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So, this is my first ever foray into scale-esque helis and I thought I'd do a little build log to go with it.
I'm not so interested in having an absolutely 100% faithful scale model - I have neither the time nor patience, nor I suspect the necessary skill - but I do want something that looks badass and somewhat like a real heli to provide something different to my pod and booms.
The Align AH-1 seemed to fit the bill, so I swapped my protos for a T-Rex 500 ESP with a chap on here and chucked it in the cupboard until I had some cash to spare on the fuselage.
Finally picked up a "seconds" from raj at align-trex with some barely visible surface scratches for a nice discount! Sent it out to Geneva and today it arrived, so here starts the build! It'll be a little while before the thing is airborne, I have some extra mods I want to do such as pilots, navigation lights, weathering on the paint job etc and eventually I may go for a 4 blade head (AH-1Z style) and a new paint job but for now I will be leaving it mostly as is.
So, "The beginning"
The box it arrived in is massive, the fuselage is actually quite big - length wise it's actually the same as my 600 Pro, and with the wing stubs fitted a fair bit wider too. Should make for quite a nice presence in the air!
The box - with mCP X on top for scale lol.
IMG_8147.jpg
And the contents (minus the frames and TT extension, I had already taken these with me in my hand luggage and already fitted them awaiting the fuselage... I'm an impatient sort lol)
IMG_8154.jpg
And here a close up of the incredibly detailed cockpit... I intend to install some small green floodlighting here, with a tiny green led to light up the heads up display.
IMG_8149.jpg
So I set about putting the fuselage together, there's not a lot to do here - just install the landing gear, pop the magnetically fastened gun on, stick a couple of antennas here and there, and then glue the wing stubs on with associated weapons and apply some waterside decals.
I say "just install the landing gear" but here is where I hit my first snag. There are 4 nuts inset into the bottom plate where you have to pass the screws through the landing gear and then fasten them into the plate. The front right nut was full of epoxy or similar and I couldn't get the screw in. I tried to drill out just the epoxy, but no dice! in the end I had to drill out the whole nut, and insert a new one with some epoxy to hold it in place. This now doesn't have the upper side of the base plate to stop it being ripped free, but i hope the remaining 3 combined with the epoxy holding the nut in are good enough to take a few heavy touchdowns, not that I intend to do any!
That finally sorted the rest was very straightforward and you can see the assembled fuselage (minus decals) here with my 600 Pro for a backdrop as an example of scale - as you can see this is a long fuselage for a 500!
IMG_8156.jpg
Quality wise I've been quite impressed so far (notwithstanding my gear install issue) - the fuse appears well made and the paint is nicely done. It's solid, but quite heavy - it's certainly going to put a lot of load on the heli, but I have plans for that
I'll add more posts as I go, keep checking back if you are interested!
I'm not so interested in having an absolutely 100% faithful scale model - I have neither the time nor patience, nor I suspect the necessary skill - but I do want something that looks badass and somewhat like a real heli to provide something different to my pod and booms.
The Align AH-1 seemed to fit the bill, so I swapped my protos for a T-Rex 500 ESP with a chap on here and chucked it in the cupboard until I had some cash to spare on the fuselage.
Finally picked up a "seconds" from raj at align-trex with some barely visible surface scratches for a nice discount! Sent it out to Geneva and today it arrived, so here starts the build! It'll be a little while before the thing is airborne, I have some extra mods I want to do such as pilots, navigation lights, weathering on the paint job etc and eventually I may go for a 4 blade head (AH-1Z style) and a new paint job but for now I will be leaving it mostly as is.
So, "The beginning"
The box it arrived in is massive, the fuselage is actually quite big - length wise it's actually the same as my 600 Pro, and with the wing stubs fitted a fair bit wider too. Should make for quite a nice presence in the air!
The box - with mCP X on top for scale lol.
IMG_8147.jpg
And the contents (minus the frames and TT extension, I had already taken these with me in my hand luggage and already fitted them awaiting the fuselage... I'm an impatient sort lol)
IMG_8154.jpg
And here a close up of the incredibly detailed cockpit... I intend to install some small green floodlighting here, with a tiny green led to light up the heads up display.
IMG_8149.jpg
So I set about putting the fuselage together, there's not a lot to do here - just install the landing gear, pop the magnetically fastened gun on, stick a couple of antennas here and there, and then glue the wing stubs on with associated weapons and apply some waterside decals.
I say "just install the landing gear" but here is where I hit my first snag. There are 4 nuts inset into the bottom plate where you have to pass the screws through the landing gear and then fasten them into the plate. The front right nut was full of epoxy or similar and I couldn't get the screw in. I tried to drill out just the epoxy, but no dice! in the end I had to drill out the whole nut, and insert a new one with some epoxy to hold it in place. This now doesn't have the upper side of the base plate to stop it being ripped free, but i hope the remaining 3 combined with the epoxy holding the nut in are good enough to take a few heavy touchdowns, not that I intend to do any!
That finally sorted the rest was very straightforward and you can see the assembled fuselage (minus decals) here with my 600 Pro for a backdrop as an example of scale - as you can see this is a long fuselage for a 500!
IMG_8156.jpg
Quality wise I've been quite impressed so far (notwithstanding my gear install issue) - the fuse appears well made and the paint is nicely done. It's solid, but quite heavy - it's certainly going to put a lot of load on the heli, but I have plans for that
I'll add more posts as I go, keep checking back if you are interested!
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