Changing fuselages

[nurburgringer]

Partially inspired by automotive rebodies now in vogue, like:


and


Adapting a new fuselage to a 3ch is a fun way to spend a cold winter's night. Not the most fun way to be sure, but you can't do that all the time

The S107's 'fluffy' chassis requires a dress with some serious hip space, like the 6020's (which also donated it's big tail motor):



This BBW wasn't much fun to fly, friends watching or not, so switched to a light weight Walkera number:



In flight (still some fiddling needed to tone down the occasional TBE):


The compact 6010 Eagle/Phantom/Phoenix guts will fit into just about anything, like the finely detailed Syma S106 Hughes jumper.

Proof of concept


Reversing tail motor leads


Just enough space with battery squeezed between PCB and front motor


Total weight is now ~27g, vs ~25 for a stock 6010 and ~23g for the original Syma S106


CG almost perfect


2nd flight with her new clothes


Any other cross-dressing choppers are out there?

[killbucket]

SO cool. You made it look too easy! I think the tail on the bottom looks best for these conversions, because it hides a little better.

[nurburgringer]

tanks KB - and it actually was that easy. Didn't need to add anything to the internal structure, they fit together like it was made that way after trimming a few interferances.
Now, fitting gyrocopter guts into a S018 Airwolf... that will take some real skillz!

[nurburgringer]

finished up the 6010H today:
- filled in some unused screw-holes
- painted the brass flybar weights matte black
- small lead weight in the nose
- painted the nose 'wart' and fitted a dummy LED
- dummy LED to fill the hole in the back of the fuse
- Piccoo Z tail rotor

Flies REALLY nice now.
Also messed around with a baseball-cap mounted camera for some POV video

[killbucket]

Looks FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like that paint for some reason.

www.killbucket.com/6020copter2.htm

[alfa1]

Well, as a new member here, and as my first post, I throw in a fuselage modification to a Phoenix 6010 that I've already displayed elsewhere on the net...

[nurburgringer]

Dec 13, 2010 15:05:58 GMT -5 killbucket said:

I really like that paint for some reason.

Are you also using Krylon "Camo" too? I'm on my second can, first one in "Ultra matte black" for the Jeep grill, second one khaki for the Hughes. Very impressed with this paint - sticks VERY well (to plastic, metal, etc including blades), dries to touch in <15 minutes and so far on the Jeep proving to be durable as hell.
About $6 a can at the local Auto-zone.

Welcome to the board Alfa!
Love what you did to the 6010, very clean and neat job..
Shoot some in-flight video and post it up here:
3chrchelicopters.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pics&action=display&thread=66

[nurburgringer]

While removing the LG from a non-gyro Syma S018 Bell 222 Airwolf noticed that the 6025 guts would be a darned near perfect fit.
Biggest issues would be weight (stock 23g vs 16g) and main rotor diameter (150mm vs 110mm).
Based on the great p/w ratio of the 6025 I suspect it can turn larger blades and probably handle a little more weight, but afraid that the already-stressed battery (USB charger hits it with a lot more amperages than it needs) will go all puffy.
Even after removing the 6025 fuselage, LG, and tail boom those beefy aluminum sideplates are quite a bit heavier than the S018, which is like a crab with all it's structural rigidity on the outside.

Need to mull this over some more.
The 6025 is very impressive, especially with the canopy removed. Some clever packaging and engineering went into this skeeter.

[alfa1]

Its one of those mysterious black helicopters that the secret US forces seem to have everywhere that conspiracies can be found...



Or it might be an S107 with a fuselage from a micro twister.

[killbucket]

Nice!

[nurburgringer]

Cool looking chopper Alfa!

My second fuse swap has begun. Model kit (from the '80s judging by the box) was $4.99, I like the look of this beast.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Wessex
The fuse alone (no gear) weighs almost 10g so will lighten the ~20g bare Z005 (6010 clone)
airframe as much as possible.
The 6010/Hughes is about 28g and flies well, so with a slightly bigger battery (puffed the 140mAH one) I'm shooting for a 31-32g total weight.

Attachments:

[killbucket]

Now this looks promising! ;D

[nurburgringer]

Had the day off so spend a couple hours getting choppers ready for the trip to my bro's tomorrow and working on the Wessex.
Also gave the dog a bath, wrapped gifts and went shopping for Wisconsin delicacies to stick in the sleigh.

Wessex work:
- Stripped the tail boom, tail motor and decorative aluminum plates off of the 6010 chassis, removed blades for ease of handling
- soldered an Airhogs battery PCB to an extra 200mAH battery, but didn't like it so ordered 5x200mAH with PCB for $7 off Ebay
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160515819043&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
- trimmed the center of 2 6010 tail rotors to make a 4-bladed prop
- minor trimming inside the Wessex model to perfectly hold the Z005 chassis.
- Cut a new window in the left side to clear the main gears (the gears are about 1mm too wide to fit inside without rubbing.)
- added chassis mounting screws (body mounts needed about 0.5mm" sanding on each side to match the inside width)
and block to screw tail together

Wish I had an extra set of S107 main blades. They're about 10cm longer than the Z005 and would fit the scale better.
Will try it with the Z005's blades and maybe order a set of S107s later.

The body will need a good bit of finishing to look right (the last plastic model I put together was probably in 1985,
I don't remember them fitting this sloppily!), and I really need an airbrush to replicate the camo paint job properly, but it's gonna fly!
Somebody will surely soon make a gyro'd 3-channel Hughes 500, Huey, Cobra etc but something tells me I'll have the only
Westland Wessex for quite a while

[killbucket]

Its coming along nice.

[alfa1]

Good luckwith the Westland Wessex conversion.
I tried to do one myself (with a Lynx) a few weeks ago, but it was all just too heavy.