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Hello, I have 3 Vario scale helicopters. Since retirement, I can no longer afford the prices Vario is asking for their scale kits. I have had Roban before and was not fond of their kits, quality and virtually no part support! Does anyone know if their quality has improved? I had the AS 350 which ate belts and chewed up gears. I also had the 700 cobra which the gel coating on the outside started to peel off. Has anyone else had these problems? I want another cobra but have no idea if their quality has improved drastically.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
Mike

…Coming soon from XXL Helicopter…
206L V2

This helicopter in kit form will be available and ready for pre orders very soon. The kit is primarily designed in the electric version for the experienced builder. Turbine version would be special order after customer consultation. It has been upgraded with improvements since version one was introduced many years ago. The 407 will be available next since it shares parts of the same mold. For more info use below email link.

For USA info@heliworkshop.com
Europe helifantenmaus@aol.com

Scale 1/3.5
Rotor 3.3 meter
20 mm main shaft
Scale rotor head
Semi scale tail rotor
Scale exterior parts included
Electric dome mechanics
Functional doors
Removable tail boom, less than 5 minutes, no tools needed

Check out the video of a version 1 from several years ago

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.

How frustrating is it to need a part only to be told you have to wait weeks or months to get it? Like you, I hate that, which is why Heliworkshop stocks THOUSANDS of parts so you don’t have to wait at a critical point in your build or repair.

At Heliworkshop, we are the only “stocking” Vario dealer in the USA with a strong emphasis on getting the parts or kits you need as soon as possible. Vario has a 5000+ parts inventory. Although it is impossible to maintain all 5000+ parts in our stock, we do our best to fill orders and ship in stock parts within 24 hours. If we don’t have the parts you need in stock, we simply add them to our weekly orders that ship from the German warehouse. Either way, we are always working to make sure you get what you need quickly.

Next time you think about kits, parts, service or just critical help with your Vario model, remember that we are builders with more than 30 years of experience building and flying Vario and other brands of model helicopters. We know what you need because we’ve been there!

Military nomenclature stencils..

I had been searching for a company that could produce custom stencils in a very small scale that would work on models from 1/7 - 1/4 I finally found a company that was able to produce them. These are made from Mylar and are reusable. The price was quoted based on the quantity and I got 14 different ones which was about 110.00$ including shipping. These will work great on some military models we’re working on.

Hello everyone I posted earlier about flight systems.
Now I am going to talk about my first scale build that I am doing or now is done. It’s a Roban G-jive Hughes MD 500E 600 size fuselage conversion kit. When I started it they recommended a phoenix tech mechanics for or you can use Align so that is what I started with and it didn’t fit the Align Trex 600 nitro.
Then I found that my Hirobo sceadu shuttle fit good. Also a nitro engine. Then I had some issues with it. Then decided I wanted to change it to a electric Align trex 600 that was donated to me and it would not fit.
Bye the way they are flybar. Before I fitted it into the fuselage I wanted to change it to a four bladed head and go with the micro Beast gyro fly system then I found out it would not fit. So I decided to go back to the Trex 600 nitro. Got it to fit then it had issues. I got another Align DFC electric Trex 600 wouldn’t fit.
So I decided to get the phoenix tech ESP 600. Now remember that I got a DFC four bladed head for it. Now I need the main shaft for the DFC head they will not fit or work on the non DFC helicopter. At the ones that come with the DFC four bladed head. The Align and Phoenix tech have a lot in common or you can use parts from one to another. I know this is a lot to say but I had to do a lot of modifications to my build.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything on this site. But now I have some experience with Flybarless systems which is new for me. The things I am trying to understand is the difference between the flight systems and what works on some and not with other Helicopters. I have mostly Flybar Helicopters 12-15 years old. Converting to FBL systems. Also old transmitter. The thing is getting harder to understand how can I stay using older technology with new and what other people have found what works good on one Helicopter but not the other. I would like to get a new radio but I don’t know if I can learn how to use it. Now back to flights systems I like microbeast other people don’t but it won’t work on my nitro helicopter for some reason a lot of things come into play with that. On my electric 600 size I was trying to use the Icon 2 on one of the electric 600 size and it wouldn’t work setting were good. So I tried it on my other 600 size Helicopters and it works great. That is what so funny about it. Micro Beast works great on both. This is some of the things I experienced in my Hughes MD 500E build going to electric mechanics . So if I have someone to go and share things with older things and newer stuff.

With Helidirect now reselling FunKey and Fusuno fuselages , I, would like to pose a question.

What makes more sense, getting a "conversion" fuselage and having to figure out which mechanics are best suited or going the Roban route and get the fuselage WITH mechanics specific to the fuselage?

I personally cannot go with Vario due to cost. But the other two options are/will be pretty close in cost and achievable. I lean towards Roban, due to the fact of being an all in one setup as opposed to getting a fuselage and adapting mechanics to it.

Just wondering what others think?

What’s in the boxes?
From Helidirect, Fusuno scale fuselages are now available. If you’re familiar with the marvel craft brand, you’re going to like these. The first shipment of fuselages are in stock and I’m sure these are going to move quick so check them out. I ordered the painted 407 in the PHI scheme, the 407 in primer and the AS350 in primer. Shipping was fast (2) days and they were well packed. The overall quality of the fuselages is really good, you just don’t see this often. They include panel lines and small details you don’t find in fuselages of this size. They also feature opening doors, landing gear, wood work ,windows and will fit many existing 550-700 size mechanics. These kits are in a different class and simply can’t be compared to similar size fuselages. The 407 and AS 350 will get rivet detail added and beautiful one of a kind paint schemes and will be offered for sale.

Functional Water Tank (Over The Top)

One of several new products from Heliworkshop OTT collection 2023 The tanks are sized to fit 1/7.5 - 1/5.5 UH 1 Huey series helicopters. They are going into final testing very soon and will be available in static unpainted up to functional plug and play. The smaller size will hold up to approximately 40 oz of water and the larger about 90 oz. Servos are installed in the tank and are water proofed. The tanks can have either 1 or 2 individual water compartments for one large drop or one large and one small secondary drop. I’ve experimented with water/milk mix which gives a good visual effect with the water drop against bright sunny days, looks very nice. Hopefully I can get some good video soon. One of the test helicopters is the Roban 412 with tall landing gear. I will provide a update regarding pricing once testing is complete

So I have the doors cut out of the fuselage on my Jet Ranger 206, I left about 1/4" of material all around the opening and obviously the doors will not set flush with the fuselage. If I take the "excess" out the door will fall through, by adding the hinges and latch is this the right way to go to keep the doors from falling through? I have looked at several thousands of pictures and everyone I have seen looks like the extra material is left in place.

Been involved with RC fixed wing and some helicopters, built a lot of models from plastic to balsa. I now have my first scale helicopter from Vario. Did a lot of review research and picked Vario because of the high marks they got. But so far, I'm having trouble with some of the parts not fitting like the landing gear (skid ) horizontal stabilzers mounting to the stubs on the boom, if some one could answer the question if the parts not fitting correctly you should have to modify the parts to fit? Is this normal for a scale helicopter from Vario?