Official RotorScale AH-6 Attack 450 Size Helicopter Discussion Thread

[scootergenie]

My Frankenstein mechanics are almost ready for 1st flight. Meanwhile, I cut the doors off of the fuselage, and getting the weapon pods ready. They came today from Motion, and already painted black ! It's starting to come together...... Can't wait to fly the mechanics.

[Alpha]

Just received mine in motion rc fashion. Perfect condition and lightning like speed. Looking forward to the build and all the pup file goodies.

SilentTiger Welcome home to Hobby Squawk, SilentTiger! If you have any questions about the 3DPUPs, let me know. I am still adjusting the files from time to time, as time allows. Printing the 3DPUPs is straightforward, but the LED housings can be finicky. If it isn't clear, the fuselage LED housings are drawn for a 5mm LED on the port and starboard, a Freewing 1W LED for the nose, and an RC car's rotating amber light for the tail.

[SilentTiger]

Just received mine in motion rc fashion. Perfect condition and lightning like speed. Looking forward to the build and all the pup file goodies.

[scootergenie]

Thank you so much Alpha ! Really looking forward to getting started on the scale details, but I'm going to fly my mechanics in pod and boom form first, until I'm satisfied with how it fly's before I install it in the fuselage.

[Gravythe clown]

Alpha, that’s fantastic but will you guys be restocking spare parts soon on all the 450 rotoscale Helo’s?

gravy

[Alpha]

scootergenie icepirate3

Attached is a ZIP folder containing the files I put together. 26 and counting. Hopefully other users will add to this list as we begin diving deeper into this aircraft and its variations from its inception into modern day and beyond.

The files here are fairly self-explanatory. I posted a photo on page 1 of my heavily customized AH-6 based on this Roban MD500/AH-6 airframe, using all the 3D parts in this ZIP folder.

The larger parts such as the large blade antennas and the weapon stations are designed to be screwed on with 1.5mm screws from the inside of the fuselage facing out.

The smaller parts such as hooks and sensor blisters are intended to be installed by drilling a 1.5-2.0mm hole in the fiberglass, then inserting the part's pins into the hole and gluing it from the inside.

If you choose to print the shortened landing gear legs, I designed those to screw into the existing holes for the stock landing gear. You may need to shave the stock fuselage holes to ensure a snug fit. Because these are load bearing parts, I recommend printing with either 100% infill or 80% infill with triangular pattern and thickened walls, ~2.0mm or more (depending how hard you land!). Use good PLA and print slowly for a good bond. Ideally in a tough landing you want the strut collars to fail first at the point where the skids slide into the landing gear leg, so you'll notice there is a thinned cross section at that location. I experimented with a layer of 1/4 ounce fiberglass cloth epoxied onto the gear legs, which did strengthen them, but I found the PLA part was just fine, too. Printing it in nylon is even better, but expensive, and again, unnecessary for normal controlled landings. I've been using the original PLA-only printed gear for over a year now without issues.


Also, here is a photo of the new model as delivered on all models purchased after November 1, 2019, wearing its matte black scheme with smoked windscreen and all four doors removed, which was the configuration of AH-6 that we referenced the most closely. Miniguns and rocket pods are included, as shown. To my mind the customization possibilities are immense for this base aircraft. And of course, everything looks better in black.

[Alpha]

scootergenie I have all the STL files, we'll be uploading them here in this Squawk thread, then on the website, tomorrow. The STL files include cosmetic scale elements such as shortened landing gear, ordnance and hardpoints, blade stays, various antennas, LED mounts for searchlight and tail beacon, and functional elements such as a cross brace for the stock landing gear. There's a lot to print, and users can choose how many they want to use, from none of them to all of them. I'm sure some of you will design your own 3DPs around this model as well. Several variations exist of this type.

[scootergenie]

Cool ! Let us know how it looks when you get it. I'm curios if they lowered the landing gear, as there was talk of that earlier. As well as talk of 3dp files for scale stuff. Still working on my mechanics at the moment. I went with the KST ds215mg v3 servos. Their smooth as silk. Gonna try a mini Kbar.

[ridgerunner]

Ordered!

[scootergenie]

That's funny. At the time I ordered the fuselage, it was only offered in desert sand, and I will be painting it black ! I hope they offer the weapons set in the spare parts tab, and also the 3dp files for the scale goodies.

[JFandL]

Nothing a little paint can't fix

[Marco Polo]

For anyone interested in this product, it is now in stock at Motion RC.

PLEASE NOTE - the Rotorscale 450 size AH-6 that is now in stock is a new color scheme, Army Tactical Black. We do not currently have stock of the desert sand color pictured in the first post of this thread. We will offer the desert sand again if there is interest, but currently, people overwhelmingly asked for this model in the Army tactical back "Shadow Ops" scheme

[scootergenie]

Check this out. A roll of masking tape aligns the frame with the fuselage tail boom perfectly ! Those Chinese are clever. Now I don't have to play with blocks and shims to figure out my mounting system.

[scootergenie]

Gluing the tail feathers together.

[scootergenie]

Happy day ! The fuselage arrived today. The lay up is very nice. However, the landing skids are not square to the fuse, so I'll have to do some work to the mounts to correct that. Pretty happy with it though, and can't wait to get started on it. I have a 450 clone for it, but I don't think it will fit with the tail boom support rods on it.

[scootergenie]

It would be great if we could get the 3DPs available for this one ! I like the ammo belt, and hopefully they'll have one for the gun and launcher too.

[scootergenie]

I pretty much gave up waiting for this model to stock, so I ordered the fuselage and skids. Thinking of ordering the 450 sport fbl from Tarot RC and fit the fuselage to that frame. Hopefully it won't be too daunting of a task to do so.

[scootergenie]

Hopefully this will be available soon ?

[fleetsailor1981]

Matte black finish is perfect for me as I want to model a MH-6J. I'll be putting the benches in place of the weapons. An idea what scale this is?

[Cyclone 7]

Have PM'd you and thanks for the update.

A matte black fuselage finish is not that friendly to those wanting to apply a lighter colour scheme - far better if you were to supply it in the more neutral and more easily re-painted, sand variant:Thinking: