MD500 Tow Defender Build Page 2

FUSELAGE BODY WORK & ASSEMBLY:

Because I have never built an unpainted fuselage before I really had no idea what I was doing. I did lots of reading on the Scale RC Heli forum, posted some questions, and got some answers. Mostly I learned you need to get all the pits and other fiberglass imperfections filled in, sanded smooth, and then all washed up before ever applying primer. Then you lay down some primer and see how it looks, go back and fix anything not perfect, and prime a little more. So I went to Welle Auto and bought some Bondo, a Bondo speader, two part primer paint, mixing cups and sticks, and headed out the door with my goodies.

I figured I would start on the smallest area first. This just also happens to be the area that most people will see first, the front of the helicopter (oh boy!). There is also a broken chunk on the lower section of the FLIR mount. This will be my first real bondo repair. So I spread the bondo on the body seams and on the lower FLIR mount damage and then wait for a few hours for it to dry.

<--Prev Home Next-->

Here you can see the damaged lower FLIR mount

Here I have applied some bondo to repair it

Imperfections in body seams. Maybe this is a normal thing. I don't know.

I just want everything to be a smooth as it can be (until I am sick of sanding I mean).

Here more bondo has been applied (sure hope I am doing this right)

Now the sanding process has begun (I hate sanding. I actually hate doing the body work period).

Part of the tail boom with more parting seams (yippee!!!)

Tail boom all bondo'd up too

Tail boom getting it's first sanding

Here you can see the lower port side fuselage fasteners. I am using basswood on the back side with a 8-32

blind nut, and 1/8 inch plywood on the front side with an 8-32 screw. I have some knurled knob screws I

may use, but when I first tried to use them while doing this assembly work (before gluing the wood in place)

they were a pain in the butt to screw in. I will know more after the glue is dry and all I have to do is hold the screw.

Here is the port side upper mount. Same setup on all four mounts.

Here you can see both upper fasteners along with the upper guide pins and supports.

Here I was trying to show the port side blind nut. Not a very good photo I guess.

Here it sits waiting for the glue to dry. I had to remove the front landing gear

in order to get my hands inside for assembling the fuselage fasteners.