The MQ-8B Fire Scout was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter developed by Northrop Grumman. It served the U.S. Navy in various roles, including reconnaissance, fire support, and targeting. The MQ-8B was retired from service in October 2022.
An interesting offering, Takom’s new 1/35 scale MQ-8B kit provides enough parts and decals in the box to build two complete models with variations in the nose, vents, and panels. Including two kits allows you to build two variants simultaneously for a nice, side-by-side display.
The build starts with the fuselage. The instructions clearly show where holes should be drilled to attach version-dependent details. It needed only a little filler putty on the bottom fuselage seam. Raised rivets appear to scale and provide good detail, but be careful not to eliminate the rivets while cleaning the fuselage seam.
Paint the inside of the sensor ball under the nose using Model Master Graphite Metallic (No. TE1253) or a similar color, followed by a coat of flat black before putting the pieces together. Mask the lenses after assembly; I used a liquid mask.
I left off the clear lights, the exhaust housings, and the rotor assemblies for individual painting and installation. I also left off the photo-etched metal parts (PE) until the rest of the build was complete to avoid knocking them off.
Cleanup for some of the smaller parts included in the kit was a little tedious due to slight mold seams.
Assembling the main rotor hub is tricky, but Takom keys parts to ensure proper alignment. Getting the small, detailed parts together and properly aligned takes time, but the result is an excellent representation of this complex part.
Takom makes good use of PE, but the parts in Step 8-2 are extremely small and difficult to build. If the challenge of nearly microscopic PE is not your thing, leaving off this detail would hardly be noticeable and could save some aggravation.
Four marking options are provided to correspond to the four build variants. Option B appears in the painting guide with a slightly different configuration showing the refueling panel in place.
The instructions indicate Ammo by Mig Jimenez paint references with an overall light ghost grey (FS36375) scheme. Since I did not have the referenced Ammo paints, I used Mr. Hobby Gray (No. H308). This turned out too dark and too gray. I custom mixed a lighter color, according to photos and the instructions, using Tamiya Sky Grey (No. XF-19), Light Blue (No. XF-23), Flat White (No. XF-2), and a couple of drops of Flat Blue (No. XF-8).
The decals go down well with a bit of setting solution. The low-visibility markings are printed in light gray, but references show them slightly darker than the base color. Once applied, the decals look OK but seem too light. The carrier film is flat and was a little difficult to make disappear, even with a gloss coat underneath and a flat coat on top.
No decals are provided for the red and white stripes on the tail rotor or the flat black markings on the main rotor blades. You’ll have to mask and paint these.
With no fit issues, this is a no-nonsense build requiring PE and masking experience to get it right. I spent about 15 hours building the two Fire Scouts in this kit, and about 20 hours finishing, partly due to two rounds of paint to get a better color match. Kudos to Takom for this true two-in-one package. It will provide a unique addition to any 1/35 scale collection.