Sergio Salvi

The MD500E fuselage from HobbyKing has arrived! I had to try it on my other CopterX kit:

Hughes MD500E fuselage vs. standard canopy

Dialogue with my wife when showing it to her:

me: Look at this new fuselage I’ve got for my heli!!

wife: Ohhh, it looks nice! Did you get only one?

me: (speechless)

This scale fuselage looks really good and makes the CopterX 450 look bigger compared to the standard canopy. It will also help with visibility given its size and colour pattern. The build quality seems very good except for some tiny details in the painting that are not 100% perfect. It’s only noticeable if you look closely, so I don’t care — especially when it’s only $47 at HobbyKing instead of $300 from a local hobby shop.

Taller and wider. Approx. 300g of extra weight.

Unfortunately I’m not installing this body on my CopterX anytime soon because I still have to actually learn to fly my heli, so for now it will stay at home as a “prize” for myself when I actually learn to fly it properly. Check this page back in a few months for a status update

The manufacturer, KDS model, also has a greenish/military version of this fuselage but I think it is very hard to see when flying because of the dark colour and lack of contrasting colours:

Hughes MD500E military scale fuselage