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Project : Fitting a 500 Scale Fuselage 500E from Trex 500L Dominator

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    Project : Fitting a 500 Scale Fuselage 500E from Trex 500L Dominator

    Good day and here is my new accomplishment for 2015.
    Fitting a " 500 Scale Fuselage 500E Blue/Green " from Align into an Align's 500L Dominator.


    Took many months to finally decide to experiment fitting a fuselage to my heli as I was pretty sure the scaled fuselage wasn't really meant for a 500L series because Align released the Dominator series ( 500L ) much later than it's scaled fuselage that was solely meant for the TREX 500 / Pro models.

    Nowhere was I able to find any resource on fitting the fuselage into a 500L either. However, I figure out it shouldn't be that difficult if I got the 500E fuselage which would look rather spacious, as compare to the more fierce-looking but narrower AH-1 Apache body. Neither did I want a Agusta because of the landing gears, which were wheels instead of skids. I preferred skids as it looks simpler.

    When I first got the fuselage out of the box, it felt very big. The canopy felt like it could fit 2 Barbie dolls sitting side by side. Well, that ended when I found out that there was much problem that I would need to tackle. Not so simple..huh !!

    First, the tail rudder carbon push rod would not fit the narrow fuselage's tail boom !
    I had to cut a separate opening under the tail boom above the turbine exhaust for the push rod to exit from its rear.
    This also means that the heli mechanics had to be mounted at a lower height.
    The hard truth is, it is difficult to judge the location of the exit path for the carbon push rod that I had to try my luck to guesstimate. Thus the generous amount of cutting I had to make.
    Anyway, it is easy to patch with some suitably nice stickers once I'm done.

    Click image for larger version

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    [ Part 1 ]
    Last edited by blueangel; 15-06-2015, 08:38 AM.
    I'm Remotely Controlled ...

    #2
    Next was then to determine the mounting of the mechanics to the balsa.
    This is because I had to run the tail push rod outside the fuselage's tail boom, the mechanics now had to sit solely on the balsa instead of through the supplied mounting piece by Align's.

    But luck was on my side because the height was smack on right if my frame mechanics sits flat on the balsa, and my push rod would exit perfectly without binding.
    So I had to think of alternative methods to mount my mechanics to the balsa.
    Well, SMRT taught as a few good things, except the bad side of over crowded train cabins - cable ties.
    I also found some spare Align's velcro tapes that came with my 500L kit, so I use it a tie-down between the frame and the balsa.

    Click image for larger version

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    The FBL head / swash were also OK to clear the fuselage in that way. So I guess it was plain luck that everything fits in nicely here.

    Click image for larger version

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    [ PART 2 ]
    Last edited by blueangel; 15-06-2015, 01:27 AM.
    I'm Remotely Controlled ...

    Comment


      #3
      Once the frame mechanics are mounted to the balsa, I quickly checked the clearance for the canopy.

      As you know TREX / PRo / DFC had its motor mounted at bottom of the frame while the Dominator series had them installed way up to the top.
      The problem with this is that the motor might be in contact with the canopy.
      If it does, then the worse case scenario would be to scrap the project since the canopy won't fit. Or you can cut a quarry hole right at the top of the scaled looking canopy to allow the motor to protrude out. Ugly !

      Well, luckily for me, as you might had read in earlier post that I had purposely mounted the frame mechanics against the balsa instead of using those 10 mm thick mounting blocks supplied in the kit to attached the frame to the Balsa.
      Of course it then seems like everything fall into place nicely again for me.
      But I am just a little worried about ventilation for the motor as it was just less than 10 mm from the top of the canopy.

      Click image for larger version

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      [ PART 3 ]
      I'm Remotely Controlled ...

      Comment


        #4
        Next came the most intriguing section of the tail boom.
        Nothing fits - the clamp that secures the tail gear was too big to fit into the boom's opening.
        A big sacrifice I did was to then trim off a lot of material off the tail section to allow enough clearance for me to fit the tail gear section and also the decorative vertical / horizontal tail fins.

        Instruction requires me to thread screws to hold the fins together with the tail gear clamps. But I opt to go a little out of the convention by using a separate pair of clamps to secure the fins while then using the original clamps to lock down the tail gear section instead.

        Hard to explain, but what it does is I separate the load off the two screws :
        Original design = 2 screws & clamp to hold the tail gear with the fins together.
        My design = 2 screws & clamps for tail gear, 2 screws & clamps for the fins, separately.

        But the down side is that the fin now sits slightly to the front, looking slightly odd. But it does ease maintenance in future because when you remove the tail gear section, the fin stays where it is.
        Changing gears during damage or wear / tear will probably be easier.


        Click image for larger version

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        [ PART 5 ]
        I'm Remotely Controlled ...

        Comment


          #5
          Finally after sorting out the incompatibilities for the Dominator to fit into a scale fuselage that wasn't designed for it, I took a step back at the result and I think it is reasonably OK.

          Click image for larger version

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          Didn't took long to work out the alternative solution and some daring penknife & cutter also see some promising result, plus lot's of luck indeed.
          Because if it doesn't fit, this fuselage would probably be wasted and sitting on my display rack without a soul.



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          And yes, my favourite color is blue, and my favourite car is WRX, although green is my hater-color.
          So it does come up with a shelf queen with my WRX afterall if I don't fly it.
          Hmm.. ... ...



          [ END ]
          I'm Remotely Controlled ...

          Comment


            #6
            赞!

            Comment


              #7
              Nicely done..
              i love scale helis...

              Comment


                #8
                Sharing info and providing a little encouragement to those who wanted to fly scale heli. Hopefully after witnessing my ways of doing things, gives you more confidence in getting a scale heli to build ! Ha !

                Really, this has been one easy build if you do have the correct heli type ( i.e not a Dominator series ), but I'm sure even if you do have the dominator series, it isn't difficult.
                Proven here !
                I'm Remotely Controlled ...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Youtube is up for today's maiden flight with the mata-mata fuselage !
                  Enjoy and comments / critics welcome

                  I'm Remotely Controlled ...

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