rjwood_uk

im going to be soon partaking in making the hasegawa 1/48 Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow and the Revell of Germany 1/72 Augusta Westland EH-101 Merlin.

anyway....

is it realistic to droop the main blades on scale models? if so by how much and what is the best way? i think i heard Barry say to hold it over some boiling water untill it droops on its own wait.

is that right? are their any other techniques that work well?

maybe this could be put into the tips section once we get a few nice ones that work. (hoepfully)

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wonwinglo

Richard,to droop the helicopter rotor blades simply draw them under a piece of wood dowel or even a round pencil,keep doing this until each blade has equal droop,you need to pull up slightly to produce the required droop but with care it works well.
Most helicopter rotor blades have quite a pronounced amount of droop on the ground,once the blades are in motion they start to cone upwards in flight as they take the load.

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Bluewavestudios

Hi Richard,

Yep it is quite correct for blades to droop on most Helicopter's you look at, So this would be very scale indeed. Especially on single Rotor Helicopters, as it is a method of flapping hinging. Basically designed to counteract the effect of the retreating blade losing lift compared the advancing blade gaining lift...thereby preventing unwanted rolls towards one side. Twin rotor Heli's do not need this as much, therefore have more rigid blades.

Barry has mentioned the best way to do it. As quite rightly stated the blades will also cone up in flight too, have a look at your Sig Pic of the Apache, it can clearly be seen on there.

Have a look at the Pic of the Mil Mi-26 below for classic blade droop !!

Regards........Mark

Attached Images

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rjwood_uk

thanks for the tips guys. i never noticed that in my sig pic. well spotted Mark. thats pretty impressive for a kits box art!

well, should hopefully be getting the kits between monday and wednesday, depending on how well royal mail do their job. (no disrespect to post, erm. postpersons who are reading that. post people as people are nice people. its just the service that sucks lol

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