I’m building my first helicopter (1:48 U.S. Customs UH-60). All of the photographs I’ve seen of parked UH-60s have shown the main roter blades drooping. How can I droop the kits blades?
heat the blade veay carfuly. slowly bend it be veary careful not to over heat it or bend it and break it. go slow!
you might want to practice on something befor you try it.
Might want to use hot water or a hair dryer to heat it. Definately practice first.
Oh…don’t use the oven or an open flame[:D]
Yes, DEFINITELY heat it first!!!
I just drooped my OH-6’s rotor blades by gently flexing them. It worked perfectly until I got to the fourth blade, which snapped like a dry twig. Had I heated it, that wouldn’t have happened. 
Oh well, It repaired alright, but damn that was annoying!
For jmcquate or anyone who knows the answer:
You mentioned that this helicopter you were building is a UH-60 1/48th with U.S. Customs markings. What manufactuer is it? Are you using decals that came with the kit or are they after-the-market? I would be most interested in acquiring a UH-60 with U.S. Customs markings. I have a friend whose son is with Customs and he would get a kick out of me building it up for him. Plus, I have some photos of a Customs chopper I took at an air show a couple of years ago.
Dick McC
For Dick McC,
The 1/48th U.S. Customs UH-60 helicopter is made by Minicraft. They are available through most online hobby shops.
Shaggy
Shaggy,
Appreciate the quick response. Will have to pick it up.
Thanks again,
Dick McC
Does this still work if someone was a knucklehead and painted the rotors?
The last copter that I built I used a jig to hold the rotor head the correct scale distance above the workbench. I then put clay weight on the rotor tips (not much, just enough to bend the blade about 1/4 inch. Then using a hair dryer I heated the blades until the tips dropped to the workbench. This gave each of my blades the same droop.
LMAO!
I’m just finishing a Tamiya 48th Loach and here’s how I drooped the blades.
You know the corrugated ribbon for gift-wrapping, the stuff that you can curl really easily? We used to do that a couple of different ways, my favorite being to hold the ribbon between forefinger and thumb, pulling the ribbon through between them, making sure to curl it with my thumbnail.
I did the same thing with the blades on the OH-6, except it took just a litlle longer. A bit of pressure to slightly bend the blade as you go combined with the small amount of heat built up from the friction did wonders. But these are pretty small blades, not thick and not wide. So you may have trouble getting that miniscule amount of heat to tranfser thru a wider, thicker blade.
Fade to Black…
I have heard to take a saw blade like a hack saw, give it a bow and hold the shape with a fatener and tape the blade to it. Put it in hot water and it should take the blade bow. Never tried it myself.