Another non-traditional cano w/ steps (pic heavy)

[EKron]

I did another one! I can't really say it is great or anything and struggled to come up with ideas and am pretty meh about the whole thing. I bought this Fusuno X5 Formula canopy at Christmas for only $35 bucks but just wasn't happy with the look. I tried painting the cockpit area with a alligator pattern but still didn't like it.



After somewhere around 16 hours of stripping and prepping the canopy, I just started playing and mocking up some ideas and colors on my computer. Prepping for paint is a tedious and time consuming process and my least favorite part. I'm going to post up another thread on my process of getting pre-painted canopies ready to paint.

Computer concepts - where I always start


So, after the tribulations of getting the canopy ready to paint and having a general idea of where I'm going, I try to decide what layers go first and it isn't always easy. I'll just run through most of the steps of getting this one done below and post the "finished" pics at the end. Even after hours and hours of work and the expense of materials, I still don't like it that much and am kind of meh about this one too.











And finally, where it all ended up.









At the field yesterday with the family. (before the crash! )

Until I get ambitious enough to do another one,
--Elisabeth

[SpinRay]

Wow, that turned out really nice. I haven't tried my hand at any heli canopies, but have done many RC car and truck bodies. Those are quite different and done from the inside. Interested in your method.

Wait...before the crash? Is it toast?

[chuteopn]

As always, Awesome work Elisabeth !!!!

[EKron]

Originally Posted by SpinRay

Wait...before the crash? Is it toast?

First off, thanks all.

Not quite toast but did take some damage. Still trying to figure out what happened - it was a very weird incident.

Not sure what happened first but 15 seconds after lift off when I switched into IU2, my tail fin snapped off and went flying which freaked me out. Cyclic stick was not responding normally for a second but I was able to make a quick landing. Tail blades caught a little grass as I touched down and with a belt, this is usually not a problem.

Upon inspection, I found the canopy had been rubbing the main gear which it didn't do before flying. The top around the head had slight damage like it had hit the swash but there was plenty of clearance and all four mounting points were intact so I don't know how that was even possible unless the canopy flexed a LOT?

In looking more closely, the boom and supports were ever so slightly bent but yet the tail shaft is perfect and the KBDD tail blades don't have a mark or nick on them so I can't explain what happened. I have a video of the flight and the landing wasn't hard. Even though I did catch a little grass with the tail, it didn't seem hard enough to do any damage and the perfect condition of the tail blades really has me scratching my head.

I ground off the top of the canopy about 1/8 of an inch around the swash and servo links then used some Goblin canopy edging on it to tidy it up. I'll just grind off the sides where it rubbed the main gear and not worry about the looks of it.

Hard to say if the main gear rub set up a vibration that snapped off the tail fin and if the force of it ejecting alone could have bent the boom? It is all pretty hard to figure out but I never had a lick of trouble, crash or hard landing with this heli and the only thing changed was the canopy.

There's no other damage on the heli. The boom supports only had a slight bow I was able to hand straighten and the boom itself only bent 3 or 4mm. The main gear isn't messed up enough to replace and all the electronics are fine. I'm replacing the plastic tail fin with a CF one but you can bet I'm going to get a few trouble free flights in with the stock canopy to make sure all is well before trying this new one again.

--Elisabeth

[IrvingWashington]

Awesome paint job! congratz!