I'm pretty new to helicopters, and I was wondering how to attain the effect of sagging rotor blades. You know, how they droop down while the bird is sitting. Is it a matter of heating the plastic, or is it just gentle pressure, or what? How do you guys do it?

It's best to bend the by hand under real warm water (not hot) to get their shape. Then drop them into a cold bowl of water to keep their shape. If you make a mistake by bending them to much then do the same to correct them.

Others have used blow dryers and boiling water, only thing is if you over do it it's ruined...and there’s no coming back other than finding replacements blades.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

BTW: Which helicopter and kit are you making!

It sounds like the basic idea is low heat (water or air) and gentle and subtle molding. Sounds like a plan! And I am currently building Revell's 1/32 Alouette II with Nord SS.11 anti-tank missiles.

Hi Robby

Try a 12 inch hack saw blade held bent to the correct deflection with string like a long bow. Use this as your mold. Tape a rotor blade to the hack saw blade so that it conforms to the deflected shape. You can also sandwich it between 2 hack saw blades. Dip into hot water for a few seconds then cold water. Undo the tape and the blade should now have the bend you require. Repeat for all the other blades. Make sure they are all positioned on the hack saw blade in the exact same location and this will give a consistent deflection for all blades in the rotor.

Len

Len, that sounds like a surefire method to perfect blade deflection...too bad I don't have any hacksaw blades lying around...I ended up using a baseball cap brim and a hair dryer. Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt!

Sounds like a good trick.

Robby, feel free to share your build. I have been tempted to buy this strange looking bird many times, but so far resisted.

I also read a method where you lay the rotor assembly in a plate, sandwich it between another plate, then heat gently (aka leave in sun for a bit) then let cool

Jesper, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I am almost done with the build! The bad news is that I leave for college this week, so it will have to stay "almost done" for the next few months... I can still post pictures of how it is now though. All I have yet to is decals, spray and attach the weapons pylons, and complete the canopy (my greatest foe in this kit). I hope to at least finish the pylons before I leave. Maybe even decals if I'm lucky!

http://s894.photobucket.com/albums/ac143/rgoldberg91/Alouette%20II%20with%20SS-11%20Missiles/

Here's the link to my photobucket album. I just have yet to finish the canopy. As you'll see, I tried using some bad tape and that screwed me over pretty hard. But I'm at college now and I'm proud that I managed to essentially finish everything before I left!

P.S. I guess it screwed up the order of the shots...use your logic to determine the correct order!