Dirt Biter

Hello Folks!

Ihave been staying in the background since joining until Ihad confirmation that my scale build is a goer.(SWMBO caved in!) Ihave admired many of the helis that have been posted here and impressed with the skills in building by the forum members.

My build is going to be on a fuselage from High Torque in the UK and Iwill be using a Phoenixtech Flasher 600 as the donor craft for this. The kit from HT differs from most as it is fabricated from PETg - the same material that most carbonated drinks come in now but is 1mm thick. Igained a lot of experience using PET when Iwas building water rockets and have found that it can take a lot of heavy knocks without damage so Ihope that the 1mm thick as in the fuse will be as sturdy.

The initial build will be with the standard rotor head of the Flasher but will be changed out later for a scale7 rotor unit with matching 4 blade tail rotor. Iam lucky in the fact that Manuel (Kumrick2) is willing to undertake the construction of the retractable landing gear when the build is advanced enough to install it.

Ilooked at various cheap 600 clones from round the world and decided that despite being much more expensive, the Flasher 600 is constructed to a higher level and better finish than the generics around, fingers crossed it is the right choice!

The fuse is on the way so as it progresses Iwill post the build for comment and tips.

Watch this space, as they say!

krumrick2

Hello,

Nice to see your post about the CH53, I will follow your progress too, soon as you have the measures I will start building the retracts, I will send to you to test soon as I can.
You can help me with photos ( ... much detailed as you can), after receive and if you like them ...then you can send one of this fuselage to me.

Best regards,
Manuel

PS: my wife says hello to yours, tell her Michele is from Florianopolis-Santa Catarina

ea01bg

I'll be wacthing this build! How did you reach High Torque ? I've sent them email and tried there web site to get a 45 deg tail gearbox and havent had any luck.

Dirt Biter

Hello ea01bg,

the High Torque website is not one of the most friendly to the user as the colour scheme does not show the contact information clearly, Ifound it by highlighting the page and then Iwas able to contact them but here are the details:-

Email - [email protected]

Tel - +441525385835

Dirt Biter

Gorgok

Has anyone tried running piano wire in a liner of some sort for the tail? That is what the boaters do and they can spin props that push their boats 100+ mph. Granted, they weigh much less, but they also spin very fast. The most important part is to incorporate enough slack in the cable that when it loads up it doesn't shrink too much to start rubbing on any supporting bearings/bushings or disengage any gears.

I figure you can probably get away with quite a big wire which are usually counter wrapped so that the shrinkage is very small, the bend isn't that drastic at anything up to 45 degrees. And to increase the radius of the bend isn't hard if you don't limit yourself to the small boom but use the full room a scale body would have.

ea01bg

They are called wire drives, they have been around for a long time. google "RC heli wire drive"

D.J. Erlenbach

I have a Century Bell 47. It came with a piano wire in a brass tube tail drive. Was straight, no curves. The problem I had was a BAD tail wag that would pop up at any time and wouldn't stop !!! Would have to land it with the tail wagging. Let the head speed drop and spool up again and it would be OK for 30 sec. - ? Or it may go for a couple minutes before it was back. Finally figured out the wire was winding up or unwinding after a harder tail input and the 401 gyro was picking it up !! I shortened a torque tube drive and managed to make it look 1/2 way scale since it is out in the open on top of the tail boom. WAS END OF PROBLEM !!!! Maybe a much heavier wire in the drive would have been OK. It was only about a .072in wire. Is something to consider can happen with wind up in the drive. If you go to the "flybarless " forum and drop to Century Bell 47 and Jet Ranger, flyberless, Is a pic of the torque tube conversion. I just mounted the carrier bearing on top and topped it off with a fake " Nav" light.

Dirt Biter

Well the fuselage kit arrived from High Torque via Germany where it is manufactured. Well packed box containing the vacuum formed PETg parts and the wooden frame parts, no manual as this is sent out direct to the customer in pdf format. After a quick unpack Ichecked the parts against the build listing only to find out that a whole section of the wooden frame parts and the carrier strips are missing. Not to worry, Ian at High Torque has this under control.

So, what do you get for your 120GBP?

As stated in the High Torque description of the fuselage, it is manufactured from 1mm PETg, this measurement comes from the sprue left after the vacuuming process but the actual fuselage thickness is around 0,75mm in general with some of the more extended parts being slightly thinner. The wooden parts are routed from 3 layer ply, the quality used is a bit on the soft side but there is reinforcing at the strategic load carrying ares that will make this suffice for the build.

This is definitely NOT a beginners fuselage kit for any of you out there thinking about converting your Trex 600! You will need a reasonably good skill level and be able to avoid gluing your fingers together with superglue if you go that route. Iwill be using a combination of PU adhesives, wood glue, thick and thin superglues along with additional PETg for beefing up areas on the fuselage.
Ihave managed to accumulate a respectable amount of information for this build and thanks go to Daniel Golan for providing detailed photographs of the landing gear that krumick2 will be making for me later in the build. Looking at the tail assembly Ihave a lot of work if Iwant the true scale look for it as the kit design is for a vertical version that kicks back but does not have the 5 degree fall to the right as you look at it head on.
One of the biggest issues is going to be the stowage mechanism for the tail. Iwant this to be able to fold back along the main fuselage as in the real thing so Iam looking for a set of nesting crown gears or at worst, a splined coupling unit where Ican cut through the tail boom and install it ahead of the tail angle drive adaptor that gives the required angle. Iwill most likely have to reiforce this area a quite heftily and will problably make an aluminium hinged unit to accomodate the gears and bearings to support the drive transmission to the tail unit, going to be interesting to see if my ideas actually play out!

OK, enough from me, Iwill update the post as things progress.


Photo ID

1) the kit as it came
2) scale drawing for assembly details
3) wood parts 1
4) wood parts 2
5) you cannot have enough drawings of your model!
6) checking tail angle of fuse against actual

AandP

Interesting build. As a fan of 53's I'll be keeping an eye on your build.

krumrick2

Hello Roddy,

the photo from our colleague Aandp, the CH53 ...this photo is from Who??
I see the retracts, very nice !!

Manuel

Dirt Biter

Manuel, it looks like one of those finely detailed 1/48th scale plastic kits, some of them Ihave seen researching are extremely complex and hats off to their builders for some excellent work.
I am working out some details for the tyre mould Iwill make as there are no suitable ones Ican find to do the job,

Might be a bit of fun making that!

krumrick2

Roddy,

What your thought about buy a cheap plastic model to mount ( e-bay maybe), to have more details, then you send to me the retratcs of the model, after finish I will resend again???

Manuel

Dirt Biter

Manuel,

Idon't think they do a 1/24th scale in plastic. Also Iwas wrong about the photograph above, it is an RC kit, not a plastic model one. !

krumrick2

I will try to find an plastic kit of CH 53, and one of the Agusta 109, I think this will be the better way to replicate the retracts and others parts, can be 1/24 or 1/48th, there is no difference to me, just I need the details, in the Agusta 109 i'm planning to make even a detailed scale rotorhead (four blades).

I think even my wife will like these litle scales in our living room.

Don't worry about searching these, I will find and buy just for me, as well I want others models for future projects.

AandP

Thanks for the compliments.

It's closer to 1/10 scale. 6.5 feet long. 2 meter rotor span. 42 pounds ready to fly.

krumrick2

I remember an build thread almost two years ago, and a video testing first with glow, then a turbine, a video in night flight too, all of this before finished, is that one???.

Btw...impressive machine, beautiful!!!...nice detail the scale blades, the retracts Etc., fantastic work

Many thanks for share the photo.

Manuel

gromitvt10

My Feedback: (19)

So, any progress?

coptercptn

My Feedback: (2)

Here's mine same set-up as Arlo's (AandP) "OF" Fuselage, head, tail, blades, Jakadofski Turbine 1/10th scale 45lbs....

mpowley

While it is a very nice job, but the model is incorrect, you have built a Sikorsky MH-53M; if you research the tail construction and the nose electronic compartments the CH 53E is completely different.