Fire Fighting Drone - Finished

[Robomog]

Hi all

Wading Into this one with  a semi scratch build. Aircraft will be basically  a big water tank with an engine and rotor attached tail control will be a ducted exhaust rather than a tail rotor.

This is the doner kit.

by Robomog, on Flickr

I got it really cheap in a stack-it-high-sell-it-cheap shop for £2 GB and had no intention of building it.  I was curious what it was like and thought it would make a useful source of spares

It consists of two sprue and a load of loose parts.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Look at that smoky glass sprue.....   keeping that for other projects. The fuselage is in multiple sections rather than two halves and a bit chunky,  I think this has been designed as a snap together kit but it's still polystyrene and a weird box scale. Strangely the box says 1:65 scale but the instructions say  1:115

its a very confused kit

The kit has donated the engine section and the rotor which I am going to Scale-o-rama  to 1:72 scale and I have manufactured all the parts for the main water tank.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Let construction commence !!

Thanks for looking...........

Mog
>^-.-^<

[GTX_Admin]

Looking forward to this one.

[Buzzbomb]

Drone Fire Fighting aircraft have to be a way forward.

Looking forward to how this evolves.

[ChernayaAkula]

Interesting idea. 

Looks like the decal (sticker?) sheet also offers US and Soviet markings beside the Chinese option. Interesting possibilities for other Z-9/Dauphin builds.

[Robomog]

Cheers guys

Moritz - i haven't tried the decals yet, these kits come in a series of eight, I have got four of them and the decal sheet  is identical in each kit !

by Robomog, on Flickr

I have got 2,4,6 and 8, would have loved to get 3 for this build but alas it was not there !

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi all

The components assemble !

by Robomog, on Flickr

The tank is complete, it will need some extra detail.

Above is a selection of starting components, I will probably not use all of them, at this point I'm undecided as to use wheels or skids. Also I'm not sure the rotor is big enough relative to the size of the tank.  Time will tell...........

More when it happens

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi all

Joined the command section to the engine section and puttied over the cracks, put some detail on the water tank.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Also built up the back to receive the tail boom.

by Robomog, on Flickr

More when it happens....

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi guys.

Well it had to happen, my usual sparse-research-and-wing-it approach to modeling has finally come around and bitten me on the bum.

The NOTAR design is a hell of a lot more complicated than I first thought and the model as currently shown is wildly short of the mark.

For a start it needs more grunt in the engine department and I have discovered the the rotarless  tail boom does not take gasses from the exhaust but has in fact it's own rotor embedded in the rear of the body.   Aaaargh!

In addition to this I will need to find some steering fins.

So here we have the catch up so far.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Good news........

I've found a couple of turbines to scale-o-rama up and completely redesigned the tail boom, fortunately the doner kit provided a couple of fins to fit to the boom the just needed a bit of filling of the ejection marks. 

Bad news.........

The fins and main rotor from the doner kit have no airofoil shape, they just flat plastic, I may have to find some new rotor blades, the fins are doable. Also constructed the undercarriage only to realise the components were way too big, used the wrong diameter of plastic rod, my bad

Oh the Joy's of modelling, two steps and all that......

Thanks for looking.......

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi all

Major catchup time (or back to the drawing board !)

The redesigned tail boom is complete together with some directional fins.

by Robomog, on Flickr

Seen here balanced on the water tank.

The new rotor is nearly finished and the replacement skid assembly has been manufactured

by Robomog, on Flickr

Also started work on the camera/sensor assembly

by Robomog, on Flickr

This little piece of transparency mark's a tiny piece of progress  yay!

More when it happens...........

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Kerick]

Looking great to me! Thoughts on color yet? Erickson orange!

[Robomog]

Not quite  decided on colours, will probably be flame red body, yellow tank all rattle can sprayed as  those colours are notoriously difficult to brush paint.

Rotor may be white/black stripes  not really sure about that yet.

Got to decide soon as it's getting close to primer time 

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Hi all

Landing skids are  now on and apart from a little tweaking the construction is complete and ready for the priming coat.

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

Thinking of calling it the Dragonfly water bomber because the long thin body and rounded tail reminiscent of the  insect, any comments ?

Thanks for looking

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Half the battle has been won already, you have managed to square it up on the landing skids so it sits properly.  That = Winning! 

[Robomog]

Thanks Jeff

When I first assembled the landing gear the right skid had a distinct 'toe up' attitude, but with a little bit of bending and warm words it now sits squarely on its skids.  10 mins worth of adjustment so as you rightly say  definite win 


Mog
>^-.-^<

[apophenia]

Great stuff!

...Thinking of calling it the Dragonfly water bomber because the long thin body and rounded tail reminiscent of the  insect, any comments ?

Perfect name    Those long legs really add to the dragonfly effect 

[Old Wombat]

Great stuff!

...Thinking of calling it the Dragonfly water bomber because the long thin body and rounded tail reminiscent of the  insect, any comments ?

Perfect name    Those long legs really add to the dragonfly effect 

Yup! All it needs now is a slightly beefier front end (a couple of optical sensor balls, one each side?) to make the "head".

[Robomog]

Ha ha !  Thanks guys but this ones going to be  a bit of a deformed cyclops Dragonfly

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Robomog]

Aaaaand talking of deformed cyclops dragonflies.......

I present to you  the Fire Industries Ltd  Dragonfly Fire Fighting Drone mk 1

Capable of being controlled from a room at its operating base or from a fire watch aircraft at the scene, it comprises two internal tanks allowing for a split load deployment. It contains two fixed forward facing cameras and a three hundred and sixty degree camera in the nose which will allow it to become a fire watch aircraft in it's own right. For full firewatch/search and rescue missions it will be flown without the water tank.

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr

And a couple of shots with Arthur and the yellow Landrover to give you some idea of scale, this has been built to 1/72 scale.......

by Robomog, on Flickr

by Robomog, on Flickr


Compared to the Medivac Heron this build has gone remarkably well, looking at the photos I can see some minor whoopsies but on the whole I am very pleased how this one came out.

Thanks for looking, all comments and criticism gratefully accepted, as always

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Jeffry Fontaine]

That looks sharp!  Fire will flee at the sight of this device! 

[apophenia]

Woah! I thought this was going to be good but that looks wicked 

[GTX_Admin]

 

[ChernayaAkula]

Yup! That's obviously a Dragonfly! 

What was the sensor ball originally? Astrodome? Bomber nose glazing?

[Robomog]

Thanks guys, much appreciated 

Moritz - the sensor ball is indeed a bomber nose glazing, but I have no idea which aircraft or scale, it came with a load of spare parts I purchased recently. 


Mog
>^-.-^<

[Frank3k]

That's just a beautiful little drone! It reminds me of the McDonnell Model 120 Flying Crane (as seen on the AMP models thread)

[kitnut617]

A very practical solution I'm thinking