Internet Modeler : First Look : Aviation RSS News Feed

Platz 1/72 RQ-4N Global Hawk

By Matt Bittner

Introduction

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Global Hawk is able to provide a "broad overview and systematic target surveillance". It's primarily used for high-altitude and the RQ-4N (now officially known as the MQ-4C) is the US Navy equivalent of the RQ-4B USAF version.

The Kit

The Platz 1/72 RQ-4N Global Hawk consists of 41 pieces of gray, injected plastic, along with one metal screw. And that's it. No clear pieces! That means no canopy to try and blend into the fuselage and no canopy to mask. That is my biggest joy with building an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

The decals are beautifully printed by Cartograf and are in register. There are decals for five schemes, four US Navy (one is for the US Naval Oceanographic Office which appears to be painted mainly in white – color call-outs are all in Japanese so I'm unsure of the exact colors) and one JMSDF machine. Except for what I think is the white Oceanographic one, the others appear to be overall gray.

Construction starts with the front and rear engine sections followed by building up the fuselage. One item of note. It appears Platz has devised an ingenious way of assuring the very long wings don't droop by providing a plastic plate and metal screw that is mounted into the bottom fuselage piece, and once the fuselage is all assembled the wings are slotted underneath this plate. Hopefully this system will keep the long wings from drooping over time.

Once the fuselage is put together then construction continues with gluing the wing pieces together followed by adding them and the V-tail to the fuselage. Once those are on there are various bumps that are added prior to painting. While the instructions have you add the landing gear and accoutrements I would leave all that off until after painting.

Conclusion

The Platz 1/72 RQ-4N (MQ-4C) Global Hawk is a large model. The level of detail is outstanding and it should be a joy to assemble. Be sure to have lots of shelf space for it, though.

Many thanks to Platz for sending this kit to review.