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Here's how brutal it is to break into the biz -- an aspiring model/actress is lucky she still has eyes, ears and a nose after a 4-prop drone smashed into her face during a photo shoot.

Jess Adams was helping a photographer friend Saturday with a clothing shoot in Malibu. Jess, who's appeared on "Community," says it was her first time working with a drone.

It had all the makings of a perfect shot ... on a rocky bluff, waves crashing, the wind blowing and what Jess says was her "seductively eye-f******" the drone camera lens. And then ... WHAM!!

Jess doesn't think it was a piloting error ... rather the drone rode a gust of wind directly into her face.