pics of MX-450xs finished it today

[Scottlclem]

Got the MX-450 form Tower couple days ago and just finished building it today.The heli came ARF and the build went pretty smooth except for some minor things , like the elevator servo arm was hitting the swash holder bracket, I did some filing on the bracket to get clearance, another thing that pissed me off was the kit didn't include 2mm nuts to go on the balls you put on the servo arms, they included the balls and links and screws just no 2mm nuts.The instruction manual shows you just thread the screw through the ball into the servo horn.Maybe what they showed in the manual would work ok but to me thats a little scary . Anyhow after a trip across town to get some 2mm nuts I was back in business.
I hovered it in the living room (winds gusting 20 to 30 mph here in East Tn today ) and everything seems to be working right. Hope we have some good weather tomorrow :mrgreen: . I put some pics in my gallery of the build if you want to take a look.

[jeffreydc]

Dude,

Did you paint that canopy or did i come like that? My mx450 is white. Yours looks sweeet like that!

[Scottlclem]

Thanks . I painted it with Dupli-Color Metal Specks from Advance Auto . I put 4 coats of the red metal flake and 2 coats of clear coat on top of that to make it shine.

[The Reaper]

WOW! That is one beautiful paint job dude!!

Very nice. Once my crash frequency drops, I will be working on a paint job too, but it probably wont be THAT nice!

Good job man!!

[Scottlclem]

Gizmo6035 gave me a tip about not wrapping the antenna around carbon fiber because it can cause glitching. So made a whip out of the plastic tubing in a couple of old Windex spray bottles. One was not long enough so I used 2 and glued them together cutting each end at a 45 so there would be more surface to glue. Then i slid some heat shrink over the glued joint and put some ca on that before I shrank it. It's strong and looks good I think. I know you can buy a whip like this for a couple of dollars but I'm bored and it's snowing outside.

[jeffreydc]

Does the paint stick pretty well to the plastic? I was wondering if it would be prone to chipping off or not. If it sticks pretty good I'll paint mine before trying a fiberglass one.

[Scottlclem]

Originally Posted by jeffreydc

Does the paint stick pretty well to the plastic? I was wondering if it would be prone to chipping off or not. If it sticks pretty good I'll paint mine before trying a fiberglass one.

I sanded the canopy to give the paint something to bond too, but yes it will chip off pretty easy. I was pulling the ball links on and off adjusting the blade tracking and chipped a small flake off the top edge of the canopy. I can't say how well the paint will hold up but I have enough paint left in the spray can to paint the whole thing 2 or 3 more times .