AS-350B"A-Star" On-line support build-up. Page 6.
Click image for kit info.
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Blocks glued in with thin
CA, then BVM epoxy is applied to strengthed joints. You can but the ABS
covers
up to the fuse as per instructions, but for a
really scale look you can use a hot knife and tiny dremel tip to cut
scale openings for strut tubes. Take a piece
of ABS cover as a guide for cutting by sliding it up to fuse and then
over cut the opening by 2 mm or so. This allows
flexability on a hard landing, a scale look and no paint seams
to crack later. Do this slowly and carefully
and gradually open up the holes until you are satisfied.
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Before and after... cut the
ABS cover end going into the fuse at a 45 degree angle, Heat the strut
tubes
with a heat gun only slightly so they are hot
to the touch and slide with some force the ABS covers into thier positions.
Don't get the strut tube too hot or wrinkling
will occur and watch the direction of the heat gun so as not to damage
the body glass (point away from body). Next step
is to drop some thin CA down the ABS covers at the tip of the
struts to seal them and then trim off 20 mm of
cover for the next step at each tip of each strut tube as shown below.
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Next I will cut grooves into the
exposed ends for glue to "tooth" when slid into final positions. The T-pieces
get trimmed to 23mm overall height then drilled
with 5mm bit through the alu skids into wood dowels within the
skids. Careful not drill all the way through,
use a depth gauge on the drill bit... an old wheel collar works well for
this to set drill depth. Glue them in to final
positions when all this done and check skids on a level surface to make
sure they are sitting flat without any wobbles.
The final assembly, diameters of ABS covers match
nicely to T-pieces.
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I chose to keep this piece
of of the fuse intact so I would'nt have to remove the windshield everytime
I pulled the
upper cowl and I have more plans for the windshield
for scale appearances. Shown here is the center beam mounted
in place using 2mm countersunk screws. The top
screw now gets covered up with the upper cowl so the windshield
does'nt have to come out when we pull the upper
cowl.The second pic shows how the instructions illustrate this step.
The choice is up to you and may be easier to
just follow the steps in the second picture.
Getting ready for the next steps, the tailrotor
bulkheads glued together useing thin CA, and BVM epoxy holding
the 5mm blind nut which is used for securing
the rear fin. The installation does not require outside screws and we
will get into that a bit later but it is really
quite a neat way of doing it as access is through the rear taillight hole.
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