JettaManDan
07-15-2011, 09:05 AM
Well here is the project i was asking about the lighting system for :D
Builing a 450 clone scaler...
My heli piloting skills are progressing..but they are doing so slowly...i don't see myself doing any real 3D stuff anytime in the near future. The durability of my MCP-X has allowed me to try flips with it (but all have gone bad! ) thankfully it is a tough little bird so i will continue to try it out. One day when i have that mastered i may try it with a bigger heli. One day..in a galaxy far far away lol! So i wanted to do some stuff to make what i am doing (just flying around slowly) look cooler
Anyway...having bought my 1st 450 T-rex clone heli...i started looking around for stuff to do...getting my 1st one flying right was a major step....but i really love scale heli's...and my search for a couple of scale fuselages began. Good quality scale ones are hard to find without them being $100+..that is when i ran across one on HobbyKing...i've always been a fan of the Huges 500D (Magnum P.I. and the bad guy Heli in Blue Thunder) and here was a solution! A $50 Fiberglass canopy/fuselage from hobbyking..and even in their US warehouse! With shipping it was like $64....and it showed up yesterday.
This is what came out of the box...
http://www.fototime.com/64FB687F6793E11/standard.jpg
the fiberglass work is pretty good..and the painting is actualy really done well. It has a ply sub structure that is glued into the shell. And this is where chineese production shows itself in a cheap quality control. The floor is like glued in with the front lip of it tilting down and to the right and twisted....so it isn't level. Not sure if it was done like that or heat in storage did it etc...but i'll have to make a shim of some sort. Anyway...the coolest part is that the front of the canopy is magnetized on and has guide pins up top to allow it to sit flush..a REALLY nice feature to take the front off easily for a battery change.
BUT...when i got to messing with it last night a realization hit me...to use their mouting parts..this heli will be in this fuselage almost permanently...tailbox has to come off to get the tail through..and the wood mounts for the heli frame are/will be hard to screw down inside the canopy. (no room) The rear mounts will be next to impossible to reach and secure and then pull out ever. After getting a little discouraged last night a thought hit me this morning on how to do a mount that would allow the heli frame to come out easier...but i digress ;)
Thankfully i had my 2nd EXI 450 in it's box unassembled...so i removed the tail box...secured the wood mounts to it (temporarily) and slid it into the fuselage. I then just put the tail rotor on and set the landing skids in place...
and this is what i ended up with
http://www.fototime.com/D85C85F0CDA5333/standard.jpg
Hatch off..
http://www.fototime.com/8FB660184DD2A31/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/03F8037ECA54E1C/standard.jpg
Tail
http://www.fototime.com/15E03FCCED6D503/standard.jpg
And my 2 450's together..you can see how much bigger this fuselage is!!
http://www.fototime.com/5D96370CAD66238/standard.jpg
the looks alone is worth the effort!! What i'm going to do is make a tongue of sorts off the heli frame..and screw/glue a "bridge" on the substructure of the fuselage in the black...allowing the back of the frame to slide in and be secured..but not have to screw anything down back there. Then i will make a super strong system up front to do the same but only hold it down with 2 screws that are accesible. Just thinking if i burn out a servo or have to change something...maintaince will be next to impossible unless i can get the heli out. This idea will let me do that. And with 3 servo's burnt out so far..well..i know it will happen.
But for now i wanted to share....darthdrk on RCG makes some really awesome scale fuselages..and i'm trading him some stuff and some $$ for a different super awesome one...(casue i can't afford to buy one outright ) but that will be the next "secret" i'll reveal later on...
so that is the progress i have made so far..the top section had to be trimmed to clear the head and the anti-rotation bracket...but that is all the mods i have made so far. It will be a long time till i take my flying frame and put it in this..doing the mock-up now on the non-assembled frame to make it all perfect 1st. If this all goes will...and i actually get this together and flying..i may add lights and other stuff to it to make it even more scale...only time and patience will tell
So wanted to share..what do you guys think?
Dan
Builing a 450 clone scaler...
My heli piloting skills are progressing..but they are doing so slowly...i don't see myself doing any real 3D stuff anytime in the near future. The durability of my MCP-X has allowed me to try flips with it (but all have gone bad! ) thankfully it is a tough little bird so i will continue to try it out. One day when i have that mastered i may try it with a bigger heli. One day..in a galaxy far far away lol! So i wanted to do some stuff to make what i am doing (just flying around slowly) look cooler
Anyway...having bought my 1st 450 T-rex clone heli...i started looking around for stuff to do...getting my 1st one flying right was a major step....but i really love scale heli's...and my search for a couple of scale fuselages began. Good quality scale ones are hard to find without them being $100+..that is when i ran across one on HobbyKing...i've always been a fan of the Huges 500D (Magnum P.I. and the bad guy Heli in Blue Thunder) and here was a solution! A $50 Fiberglass canopy/fuselage from hobbyking..and even in their US warehouse! With shipping it was like $64....and it showed up yesterday.
This is what came out of the box...
http://www.fototime.com/64FB687F6793E11/standard.jpg
the fiberglass work is pretty good..and the painting is actualy really done well. It has a ply sub structure that is glued into the shell. And this is where chineese production shows itself in a cheap quality control. The floor is like glued in with the front lip of it tilting down and to the right and twisted....so it isn't level. Not sure if it was done like that or heat in storage did it etc...but i'll have to make a shim of some sort. Anyway...the coolest part is that the front of the canopy is magnetized on and has guide pins up top to allow it to sit flush..a REALLY nice feature to take the front off easily for a battery change.
BUT...when i got to messing with it last night a realization hit me...to use their mouting parts..this heli will be in this fuselage almost permanently...tailbox has to come off to get the tail through..and the wood mounts for the heli frame are/will be hard to screw down inside the canopy. (no room) The rear mounts will be next to impossible to reach and secure and then pull out ever. After getting a little discouraged last night a thought hit me this morning on how to do a mount that would allow the heli frame to come out easier...but i digress ;)
Thankfully i had my 2nd EXI 450 in it's box unassembled...so i removed the tail box...secured the wood mounts to it (temporarily) and slid it into the fuselage. I then just put the tail rotor on and set the landing skids in place...
and this is what i ended up with
http://www.fototime.com/D85C85F0CDA5333/standard.jpg
Hatch off..
http://www.fototime.com/8FB660184DD2A31/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/03F8037ECA54E1C/standard.jpg
Tail
http://www.fototime.com/15E03FCCED6D503/standard.jpg
And my 2 450's together..you can see how much bigger this fuselage is!!
http://www.fototime.com/5D96370CAD66238/standard.jpg
the looks alone is worth the effort!! What i'm going to do is make a tongue of sorts off the heli frame..and screw/glue a "bridge" on the substructure of the fuselage in the black...allowing the back of the frame to slide in and be secured..but not have to screw anything down back there. Then i will make a super strong system up front to do the same but only hold it down with 2 screws that are accesible. Just thinking if i burn out a servo or have to change something...maintaince will be next to impossible unless i can get the heli out. This idea will let me do that. And with 3 servo's burnt out so far..well..i know it will happen.
But for now i wanted to share....darthdrk on RCG makes some really awesome scale fuselages..and i'm trading him some stuff and some $$ for a different super awesome one...(casue i can't afford to buy one outright ) but that will be the next "secret" i'll reveal later on...
so that is the progress i have made so far..the top section had to be trimmed to clear the head and the anti-rotation bracket...but that is all the mods i have made so far. It will be a long time till i take my flying frame and put it in this..doing the mock-up now on the non-assembled frame to make it all perfect 1st. If this all goes will...and i actually get this together and flying..i may add lights and other stuff to it to make it even more scale...only time and patience will tell
So wanted to share..what do you guys think?
Dan