in a few days. If it survives the shipment it will look great on his bookshelf, next to my MQ-10 design that I customized for him. If it doesn’t survive the U.S. postal system at least we have some great pictures of it and hopefully a nice ARC article to look at. I’m really happy with how this model turned out. It was a nice change of pace having a model I could go straight into painting and decaling (the fun stuff).

It may not be award winning, but it is one of kind and it will make for some interesting conversation. These fine custom painted UAV models can be yours, operators are standing by. If you want us to make the actual UAVs for you add an additional $30,000,000.00 (cash or money orders only). Comments are always welcome. Thanks for taking a look at my article.

Mark Atkins

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Photos and text © by Mark Atkins