Wire Strike Kit?

[N107BZ]

Hello there fellow rotorheads. As you can probably tell by my post count i'm a noob. I picked myself up a Belt CP RTF about a month ago but she went down pretty good due to mother nature being unhappy..Anyways, I have a couple of things on the way including the Aero-Fever MD 500E fuselage..I wanted to kind of do a little thing for my father whom was killed in the line of duty with San Diego Sheriff's Dept so I figured i'd do the heli up like the real one.


.Anyways to the point, does anyone know if there are any companies out there that build Wire Strike Kits for RC helis?

Here is what I plan on doing..
Apply this

To this

Hughes 500 Align T-Rex 450 (0 min 34 sec)

Thank you in advance.

[Jonnyheli]

Hi the closest I can find is this:

http://www.heliartist.com/product_N23CPV2.html

Or if you want it with lights then this would be cool:

http://www.heliartist.com/product_N23CPV2_Lighting.html

If the paint job isn't what you are looking for then you can buy a white one and paint it yourself:

http://www.heliartist.com/product_500D_white.html

This website doesn't actually sell the fuselages but they make them and send them to the dealers. If you click dealers at the top it will give you a list of all the shop selling these fuselages.

Maybe there is someone here that knows a link to one with the same colours.

-Jonny

[another_finn]

That Aero-fever fuselage looks like a good starting point. As far as I know, there are no companies out there making wire cutters or indeed any detail kits for fuselages in this size class. If you want to reproduce a San Diego Sheriff's Department bird, you will be doing custom decals and a lot of scratch-building on the searchlights and camera pods anyway... In fact I think the minimal wire cutters I see on their photos are probably going to be the least of your problems as far as scale details go.

My advise would be to just stock up on thin plywood (your local hobby shop or plane-oriented Internet RC stores are good sources) and matching paint. Also get a Dremel if you don't already have one - it will make experimenting a lot less painful and time consuming. A little detail will go a long way in 450 size, so you will probably have good-looking wire cutters fabricated in no time at all. It's the stuff they stick underneath that's going to take a little more effort to build.

If you're serious about making it look good, it might be worth the effort to look into simple home vacuum forming techniques (Google is your friend here). You can reproduce most of the shapes I see hanging down there by whittling and sanding a plug and using a simple vacuum box to form it out of sheet polystyrene.

For really detailed work and scale painting tips, I would look into the articles sections on plastic model building sites... You'll be amazed at the wealth of tricks and techniques those guys have come up with to fool the eye into seeing more detail than you built in

[Jonnyheli]

Trust Mika. He knows everything about scale

I agree with the vacuum idea. You can find little things that are the same shape and mold some lexan (Or something)... You would need a machine to do that though. The thin plywood would be a better idea if you don't want to spend all that money on the vacuum equipment. But then your shapes wouldn't be as round and would be squareish

-Jonny

[another_finn]

Well, all you need is an oven, a vacuum cleaner and a small box that you can make reasonably airtight... But for one-off pieces, there's a lot to be said for thick balsa (or even styrofoam), sandpaper and a lightweight filler.

You'll need the strength of plywood for the wire cutters and mounts, but you really wouldn't want to carve and sand complex shapes out of it. They're not so much alternatives as two different materials and techniques that you will need in order to build all of the equipment I see in the photos of their MD500s.

[Jonnyheli]

Originally Posted by another_finn

Well, all you need is an oven, a vacuum cleaner and a small box that you can make reasonably airtight... But for one-off pieces, there's a lot to be said for thick balsa (or even styrofoam), sandpaper and a lightweight filler.

You'll need the strength of plywood for the wire cutters and mounts, but you really wouldn't want to carve and sand complex shapes out of it. They're not so much alternatives as two different materials and techniques that you will need in order to build all of the equipment I see in the photos of their MD500s.

Haha cool. I never thought of makeing one. We used a proper big one in my school. We made our own cars. We had to cut a shape of a car from wood. Then once we had the shape sanded and everything we put it in one of those machines. It heated the layer of plastic, then the wooden car raised up into the plastic. Then the air was sucked out and you had the shape of the car

See what did I say, Mika knows everything

-Jonny

[heli143]

my sincere condolences on your father's passing.

I am doing a scale model of helo 150 in a 50 size using TT Raptor Titan mechanics converted to electric.
After reading your post everytime I work on mine I will remember this thread.

[mnwizard]

Sorry about losing your Dad. It doesn't make it any better, but he was a true hero. Not just on his last day, but every day that he left home to do a job that he knew was dangerous and doing it anyway. The world needs more men like your father.

Here's a link to Vario. They make about every kind of scale heli stuff you can think of - lights, wire strike cutters, detailed cockpits, etc.

http://www.vario-helicopter.co.uk/

You can also get sheet plastic in various thicknesses from you local hobbyshop and make you own.

Please keep us posted on your project

[Jonnyheli]

Problem is Jack. This was posted around a year ago.

It would be nice if he came back and showed us what he has done.

-Jonny

[mnwizard]

Boy, I really have to start looking at dates