The Hughes N23CP, is HeliArtist 3rd Hughes 500D fuselage, it is prepainted in a blue, green and white scheme.


The HeliArtist Hughes N23CP is my third HeliArtist fuselage. My other two scale fuselages are the Bell Jet Ranger and Hughes 500D. They have all been fairly easy builds and a joy to fly.


I ordered the N23CP from Flying-Hobby, and received it within 3 days from Hong Kong.



Inside the box there are three bags and the 2 page installation sheet.
Bag #1 contains the two piece fuselage.
Bag #2 contains mounting hardware, skid pipes, vertical and horizontal stabilizer.
Bag #3 contains the landing struts.





I find the best method for achieving a level assembly of the landing gear, is to assemble the struts and skids, attach, level and weight down the assembly before applying the epoxy.



In the kit you'll find a bag with several dozen wooden pieces to build a frame set. I used 8 layers in the front and 9 layers in the rear.

The install guide suggest fixing one of the woods to the frame with a screw, and then to epoxy the frame to the fuselage's wood frame set.
I opted to do a four point mount with zip ties. It is very secure and can be more easily removed for maintenance.



To access the battery, on this fuselage, you simply remove the nose section that is magnetically attached.



The nose section comes with four magnets, two on the nose and two and the fuselage. For my own security I installed six additional sets of rare earth magnets on the nose and fuselage.



When installing the tail's vertical/horizontal stabilizer, I found it necessary to do a little dremel work, to allow for a better fit mounting the v/h stabilizer, and to prevent the servo rudder rod from binding on the edge of the fuselage tail. This is due to the protruding elevator servo, that prevented me from mounting the frame as far back as possible. With some creative spacers, you could mod the elevator servo install to fit further inside the heli frame, which would allow for the frame to fit further inside the fuselage.



Also, I used some ball links, which provided the perfect amount of spacing between the vertical stabilizer and tail boom. The frame spacers, should you have some extras lying around, would also work well to put some spacing between the fuselage tail and vertical stabilizer.




As with many fuselages, the helicopter will be tail heavy and some consideration of component placement will need to be addressed.
I've always found it necessary to add some lead weights, in the nose section, to achieve center of gravity.



For those of us that lack painting skills and enjoy scale models, the HeliArtist fuselages are the perfect choice.

The N23CP is HeliArtist 3rd 500D fuselage. It has some improvements over the first Hughes 500D fuselage.
1. Molded plastic landing gear struts
2. Translucent tinted windows
3. Magnetically attached nose for easy battery replacement

The N23CP is a joy to fly, and looks very realistic in the air.
It's appearance is larger and makes it easier to see, relative to the stock 450, at farther distances.

Overall, the HeliArtist 500D N23CP fuselage is a very easy build.
The fuselage can be installed and ready to fly in just a few hours after the glue has dried.
Removal of the landing skids, tail boom support rods, canopy mount studs, vertical and horizontal stabilizers are required.
You'll need to partially disassemble the tail rotor assembly to insert the frame into the fuselage, and then reassemble the tail rotor assembly.
A small bit of Dremel work may be needed on the tail assembly, but is not required.

I look forward to seeing more color options, for the Hughes 500D, and would like to see some 500E fuselges.



Align T-Rex 450 SE V2
NeuMotors 1107/2Y with 15T pinion
Castle Creation 35 ESC
Futaba 9257 rudder servo
HiTec HS65 cyclic servos
Futaba GY401 gyro
Flight Power EVO 25 2170 mAh 3S
Mavrikk E-Series 335 mm Carbon Fiber Main Rotor Blades
Gorilla Gear paddles with full weights
Spektrum AR6100 Receiver


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duKmbCxw7VY