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This
project has just come into my hanger, and I thought I would
document it here because it is a little different from most
AirWolf builds.
That is because we are going to
use the Interceptor 400 mechanics in it, plus we are going
to try to "hide" the Alien Command sensor under
the belly so that the line of the fuselage is not messed up
too much
The first thing we need to be
aware of is that the mechanics are somewhat shorter than the
fuselage we have chosen, which is the rather nice Align
Black & White AirWolf with retractable gear, which is
shown on the left & below
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As you can
see, the fuselage comes with the basic retracts already mounted
inside it, leaving you to make up and fit the connecting arms and
rods. No retracts servo is provided, so you need to purchase that
separately.
Unlike my own
HeliArtist SeaWolf, these Airwolf's now seem to come made up of a
lot lighter F/G, which is good for the question of overall weight,
but they do give the impression of being a little too flimsy in many
places. I suspect we may need to add some damping inside to
avoid resonances occurring in the long surfaces
Otherwise, the
finish is nice, and although you have to look closely, the Black is
actually a metallic/pearl black, which looks great in the sunlight
(if we ever get any). The white is just plain white.
This fuselage
comes with the weapons for the pods, of course, plus it has a set of
missile launchers that are underslung on the belly.
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| Above are the entire contents
of the fittings bags provided by Align. As you can also see,
we are left to complete and fit the tail surfaces and of
course, the guns and pods.
A nice touch I noticed is that Align also
provide a dense foam support for the boom to keep it steady
at the back of the fuselage. This is something other kits I have seen do not often supply.
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So, before we can start
doing any work on the fuselage, we need to protect
it from scratches etc as best we can. My usual
method on a fuselage of this size is to cover it
with sticky painters tape (blue in this case) so
that all corners and flat surfaces that may be in
contact with the bench are covered.
This tape is paper based, and it
comes off nice and easily without leaving any stick
traces behind. |
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The Hitec
Retract servo arrived this morning, it's pretty large, as it is the
standard 4 screw fitting size of servo. I prefer these as they have
the strength to hold the gear in place really well. It will
mean making some small modifications to the servo mounting system.
It will also
mean I will need to design and make up a good solid, but light
battery support platform that will sit on top of the retract servo,
as we want to use the Heliguy RapidCharge 2200Mah 25C lipo in this
aircraft. This will need to be easily removable, as will the
retract servo, as you do need to remove them whenever you want to
fit/remove the mechanics into/out of the fuselage.
I have now had
a moment to test the Hitec retract servo, and it works at quite a
realistic speed, which I am very pleased about, as it looks much
better than having the wheel flick up and down as happens with so
many AirWolfs' you see. It also meant making an entirely new
mounting for the servo, which was fun, as it is a pretty tight fit
up front, but it is getting there.
| Click image above to view
VIDEO |
Click image above to view
VIDEO |
| Above are a couple
of short video showing the retracts working. The speed is
nice, and that servo is really powerful, as shown by the
second video, so it should all stand up to the punishment it
will doubtless get.
I just need to final adjust the locked up
position slightly, and then ensure these nasty plastic arms
are CA'd to the carbon shaft so they will not move, as the
grub screws in plastic threads provided by Align are worse
than useless. I must say that am surprised that they
would ship anything of that poor a design. The rest of the
system is nice and robust, but these grub screws in plastic
are just never going to hold, even assuming you can tighten
them down the first time.
I have trimmed the servo mount down now,
and also trimmed an area of the flange inside the helicopter
so that the servo horns "just" miss everything, so
we are now ready to proceed with at least one of the fiddly
items out of the way. |
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