Hello India,
              I am Dorwin, from Goa and I am a RC helicopter flier for a couple of years now.
I am currently in Kuwait and have started my latest project based on the 450 size helicopter.
My project includes:

Carbon fiber bare bone CCPM- Align T-Rex Compatible
Transmitter and receiver from hobby king, 6 channels
Servos 9gm/1.5kg torque  x 4
5 blade rotor head from
Gyro
fuselage - custom made CH53 Stallion by darthdrk USA (http://darthdrk.4t.com/index.html)

Basically, this is the 3rd project that I am working on now, and I need some parts locally in India like
Lipos, servos, wheels and even a gyro.
If you RC fliers can point me to the right places for these things I will be much happy as I wont have to get things from the US of A frequently.
I will post some pictures sooner, because I really want this thing to be done first, currently I am in the process of
getting the tail rotor assembly.
which will not be the boom type, but will be a boomless assembly fitted at the tail of the heli using a small brushless motor and gears.
Please, appreciate if you guys can let me know of places anywhere in India. I tried rotor hobby in Chennai but they dont seem to have what I need or the prices are a little steep then the US parts.
Nothing much now.

thanks in advance!

DD

hi dorwin.. if you are in kuwait why dont you try the local hobby store there?...

thank you for your reply man!
I tried some hobby shops here and even in the UAE but the prices are too steep, like a 9gm servo in Dubai and Kuwait is like $50 whereas in the US and Hongkong its around 4 bucks.
One question I have, can I post links in this fourm?
because some fourms forbid users from attaching external site links.

regards

Dorwin

Interesting tail design ! Wonder what prompted you to put a motor there, when it can easily be driven by the main motor/gears ?

Are you trying to get these shipped from India to Kuwait ?  Prices in India tend to be higher because of local duties, and the selection will be pretty limited.

I think prices in the UAE are the ones that are pretty competitive, in the whole of GCC. Remember that there are 9gm servos of various qualities and properties.  You can get them for $2 (Hobbyking ones) and $32 (Hitech HS65MG), and those are international prices.

No restrictions on links here (and I can guess which forum you are coming from! )

For hobby stores in India, this list is pretty exhaustive : http://www.rcindia.org/rc-outlets-and-resellers/mega-list-of-all-rc-outlets-in-india/

No harms, just asked bout the links thing because some sites do not allow us users and delete the posts, like xbhp.
I am putting on a different motor on the tail for many reasons, the first, the model being a Militray heavly lift helicopter, it has a raised tail that is tilted at an angle, I first decided to use a raised tail rotor assembly readily available for sale in some internet RC sites, but a friend and a model builder from us said that the weight may be a
problem during hovering and stability as my heli is approx. gonna weigh around ~900gms, thats around 300gms more then the conventional RTF helis + the main rotor is going to house a 5 blade rotor which I have already ordered from
hobbyking hongkong.
This may answer some questions:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10900

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=12612

I started my career with coaxial Helis, then upgraded to bigger coaxial ones, broke many blades and spent lots of money, I still like to fly the huge coaxial helis because they can be flown in tight places, later upgraded to 4 and 6 channels, HBK 2 being the first good ol heli.
finally, started building scaled helis as I liked the realism and going on till now!

How about you ?
what do you do? build, fly or model ?

Dorwin

Welcome once again.. it is good to see someone doing "true to the sense of the word" modeling in the heli area

I am not sure weight is a huge concern for these helis, they do pack quite a bit of punch.  A quick search for elevated tails for 450 helis leads to products like :

http://www.heliartist.com/showroom/heliartist-450-bo105-tail-system-p-113.html

which should not add anything to the weight at all (as compared to the  lifting capability of these helis).

"Build, fly or model" ? I believe those are just phases in everyone's RC life   Being a primary heli person, I fly about half the time, build (or should I call it assembling?) often enough to be about the other half (mostly fixing others' helis)... and model rarely.

Anwar,
I am in desperate need for a 7 channel Transmitter, reveiver from this site, could you direct me to some links please?
Also 9gm servos gyros ESC everything actually.
I seen a guy selling the whole 9 yards for around 10K but the queue is long and the transmitter I need is 2.4ghz
Dont know much about this fourm, but will be staying here for quite a long time now! I was searching for something like this because I never seen much happening in the RC field in India except some guys coming with Nitro Cessnas and rattling around.
Anyways thanks for your valueable thoughts, I will consider them during my assembly.

Lastly! areyou still in Qatar ?
I was in CCIC ras Laffan for around 2 years, seen some RC happening there too!

Dorwin

Continued****
there is this person Edward in Tennessee, US builds very good scale models for helicopters, I think you guys should take a look at his work. I am gettin my CH53 Stallion from him.

Sample Picture Attached 

It all depends on your budget.  Like I said before, if you are Kuwait (which I believe is true) it is most likely cheaper to get the radio (and even other parts) from the US or HongKong. I would suggest you open an Aramex Shop and Ship  account, and then look for deals on rcgroups.com, rcuniverse.com or runryder.com.  There are great radio deals at http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/category.cfm?catID=29 (for example). Pay with Paypal, and ask them to ship to the Aramex drop box in New York (99% of the sellers will only ship inside the USA).  This is the cheapest way to get quality/branded second hand stuff into the GCC.  Tower Hobbies has 20% to 25% off coupons, if you buy from them, and that is also a great deal.

Were you not into RC when you were at RasLaffan ?   How long ago was that ? I am sure you could see people flying RC (at least the big turbine jets) out of the Al-Khor RC airfield !

That is why I am happy to see you guys! because I did not know people in India were into RC, In Qatar, I seen the club guys flying their jets, occasionally even a huge Apache.. but I wasn't into it, as I did not get much time after work. we had a little rc group at the CCC camp though..
 
 I've got this setup and wanted to know if theres anything I am lacking, I haven't been flying much so this is my third project in almost 6 years.

Motor - Brushless 3850KV 450 Size
ESC   -  35A
11.1V 2200mAh Lipo

Do you guys think that this config. will lift a 900gm~1kg RC Heli.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Dorwin.

Looks good.  Try to limit the AUW to 900gms.

Hi Dorwin, nice to see a hardcore aeromodeller from Goa.. The CH53 fuselage looks nice.. Can't wait to see it ready.. Do you have any Helis in Goa? would love to see them

Anwar, Can u throw some light on this: Aramex Shop and Ship  account, how reliable they are? They say shipping to india costs 9 USD per pound. But are they willing to store few items and ship at once etc?

I have been using it for a few months now. Last month I had about 8 packages come in (for me and another member of this forum).  Everytime I go there to collect stuff (during different hours of the day), there are always 3 to 7 people in queue (average transaction time is about 7 minutes), so you get a fair idea of how popular it is.  I think buying from Amazon.com (and drugstore.com seems to be another famous one) has been made very very practical for people in Qatar due to this.

About their "combining" of parcels, I found that they did not do it all the time. Or may be I need to leave special instructions even on parcels that reached their collection facility the same day and was shipped out together.  I did not dig into it yet, as it only happened once.  Overall, I am totally satisfied with their service (especially that they handle customs inspections too, unless it is a huge red flag in which I would have to deal with it).

I have no idea about their service and reliability in India, but it seems worth trying.

Hello Medicineman!
Good to meet you too..Yes am pretty much into RC, but time pulls me away from it, anyways, I am currently in Kuwait, working here. I will be coming to Goa in December for Christmas holidays, hopefully we can meet.
Lastly, Anwar, thank you for making me aware about the ARAMEX< shop and ship account. but I got some questions, would I be able to go to their franchise and collect my stuff instead of them sending it to my doorsteps?

Thanks,

Dorwin.

Sure! Would love to meet up! PM me whenever ur in Goa..
Oh and i was researching on Aramex and found an article on the ebay.in forums where lots of people are having trouble with their courier service (in India).. http://forums.ebay.in/thread.jspa?threadID=600002462

For Shop and Ship items, you can always pick it up from their office (as noted in my earlier post).  In fact, for these items, I am not sure if they deliver to you doorstep, I think the answer I got was NO (but this may be a country specific rule).

I did open an Aramex account and calculated the amount they would charge me to get my stuff from the US.
Its a whooping KD33 excluding taxes :O
I guess Paypal is the best option here..

Paypal has nothing to do with shipping.

I am sure there is some confusion. I pay QR70 for 1KG, and when I checked in KD, it came to KD5.5 for 1KG.  This is per the Aramex Shop and Ship online calculator (which has always been accurate for me).

http://www.aramex.com/shopandship/rate_calculator.aspx

Anwar,
         thank you for pointing me to the right place, I probably was knocking the wrong door , that's why all that confusion.
 
Thanks again!

Dorwin

Thanks Anwar for the info Anwar bhai. Looks like its cheaper than USPS registered.

I am currently in the process of purchasing a Tx,Rx set.
Now, I've got no issues with its limitations. All I need is a 6+ Channel Transmitter and Receiver because my project will be having retracts etc. for which I want to dedicate an extra channel itself.
Is it going to be a problem getting the following Tx shipped to India?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10173 

any ideas people?

Regards,

Dorwin

Hello people,
 
I don't know what happened just now, I typed a whole story about what I briefly typed below and it just vanished giving me this error saying that I might have refreshed my page, which I dint,
anyways, here goes, I am in the process of ordering a 7 channel Transmitter and receiver for my assorted built heli, there is no problem whatsoever, but I am having a slight glitch now that I've read some posts saying that, the transmitters have to be approved by some Indian....(don't know exactly) or the customs wouldn't allow the receiver to get his product.
I don't know how far this is true because I never actually had problems getting my 6 channel Tx's in..
Can someone please shed some light on this issue I am facing?
the transmitter is already in my cart, and darn now it says its under a back order for some days!
Hobby King! Zindabad! until I get my parts safely!

Link:  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10173

regards,

Dorwin.

Dorwin

this is the same as the hk one
http://cgi.ebay.in/RCFORALL-KDS-2-4-Ghz-7-CHANNEL-COMPUTERISED-RADIO-/110548957606?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_203&hash=item19bd3b39a6

i have the same

Transmitters are the most frowned upon items by customs folks, as it is a restricted item, and they recognize it.  There is some significant possibility that your transmitter may be detained by customs.  Sometimes providing documentation has got them released (if they are 2.4Ghz).  "Human engineering" (using influential contacts, underarm deals etc) has been another recourse, if they do get detained.  I would suggest you order into Kuwait (if their customs turns a blind eye towards these), and then carry it with you to India when you travel (in your checked in luggage).

Prateek!
How is the performance of that radio? how bout the reflexes? did you buy it from HK or eBay India?
I guess your answer will nullify me from purchasing it from HK and get it directly from eBay itself, then the customs problem is gone, correct Anwar?

Regards,

Dorwin

If you are planning to "import" (not take it with you) to India, it is best that you buy in India. The seller would hand it over to some courier company and it reaches you directly, no customs involved at all.

Anwar, Thank you for your reply, I will get it shipped to my home from "RC for all" he is having these for sale up on ebay too..(link provided by Prateek)
Last night I went to a hobby shop in Kuwait City, the fillipino saleman was more then ready to help, wonder why the prices are so high I have managed to locate another hobby shop, but they mostly deal in Tamiya and Planes, am hoping there are some helis hanging in their store too.

Nothing much! just anxiously waiting for my fuselage to arrive here in Kuwait so I can start with the detailing and painting..

regards,

Dorwin

Rc Fliers,

Can I use strobe lights, retracts on any existing servo using a Y connectors?(assuming its a 9gm/1.5kg digital servo)
or shall I use a new channel dedicated to only retracts in case of a Heli?

regards,

Dorwin

Hello everyone,
I got my account opened with the Aramex guys today, it was pretty much a easy task because I did not open it in my name, but my to be father in law did...hehe..
one has to fill a form and initially pay $35 to set up a mailing address and then for every $100 worth of goods they charge 2% which I think is acceptable. About the 2% I do not know if thats their international cut or if it is only here in Kuwait!
Too sad that I will be only on the sim and building till December as I am new to Kuwait and as far as my fiancees warnings go that the locals may/will try and interfere with my flying addiction and may create problems
anyways, atleast I'll be on the sim for a long time..and als try my luck on the CH53 using MSFX ..

another thing!
No body answered my question about the strobe lights/landing lights!

If you have spare channels, use them !  That would give you dedicated control of these additional pieces.

Hello members,
My wait for my heli fuselag has been long but I've kept myself occupied.
I hope i can finish her as soon as i get my spares, but unfortunately i got no place to fly her, so be it! December 

Can you please post the details of Edward in Tenessee

Sorry Bill!
I did not notice your reply on this sooner!

His website is http://darthdrk.4t.com/index.html

everything you need is provided there!!

his email address is darthdrk@juno.com
hope this helps !!

I finally got my shipment shipped today from Ed!
It was a relief! to see pictures of my unassembled fuselage!
Note the tail rotor assembly, does not need a boom at all and according to Ed, the heli is much more controllable like that!
I sincerely don't know until I start flying her!

Will start with my build as soon as I receive the fuselage!

Regards,

Dorwin!

NB Attaching a picture of my unassembled fuse!

Looks nice! How does the tail rotor get power on this thing?

the tail rotor is connected to a BL motor and a ESC assembly..actually its pretty much Plug and play, but lets see, the rest I still did not figure out, will let you know once i get it!

Ah.. Separate brushless motor for the tail assembly.. nice.. Can't wait to see the fuse painted.. What colour scheme you giving it?

I am thinking of giving it the same US marines paint scheme!
Do you know if Indian Army, IAF or even the Indian navy owning a CH53? The one I seen was a Sikorsky Sea king..
If any one has any idea of a CH53 with the Indian Army or anything please post pictures or link me to it.

Nope.. India doesn't operate any CH-53s.. How come all the tail rotors in the picture are 2 bladed? Doesn't the CH-53 have 4 bladed tail rotors?

good question!!
i am going to mod the tail rotor and make it 4 bladed!
as for the main rotor, I have bad luck finding a 6,7 blade holder, so am going for a 5 blade holder.
lets see how this all works out!

this might give you a rough idea on what i am up to!

 

Lookin good!! 

Received my Aramex package today afternoon, at last my CH 53 fuse has arrived!

will be starting the detailing work soon after I finish working on some other aircrafts, which probably will be by Wednesday!
I have modified the tail fan in such a way that I will be joining 2 fans to make it more realistic and scale.
The tail assembly does not use a tail boom or an elevated tail boom mount assembly, rather uses a simple construction of a separate motor assembly housed into the tail and secured using hot glue and testors cement.
I am posting some pictures of how the assembly looks after the connection.
For the electronics on the tail, a brush less motor with a 10A ESC is used, which will be parallel connected to the battery.

Some pictures of the tail fan mod and the fuselage.

Nice work with the tail rotor

Once again, after a long break..I have started work on the CH 53..

Have finished working mostly on the detailing part on her..
She will be using a Belt CP V1, main frame, as for the main shaft, I am will be using a 5 blade rotor head, which I suppose will receive by next month.
Anyone selling a head lock gyro and a 40A ESC please let me know..

some awesome stuff dude...

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.

Thanks guys!
Will post a short video as soon as I go the camp, right now am in the oil fields..will be home on Saturday.
It still has minor drifting issues, utilized all my free time building and setting her up so am kinda out of time for the moment.
@KALYANPRODHAN I do have bits and pieces of the build log, which I think I have posted in some thread before..will try finding that thread later.

Any vital pieces of info would be of great help..

Yea! one last thing, weight is 1.2Kgs and I get around 6 to 7 minutes on a brand new 2200 30C lipo, I wanted to know from experienced people, what if I use a 2650Mah 40C lipo? will things heat up on the same settings?
I am using a 11T pinion on a 2700 KV motor and everything is Ok, the motor gets a little hot around 60 Degrees,The ESC is plush 40, remains cold throughout flight.


 

not many people have seen it yet, but the ones who did don't believe when I say I built it.

I will, soon.
The tail section is stuck using 2" masking tape + white adhesive + a little cyno.
I first used a wood filler to smoothen the rough edges, but as time passes, cracks are noticed>>not advisable on a model where vibration is the main problem.

This is the tail section which has been masked and glued, am also using a zip tie to diminish vibration and its working good.
Now the question is, how do I cover all this up without putting on extra weight?

CF

Actually there are two more threads, I can merge them if you want; it would make a good log

Thanks a ton fellow member! yes you do that as I am going for inspections now!

I am assuming that the fuse is made out of fibreglass. In that case, would it help if the entire tail section is re coated with a fine layer and sanded down with fine grit?