Help with cutting a fibreglass fuselage - Vario Chinook
Hi all. I am new to ScaleHeliPilot. I have recently bought the Vario Chinook 1:11 and I'm done with the mechanics. Fuselage up next. I have never cut fiberglass before so I am petrified :)
Other than some old RC scale cars (eg Tamiya) I have done in the past, this is my first journey into the world of Scale.
I noted that Michael Kranitz suggested a step bit for the 30mm landing gear holes. I am curious though about the larger circular cutouts for the rotors. The instructions suggest 75mm and 90mm diameters for those. What is the best way to go about it? A dremel would work but it is difficult cut perfect circles with a rotary. I could look at a hole saw, but I'm worried that it might rip the fiberglass.
Curious to hear what other people did.
My second question is about sliding the mechanics in and out of the fuse. I saw Michael warned that one needs to be ready to do this a lot. It seems quite an involved process. Removal of the front rotor (and re-application of loctite after reinsertion?) And I guess the landing gear must also be unscrewed from the mechanics every single time? Is accessing the front landing gear not a pain? Because I assume the landing gear struts must remain in the fuse after the mechanics slide out.
I'll probably have many more questions as this proceeds. Looking forward to some great discussions here.

4 Answers
Christoff welcome to the Chinook world, I highly suggest you go thru this post.
https://www.scalerchelis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19890&start...
See how I do my cuts:
- no rush, have a progressive approach, no direct cut
- I use car deco strip to define e.g., how large is a border of a window
- apply car deco stripe for marking exact cut
- protect all around, see bottom left picture
- use Dremel "right angle adapter" (option to buy); helps me a lot for hand precision
- cut with Dremel (thin brown disc) at 0,5-1 cm distance of the stripe, closer if comfortable, can also depend where it is
- hand sand from large to fine grain (120 up to 600 - depends how thick the fuse is where you cut - the remaining material until white disapear close to the stripe, see picture - almost done
- use small files dor finish: flat, square, round
- rat tail file (or square) to finish angles
"no rush" seems to be the imperative directive here 😊
Here is a nice thread on all the tools available to cut FG...https://www.scalerchelis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14637&hilit...
and then there is also the "hot knife" method...
https://www.scalerchelis.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=192570&hili...
As for CH47... I have one in the box also ... It would be great to see what you have and at which point are you right now...