I am just about finished building my own EXI 450. Started out as a repair job on another heli that turned out to be total junk. All servos , gyro ,motor , battery , TX/RX blah blah blah. have been purchased new.

Looking back at it now , I seriously think that this would have been a better way to get into a single rotor helicopter.

http://www.ka-planes.com/inc/sdetail/1344

Keep the EXI as a spare 2nd project or something. It doesn't appear to be a bad starting point , It's just a lot of work / parts to get going.

My $500 opinion.