Question Regarding breakdown of 1:18 Helicopters

[oldskoolp8ntr]

Hello (First post here)
I've been searching high and low for any resource (tried google with different wording/phrases and youtube) that could demonstrate breaking down the 1:18 helicopters from both Bbi and 21st Century Toys. I have several Helos including 2 different Cobras, 2 UH-1's, 2 Blackhawks and 1 Apache that I need to break down as small as possible for shipping acrosss the country and knowing the cost to ship large scaled items is ridiculous, I'd like to use the smallest box necessary (with sufficient packing of course). I've managed to break most of them down as far as rotor blades, removable horizontal stabs, munitions, pylons and such, but I thought the tail section of some models was able to break down, but I've tried doing this on sections that look as though they break down without removal of screws, but Ive gotten to the point where I'm afraid I'll break the plastic.

So does anyone by chance have information or can point me in the direction of a resource that may demonstrate how to break down the helicopter and aircraft for that matter and I'll be needing to break down several ac including 4 different Hornets for transit to their new home.

Thank you in advance.
Joe

[tmanthegreat]

Welcome to the SSHQ forum

Good question. The tail boom section on the BBI Apache and Blackhawk as well as the 21c Supercobra and Huey should separate. It's pretty easy to separate the tail sections on the 21c helicopters, but the BBI models were designed to be more permanent and are harder to pull off. With a bit of force (and maybe a flathead screwdriver) you should be able to pull those apart. The BBI Kiowa and Littlebirds have fixed tail booms that do not separate.

Hope this helps!

[granch]

May I suggest you to give your helos a little bit heat (behind a window at the sunshine for example). If you keep them for anough time that the Inside of the models is a little bit warm. This should soften somewhat the plastic and you could have less risk of breaking pieces inside at the joint. You should then try to move with force but very, very slowly the tail up and down and left and right. I have had issues with the flat screwdriver. When you have reached a small split, introduce a thin piece of wood to avoid the split to close by the next inverse movement to open a split on the other side, then, put symmetrically an other piece of wood and so on... I could separate like this the tail of my Blackhawk with no more damages. Hope my very approximative english is good anough to be understandable.

[oldskoolp8ntr]

Tman and Granch - Thank you very much for the assistance, greatly appreciated.

Heres to hoping to don't overdo it lol