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Add a Scale helicopter Topic?

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  • Add a Scale helicopter Topic?

    Pod and Boom vs scale helicopters are like night and day would be cool to have a Scale topic?

    Thanks

    John

  • #2
    I agree. I recently sold my two 3D heli's and purchased another scale. My 3D skills just were not progressing as I really only fly on weekends and that is sporadic at best. Two in the hanger now and a third that is stripped down and being sold. Love the look of a nice scale heli flying the way it should. My most recent is the Roban 800 size Md-500E. With their 5 blade heads and T-tails, I've always loved their sporty looks. With that being said, here are a couple vids of my birds. Enjoy.
    Roban MD500E "800" size. 3rd flight. 1100 rpm head speed. Ikon FBL controller. Scorpion 450kv motor on 12s.

    Agusta A109 with Malaysian Army camo and markings. Marvelcraft fuselage with 700N mechanics converted to electric. 12s power system with KDE 495kv motor, ...

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    • #3
      Also agree, and welcome afjetmech! Your MD-500 looks fantastic! I have a 500 size AH-6 with 5 blade head and it is a fantastic flyer is well. Also have a 500 Apache and Huey in work at the moment.

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      • #4
        I've been watching this thread intently. This past weekend someone had an MD500 at the airfield and it was neat to see in action. It was still in white gelcoat but I can imagine it will look great once painted up. I used to be big into 3D helos, but sport/scale flying is more my style these days. The RCAerodyne stuff looks gorgeous, it's just a lot of coin. I've been eyeing their Osprey for quite a while!
        Live Q&A every Tuesday and Friday at 9pm EST on my Twitch Livestream

        Live chat with me and other RC Nuts on my Discord

        Camp my Instagram @Alpha.Makes

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        • #5
          Glad to see you here Alpha! Yeah, everything heli-related is quite expensive from them, and spare parts support is limited. That's why personally, I can't go higher than 500 size without the cost snowballing quickly. I would love to see you guys try to tackle the scale Helis market, like you have with Flightline someday. Scale Helis for me are wonderfully relaxing to fly when setup nicely, or not under maintenance. I have also been eying up the Rotormast Osprey for a while, but it's hard to justify buying something that costs that more than almost all of my other models combined. One of my boss's friends is the founder of Rotormast, and it is an amazing machine to say the least, created from the original Osprey CAD work.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by afjetmech View Post
            I agree. I recently sold my two 3D heli's and purchased another scale. My 3D skills just were not progressing as I really only fly on weekends and that is sporadic at best. Two in the hanger now and a third that is stripped down and being sold. Love the look of a nice scale heli flying the way it should. My most recent is the Roban 800 size Md-500E. With their 5 blade heads and T-tails, I've always loved their sporty looks. With that being said, here are a couple vids of my birds. Enjoy.
            Roban MD500E "800" size. 3rd flight. 1100 rpm head speed. Ikon FBL controller. Scorpion 450kv motor on 12s.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIWE_Pgsjmo
            I've got a Roban 800 size MD500 too. What headspeed are you running and what FBL are you using? I gave the Spirit Pro a try in mine but I'm thinking of replacing it. It's pretty wobbly in the wind and I'm still getting used to the asymmetrical blades.


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            • #7

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              • #8
                Originally posted by ckankel View Post

                I've got a Roban 800 size MD500 too. What headspeed are you running and what FBL are you using? I gave the Spirit Pro a try in mine but I'm thinking of replacing it. It's pretty wobbly in the wind and I'm still getting used to the asymmetrical blades.

                I have 3 speeds set now. 1100, 1150 and 1200. I only have about 6 flights so far and have been using 1150 most of the time. On a nice calm day I might use 1100 and get a little more flight time, and bump it up on windy days to help ease the bobbing from the asymmetrical blades.

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                • #9
                  The Roban bodies are pretty good. Some of the "Super Scale" helis have the absolute cheapest components though. Not worth it in my book. Got kind of a bad taste after buying one. I prefer Align mechs but Align seem to have, like everyone else, abandoned scale flyers for the 3d market. If someone could find a good source for scale bodies and decent mechs that would be great. Not much to choose from within my budget. I really loved the Align belt driven designs as they were perfect for scale helis.
                  Meridian Aeromodelers, Meridian MS

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                  • #10
                    I agree, I am in the process of putting together a 470 AH-1, and noticed that. Its quite expensive to come with a plastic head and tail rotor grips. It is stranger yet on the bigger models. I've eyed up the 700 Apache for 2 years now, but the idea of paying 2K for an airframe, then adding electronics, then buying an aftermarket tail rotor to get the scissors tail right is ridiculous.. What we really need is a 500 size line of affordable pre-built scale helis, kind of a Flightline brand for the heli market.

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                    • #11
                      My biggest complaint is the brittleness of the plastic used in small scale greeblies and the lack of spare parts carried by the US distributor. Door hinges are constantly failing and there's no where to buy them unless you contact Roban directly.

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                      • #12
                        Agree on the lack of spare parts for sure. When my 500 AH-6 Little Bird went in last year, I had to vacuform a new cockpit because RCA didn't carry any parts. Still probably my favorite aircraft to fly in my collection though, it is smooth as glass. I had the same issue with parts on my 470 Cobra as well. I bought it used and the previous owner has crashed it, so I had to replace quite a few parts. Only way to get 90% of them was direct through Roban, and wait a month for them to get here.

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                        • #13
                          That is really impressive. Really excellent!

                          I was sad to hear recently that apparently Roban passed away(?)
                          Live Q&A every Tuesday and Friday at 9pm EST on my Twitch Livestream

                          Live chat with me and other RC Nuts on my Discord

                          Camp my Instagram @Alpha.Makes

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Alpha.MotionRC View Post
                            That is really impressive. Really excellent!

                            I was sad to hear recently that apparently Roban passed away(?)
                            Thanks Alpha! I've got a Huey and Apache on the bench next in the same size. I really hope Roban is staying around, hadn't heard anything about it going away! They are kind of the last stand for scale Helis right now, at least in the sub 800 sizes. There is darth's as well I guess, but he only does 450s. Would be nice if you guys would sell the Roban stuff! Maybe work with them to drive up the quality and scale fideledity a bit like you have with Freewing/Flightline and FMS. Just having spare parts in stock would make purchasing them much more likely for me..

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                            • #15
                              I used to do some work for RC Aerodyne years ago. Boy do they have some amazingly scale helicopters. Their cockpit kits were nearly as detailed as the real thing! Not much of a heli guy myself but I do love scale heli's...
                              My YouTube RC videos:
                              https://www.youtube.com/@toddbreda

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                              • #16
                                Originally posted by Aros.MotionRC View Post
                                I used to do some work for RC Aerodyne years ago. Boy do they have some amazingly scale helicopters. Their cockpit kits were nearly as detailed as the real thing! Not much of a heli guy myself but I do love scale heli's...
                                Cool! They really used to carry a lot of those cockpit kits, unfortunately I think about 80% of their inventory has been out of stock for a while, especially for the cockpit sets. I grew up flying full scale helis, so I they will always be a major passion of mine, but I just wish there were more out there at an affordable size, and that there would be more consulting with distributors to ensure a more scale product. There is a beautiful 500 size Sea King fuselage that they used to carry that I've been trying to locate for years now, but the only other ones on the market are huge and pricey.

                                As for what I mean by the consulting being necessary, take a look at the new Roban Super Scale 800 size UH-1D. I was very excited for this, but the aircraft they showed looks like a letdown to me. The paint scheme isn't even close to the correct color for a Vietnam era Huey, tail rotor is on the wrong side, it is running 3D heli thin blades with curved tips, strange rocket pod mounts and door gun mounting (looks like they took it from a modern Huey, either an N or Y), and a non-scale head.. Outside of the head, these are all pretty easy fixes that would make the model look 300% better out of the box. And, at $2300 for the bare airframe, they really should include a scale head with the stabilizer bar. I guess that was a bit of a rant, but it is a shame to see companies make these kind of mistakes when they could be so much better with relatively little effort.

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                                • #17
                                  Oh trust me, working for them for a short period I was able to get some insight into internal operations. I won't go into that stuff publicly but suffice to say I agree there are things that could be improved that's for sure.
                                  My YouTube RC videos:
                                  https://www.youtube.com/@toddbreda

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                                  • #18
                                    I'd love to put a scale body on my Blade 550x. I've sold my other hell's but just couldn't part with the 550 as it flies so well. I don't fly it much these days but one day i'll find something nice to dress it in. Any pointers always appreciated.

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                                    • #19
                                      Originally posted by Porkster View Post
                                      I'd love to put a scale body on my Blade 550x. I've sold my other hell's but just couldn't part with the 550 as it flies so well. I don't fly it much these days but one day i'll find something nice to dress it in. Any pointers always appreciated.
                                      The Funkey: http://jettechmodels.com/funkey-scal...e-30-550-size/ and Century: http://www.centuryheli.com/products/...s/index30.html would probably be your best bets. It might take a bit of fiddling to get them to attach to your mechanics, but it should be pretty straightforward, and the correct size.

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                                      • #20
                                        Thanks for the links. I'll have to look into it a bit more. Because of the way the battery mounts I think it will involve quiet a bit of modification.

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