Small Scale Military Headquarters

That is the question. For those of you that have the BBI and 21C helos, do you display them with the blades on or off? I have every version and variant of helicopter (minus the new MH-6 Night Stalker) and display them with the blades off. I ask this because I do not want them to bend or sag down and I want to have the Blades displaying even though it takes up a bunch of room. I can remember how disappointed I was with my ARAH GI Joe Tomahawk Blades sagging down to the fuselage.

I leave the blades on. Sags a little but not too much.

Some sag is acceptable for ceiling display.


bbi Blackhawk & Apache has the worst sag of the bunch. They also have the largest rotor diameters.

All the other 21st & bbi helos have minimal or no sag at all.

Remember, real helicopter rotors sag when standing too, so it's not a bad thing.

My Pavehawk/Blackhawk's blades sag about 2 inches, the bad part is one doesnt sag at all, and the other one is 2in down. I fixed that with a hair dryer though

The new Little Bird has no sag at all.

i have them on. They sag somewhat but i find that i don't even notice it anymore unless i consciously look for it. About once a year i rebend them with the hair dryer and that starts the sag clock all over again.

In future, i may display them with some of the blades off simply to save space (put the side without the blades pointing at the wall so i can hang it closer to the wall) or i have even thought about cutting the blades shorter so they don't take as much room. By doing that you'd create the impression of a spinning rotor with blades on it but save space (and probably eliminate the sag problem too).

My Hueys have been up for over a year.

Hoghead has zero sag. Sharkmouth may have 1/8" sag.

Don't cut the blades!

I haven't tried this yet, but if the rotors sag, can you just turn them upside down. I know they won't lock in place, maybe they'll stay in place until they bend back.

Kevin.

i tried turning them upside down on my bbi helos as i thought that would be a perfect solution but they won't slot it, unfortunately. I haven't cut blades yet but i may one day....or find/make a set of shorter blades somehow.

Helicopters are really not that big except for the frikin' rotor blades.

I display my helos with the rotors on. It just would not look right without them. As another member pointed out above, actual rotor blades to tend to sag - close to the amount that they do on the BBI helos - so it really has not bothered me. The blades on my 21c AH-1W Supercobra and UH-1C Huey are made of a sturdier plastic than the BBI rotors and have less "sag."

There is quite a bit of sag in the blades on the UH-60. While turning, the blades can actually sag to less than 6 feet above the ground if the power starts to drop. They tell you to duck for a reason when you are getting on and off.

I am not a big helo fan but don't most helo main rotors fold back? When you see pics of them going into one of those big Galaxies they are straped all together in a nice neat package tied to the fuse. You guys can do this and save on space. You can drill a little splice rod thingy so when you decide to put the rotor back on just slip it back onto the rod splicer

The rotors on the 21C Cobra sag a bit, but they are pretty stiff, and the sag has not increased over time on my model. As noted, a certain amount of sag is normal on the real birds, so nothing to worry about in my opinion.

I haven't had any trouble with my 21st choppers either. I wish I could say the same for my Blackhawk and AH-64. At one point the rotors on the 64 were hanging below the tail boom. I used hot water to work on mine, it took a while . Think I'll try the hair dryer next time