Scalemates 5th Generation, UAV, and Stealth Groupbuild 2021

I needed to adjust the bottom seam of the fuselage. You might tell where I masked off the belly access panels that will be added with photoetch later. There's one more to place down there, aft of the rear skid bracing, but I'll wait on that. 

I don't know if I cut the tail boom too shallow, but there was a pretty big step here. I know there's supposed to be a seam, so I'll try to scribe that in later. Man, my putty job was messy that night. 🙂 

Just a note about this part, RP13's placement. Its tiny, and I did a bit of research before placing and wanted to give other builders a heads up.  

This photoetch part, PE 34, has some guild reference photos to help with the placement. Were I to do this again though, I would draw a pencil mark on the resin surface to know where the pins go. As it was, I had to reposition the second piece twice so that it matched the port side. 

The vertical tail brace. I had to do a bit of guess work here. One side (the aft in my choice) is slightly longer than the other. I'm guessing that this will keep the tail straight in line with the fuselage body. Hopefully that bears true and accurate. UPDATE: on further, review, I should have kept the longer edge forward so that the tail had a toe-out alignment. 

These parts PE-16 also have little indication of whether they should be slanted forward or as I chose to put them, parallel to the ground. 

Ugh, I completely, reversed the installation of parts PE-31/32 placing them upside-down on the fuselage. There's even an indentation on the body to show how it should have gone. The scoop is in the correct position, in the aft hole, but the holes in the plate should be on the bottom. 

The resign template and copper wires supplied by the kit worked well for the build. I struggled with deciding how to assemble these though and after lots of research, decided on a lot of dry-fitting and putty to hold the shape. I wanted to share the outside dimensions. 

According to specs, I think the scale outer dimensions should be 5.5cm, either I trimmed the rails too short (I cut them in line with the template though), or the measurement is off. 

The only other note I wanted to share is that, the resin runners have a hole to receive the copper rails, however, the diameter was a bit small. So I sanded the copper to a cone shape and I'll hope that my CA glue will hold. 

I spent some time before adding part PE-23 to the rear rail support to mark the centerline and attachment points. 

Since my runner width is closer to 5.4cm, remember your span may be different depending on how close you trim the rails to the template, it was easy to bisect the rail and mark the centerline at 27mm. 

I did have to sand the ends of part PE-23 though as it went down a hair longer than the span between the RP-27 supports. Once that was done, things went down quickly. 

I had a slight counterclockwise rack on the assembly once all was said and done that lifted one runner tip a mm off the table, but a slight bend in on the opposite side rail and it sits fine now. May have to continue to adjust, but we'll see. 

I added the tiny parts PE30, just forward of the bow rails. I had a hard time finding the location on any reference photos, and I don't know if I sanded off any molded alignment marks. They were an absolute agony to attach, doesn't bode well for the door hinges. 

In the previous photo and this one you see the mid fuselage tiedown rings and plates on the sides of the deck between the rails. The directions were fairly easy to comprehend in this case as well as well molded alignments.  

Adding the door hinges and handle hardware. 

The door hinges was really challenging. Thankfully the kit had two extras (or, I didn't place them in the correct orientation 😛) as two parts flew off to the carpet gods. The best orientation I saw was on Bell 407 sales literature which has the acute angle of the triangle facing aft.  

Just added a couple more tie-down rings on the runners part PE-11 

First, I needed to trim the bulky resin feeding channels from the leading edge. I gotta comment about the quality of this pour by the way - No blemishes at all, a great mold. I did my best to keep these cuts proud of the surface so that I didn't dig in and leave something to fill later. 

Starting to trim up the main rotors. 

A bit of contrast to show the condition before I start sanding down and shaping. 

So, my process starts with all appropriate cautions taken when working with resin. In addition, I lay down a couple layers of sopping-damp paper towel to collect dust and easily wipe off excess material. I'm sorry its hard to demonstrate in one photo, but I try to keep even pressure across the whole blade with as many fingers supporting the trailing edge as I can manage. Then, I wipe the blade forward and back until the surface is relatively even. I don't press hard, just wiping. This is 600 grit wet sandpaper. I feel that the wet towel underlayment helps to smooth the pressure. Then I finish with a few inline passes to keep the contour in order and I'm all set. 

And here's a view of the nearly complete rotor blade. After this I passed over it a few more times with 1500 grit. Not sure if it would look as good polished or not, but we'll see when the first coat of primer goes down. 

Tail in place. For the horizontal surfaces I needed to do some trimming on the trailing edge to help it fit in the boom's recessed surface. Basically I notched it, but the fit is better for it now and I had little worry of sag while the CA glue dried. 

The decal instructions have a good view of how these surfaces should be aligned. I think my vertical tail should have a bit more toe-out. 

Back to the blades, I painted all parts black to give it a good base coat contrast. The underside of the main rotors stay black.  

White was painted first over the whole blade's upper surface.
There is lots of variation in the upper surface painting of both civilian Bell 407s and military models as well. Perhaps there are different blade models to select depending on conditions or budget? In general they all feature red blocking, but I wasn't able to find any specified dimensions. So I just went with what looked best. 

The assembled blade to hub. I'll have to check rotor droop later, not sure if I want to model that tough. 

Couple touch ups left to do. I also need to decide/research if the blades have a leading edge de-icing strip. That'll have to be carefully masked and painted if so. 

Out of Paint Booth Purgatory and into detailing. There will be a few photo etch pieces missing in the final assembly. Part of the FLIR pod, I think its a telescope, for instance. Though reference video and photos leave this out sometimes, so perhaps it is mission specific. 

It's hard to see I think in photos, but I am doing fine washes and "highlights" around the access panels and other high handle areas. I am not planning a lot of weathering, though I've considered a "wash" of exhaust smoke which, photos of the Bell 407, fairly cover the tail boom. We'll see. 

I was hoping of providing a view of the under side of the fuselage. No more missing bits, though I've had to replace some of the missing door hinges with paper card cut to size.  

So, the tail rotor was a bit of a quandary for a while. Here's how I finally approached it. The directions call for .7dia sprue about 8.7mm long. Instead I used a precision drill bit and drilled out the rotor and the 90deg hub. I then inserted a .7mm steel rod and glued it in place. The "rotor shaft" passes through the rotor hub anyhow, so this is a preferred method - at least for me. And much more secure. 

Top view of the rotor alignment. 

One might notice the missing "deck brace" part RP22 from the bottom of the vertical tail. That fiddly bit never stood a chance. I had it glued on for all of about 20mins, before it snapped in two and the carpet ate the missing bit. Why I never just drilled a hole and inserted a piece of copper wire in its stead, I'll never know. Not sure how I make a replacement at this point. 

So, a bit of a preview. I won't secure the main rotor until the end. Next, the FireScout will be off for a gloss coat before decals and final detailing. 

I used a brushed on gloss-coat for the lenses of the FLIR pod. I wish that the decal set had included some of the standard markings that you find on those devices but okay. 

The rotor hub assembled very securely, although I did drop the assembly once prior to installing and broke off two of the rotors where they connect to the hub. The clean breaks were easy to repair, this time. 

The decals went on over my gloss coats VERY nicely. A bit of MicroSol to get a good seal but I was impressed and pleased with Brengun's set. 

Even the smallest grounding pin and tie-down locator decals were easily transferred and set well. 

I applied one final very light dull coat. I prefer my 48th scale modern models to have a very light sheen. I think it looks more "to scale" but that's a preference thing. 

MQ-8B and C as models as close as they'll ever be. 

Thanks for browsing!