thanks man!!

Building and progressing..shes coming out nicely, the blade length had to be cut short by 10mm from the usual 325mm as the 5 bladed head just cant allow the tail to hold..did a little test and seems like the tail is a bit steady now..lowered the RPM to around 2100~ and it seems kinda ok as of right now!
Some suggested that a 2 blade tail on a 5 blade head would not be sufficient so did a tail mod too and now my tail has 4 blades, using 2 tail holders.
will post pictures soon...

NB: I have cut down on the idea of going electric tail. Initially it was a good idea, but the motors just keep on burning up..
tail is now belt driven with a 4 blade holder but, is a little tail heavy..hopefully the CoG will be achieved once the fuse is mounted.

Regards,

Dorwin

Best of luck!

Good day guys,

Some of you may know that I was busy building my 5 blade 450 heli a while ago..
Well, its been like 6 months and I finally got her flying for the first time today.

I had set a 4 blade heli for one of my pal a year back, but I say, setting the 5 blade + 4 blade raised tail was the most challenging part of my RC career..

Problems I faced:

I'll start with the blades;
Blades: I had to shave, trim, cut, phase and God knows what else..

Tail blades: the stock ones did not work for me at all, so built my own, using thermosetting plastic and lots and lots of sanding and grinding with balancing.

4 blade tail holder modification: Completely copied from some user at RCG. works perfect, if using 3+ blades.

Elevated tail assembly: Modified with some help of a user. (initially, I destroyed a pulley due to rpm and belt tension issues.

Servos: Burned and stripped around 4 servos in the process.

Main gear: stripped around 2 main gears.

ESC: Burned my hobbywing 10A ESC initially, during the electric tail conversion mod.

Tail Shafts: Replaced around 3 tail shafts due to bending issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above were some of the problems I faced, the worst were yet to come with lots and loads of frustration.

For 3 months the heli spun like a roulette wheel on throttle, couldn't even get it off the ground.
Finally I found the solution, I replaced the tail blades and installed my own with 70mm length from hole to tip and 12mm wide.
For the main blades, trimmed the blades from 325mm to 315mm and narrowed them to around 26.5mm
Cut around 75mm from the hole to the blades so I could have some authority on the RPM, because I did not want to reduce the RPM completely to what some people advised me (you can see them in the pictures)
Then still, sometimes it did the same roulette thing..but I can fix that now...some tweaks in my Tx..

I will post some pictures as of now..will get into more detail later on...

This thread will be dedicated to this build..same as the Mustang build...any progress will be posted...

Some more build pictures...

and my little room Vtol flyer...hehehehe

nice build...!!! 

Dorwin my friend, a few bigger pictures of the complete CH 53 and the Osprey (?) will be much appreciated. Videos would be 

Good build man!!

had been busy with work all this time..I surely will post the pictures of the fuselage as soon as I give it a primer coat..
Even as of now, I am staying in a temporary room on site and working on the build, will be going back to my city home sooner and post some pics..

Thanks!
I will reply to your PM, at work now.

I had to bring this thread up.
After almost 8 months of working on setting a 5 blade I have finally achieved what I intended.
I have been successful in building my first flying 5 blade head, quad elevated tail with head spinning CCW 450 helicopter.
I almost gave up this project, thinking it was the most impossible thing to do.
I believe this is the cheapest scale 450 project so far.
The main head is a HK 5 blade rotor which I completely broke down and re-assembled with stronger, sturdier bolts and aluminum casing.
The tail is a 2 x 2 blade tail on a Stainless steel 316L shaft running 68mm long.
For the tail I am using a Quark gyro and BB digital servo from HENGE.
The heli is controlled by 3x digital MG BB servos with 2.2kg torque
The main gear is 150T align and the motor is a Turnigy 2700Kv with 11T pinion.
Elevated tail is from heliartist and is customized for smooth belt operation using a 15T aluminum gear from CNC Helicopter.
Frame is CF from HK.
Blades are scale 450 blades from smart model and tail blades are from HK 60+mm in length.
I had an issue while flying her yesterday, the tail slider slipped out of its casing causing a tail failure, but now has been replaced by CNC Helicopter tail sliders.
For the servo rod, I am using a Stainless steel 308L welding rod 1.5mm in dia. Stainless steel has 2 common grades, 316L and 308, 316 has a higher chromium content and hence is stiffer then the 308 rods.
I am using a 40A Plush, non governed ESC.

The above are the things I collected over time to build this model.

For the setting part, I will give it in detail later today.

regards,
-Dorwin.

Pics

Flight times are very less, around 3 to 4 minutes, so I will use a higher lipo OR connect batteries in series OR use a separate battery for the motor and the electronics.

The main issues in many failed attempts are:

1. Used cheap gyro before, replaced with a quark gyro.
2. Tail gyro settings and CCW rotation, everything is opposite while setting it up.
3. The most important if not using any stabilization system, blade phasing(VERY IMPORTANT).

Note: For a stabilization system, never use the KDS flymentor, the best is a BeastX
believe me, its good to rather spend a little $$'s more in buying a good Stab system then in buying a cheap one and spending more overall..
I have a KDS flymentor lying around doing nothing because setting it up is a real PITA on scale helicopters.

Guys!!
Good day to you all..

As some of you may be knowing, I had started a thread on a CH53 build almost a year ago, well! today I managed to finish her except the weathering and some scale fittings.

Kit includes the following:

HK 5 Blade rotor head
HK 450 V2 Kit.
Spartan Quark
Helidirect elevated tail
DIY 4 blade tail rotor
Darthdrk 450 CH 53 fuselage.
Align gears, bearings, shafts, screws etc..
Turnigy lighting system
Scale plastic rotor blades
Servoless retracts. ( I am using only one to control all three wheels)
Pebeo acrylic Matt colors.

This project has been the longest for me, having one major accident when the heli had a blade strike at around 2 meters height, the whole tail section was shredded.

Right now, she is under going a weathering coat and some dirt on her.

see for yourself.


The first picture is of the real thing, the rest are mine.

CF

your suggestions are most welcome, please advise me on points and places where I must have missed out.

Don't be surprised by the weathering, the one left on it is just dried water, I wll wipe that off when I start with the real process.

The first 2 are my fav shots..looks scale enough(I guess)

Notice the tail section in the 3rd pic?
that was where the tail section separated from the fuselage after the blade strike, rebuilt the thing using masking tape, I know its not that good, but not noticeable from a certain distance..
I tried using other means to smooth-en the rough edges, but was not successful.


Could you guys advise me on using some method where I could smooth-en the rough areas?


CF

For the decals, what I did was, took a lamination sheet, put it in the printer and printed out the decals what I had done using paint brush, when as soon as the print was made, using a tissue paper wiped out the wet paint to give it the "used" look.

Did you notice the Counter clock blades? and the tail on the left?  

for the windows, they just a dry fit, will take them off once I get my black paint, I lost the whole paint set somewhere

I had a lot of problems setting this one up, almost gave up, sometimes she would spin like a "dog trying to catch its tail" sometimes "tip and fall"
Everything was "perfecto" before she went into the fuse,  a slight drifting issue, which I will try solving in the coming days,

And NO I am not using any stabilization system on this one, just the right blade phasing.

Transformers??

Gr8 piece of art there, CF

Nice build thread. Can we see some build log pictures ?

So, for a guy like me who doesn't know much about helis, the question is, " Can I have a video of it in flight?"

What are people's reactions when they see this?

i'd also love to see a video

Awesome model Dorwin! We all know that this has been a labour of love for you.

If you post a few clearer shots of the rough edges where the fuselage was repaired and elaborate on the materials used, perhaps we could help smoothen out the ridges.