I purchased the minicraft UH-60L Blackhawk kit and the points where each rotor blade goes into the center assembly isn’t very beefy.
Obviously cure time will be at least 24hrs, but does anyone have any tips/suggestions to make sure I don’t get ‘droop’ after this is all together?
Cheers.
You can always drill out the ends of each part with a small drill and insert a stiff wire and superglue them for support. I usually do this on 1/35 helo blades.
Hello!
My experience is that even very fiddly looking helo rotors can keep their shape when glued with lacquer thinner and left to dry for 24 hours or more. It’s good to make a jig for drying and give the blades a little bit of “inverse droop” - I mean to bend them upwards a millimeter or two. That can be done best putting the rotor together upside down, so when the gravity works on the blades it actually bends them up. Then, in normal position the same gravity just straightens those blades.
Wire reinforcement could work, but I would advise against it in smaller scales - drilling the holes weakens the parts, that can be dangerous.
Hope it helps, good luck with your build an have a nice day
Paweł
I used the box the kit came in as a jig. there was a slight curvature to the top, just enough to give that 1-2mm of “droop” as suggested above.
Great ideas everyone, thank you.
Regular cement, with 3 drops of liquid cement over the day and cure overnight seem to have a very solid start today. I’ve added another drop, but that should be quite sturdy now.
cheers.
I’m sorry that I missed this thread before! I would suggest piano wire if what you’re building isn’t too big, or too small. This gives you enough stability and it will work with most sizes without worrying about it being out of scale. This works best with 1/35th scale models. Depending on what guage you use. Try this next time when you need durability for something small, and don’t know what else to use without a lot of searching. It’s stronger than plastic, and it can be superglued easily enough.
~ Cobra Chris