About
In corner in my living room under my big LCD TV shelf sits a lonely relic of my mischievous past, a small micro helicopter that used to spark the joy of flying vertically (VTOL like) both indoor and outdoors..
.small enough to keep my daily flying feel wholesome yet a began my obsession of serious rotored flying. That micro helicopter was the classic 'ALIGN T-REX 100s' fixed pitch helicopter. It was the only flying R/C model i would tuck around under my arm inside Tupperware like plastic container box that i would carry daily to work place, social gathering and even when i'm out cycling to open field so i could spend more flight time at destination. Small, portable and yet sound furious as the rotor blade slice around as it flew forward in the air. It was my greatest obsession of micro flying in the era where micro R/C flying unique, rare yet luxury hobby....of course that doesn't goes well with my wallet. I do have bigger flying models like the ALIGN 450 (clone) and E-SKY BELT CP both collective pitch helicopter but both can be too handful to fly which requires me to go open space so i don't simply slices everything if it goes wrong. I had a lot of fixed wing gliders too back in the old days before scale plane replaced them all. Multirotor/drone culture wasn't there yet so there wasn't much technology that helps me to enjoy hover about which is why this micro helicopter the only accessible technology that would keep me hover about in small spaces. And so began my mischievous nostalgic adventures with the T-REX 100s everyday....from flying parkour style to cutting down trees to save this little guy, lol!...i had crazy days with it! hahaha!
A glimpse into its history; ALIGN T-REX 100s fixed pitch heli was introduce to me in the early 2011 as i can remember in local stores. Palm size with length at 209mm, 4 channel fixed pitch rotor, powered full overall in coreless brushed motor, flybar rotor for traditional stabilization and standard tail gyro. It was considered to be most smallest easiest and elite way to fly micro heli during its time especially made from most famed luxury brand ALIGN. Being a fixed pitch it flies almost like performance hobby like helicopter unlike cheesy cheap toy-ish Co-Axial rotor style helicopter you'd find in most toy store. 
Its greatest rival was the E-FLITE BLADE MSR at that time however popular in western region part of the world and hardly available in Asian market where i live which is why i ended with ALIGN. Unfortunately the price per unit on this small fixed pitch ALIGN T-REX 100s was around USD$106 at my local store. Since it was the only hobby grade mini branded helicopter ever entered in the market i would assume it was a standard price to pay for just like how i would pay for the famed 1:28 scale KYOSHO MINI-Z R/C cars. At that time i was really deep into all micro and mini size R/C models ranging from RADIO SHACK X-MODs, FIRELAP, KYOSHO MINI-Z, NANDA NRX-18, XRAY, rebranded TEAM ASSOCIATES and HBX models all between 1:28 and 1:18 scales...so when it comes to micro flying the ALIGN T-REX 100s way my only choices since there limited access of such flying micro model in local market. This micro helicopter fly very erratic and squirrely in handling performance but at that time i assume it was just my incompetent skills. The biggest problem among all is this models is not durable as i expected, a bad yet normal crash would snap the main rotor blade into two, the front canopy shell would cracked easily upon first impact like an egg shell and if it crash more frequent the onboard tail gyro sensor damaged causing the tail rotor goes erratic and later doe not worked at all, however that doesn't hinder my enthusiast with this tiny madness. This is why i ended buying extra unit of T-REX 100s to keep me satisfied flying it since i had few 'mild' crash and bashes since i love to fly indoor. The advantages of this model was that it handles pretty good with calm outdoor wind compare to any existing fixed pitch helicopter at that time.
Only a year later an equal rival with most durable micro heli ever produced was then introduced to the public costs around USD$35 the WL-TOYS V911 was released into the market....moment of face palm when i realized i've spent too much on the T-REX 100s especially i bought 4 boxes with spares, yeah my credit card took the heavy toll at the time. Yes i bought the V911; its was far superior the T-REX 100s; extremely stable in flight, easy to fly, bash-able yet extremely durable and yes again its only USD$35... it made me sad to see myself made a bad move on the micro T-REX 100s. The day i flew the V911 is the day i burry the T-REX 100s deep under the drawer forever. In memories of those great nostalgic moment owning this piss poor yet fun times flying this micro helicopter i've decided to create the virtual version of this model for PHOENIX R/C Simulator.
The build
I must say this is the first time i every build a 'rotored' model for PHOENIX R/C Simulator since i always been into fixed wing build all these years. So i took few 5 hours watching tutorial, 'trial & error' and reading some article to understand the new mechanics of helicopters before starting my 3d sketch on my digital workspace. Working on T-REX-100s is extremely handful since helicopter models have lots of tiny individual part to make up as working whole. Took me another 2 hours to dismantle some bit and took high resolution photos of parts and main chassis in proper lighting condition. 
I have to create multiple layers of 'Orthographic' layout on 3D canvas to get actually outline of the model dimension both with naked chassis and with canopy on...double work compare to creating creating fixed wing models. Then overall parts have to be measured to fit to proper scale in the work space. Since this helicopter is an 'open body' type with exposed chassis, lots of complicated wirings, push rods, carbon tails, fins and etc makes polygonal objects more complicated 3d work..hence more poly-counts for GPU to process. The most difficult part of the build has always been the main rotor since it has more mechanical parts moving around; polygon complexity from the main blade to shaft all the way to the spur gears.... took me about 5 hours to create a replica of fixed pitch rotor set. Flybar mechanism is the most pain in the ass to build in even in virtual work space. From complete assembly the main blade till the end of the spur gear along through all the rotor components a lot enough polycount to warrant a complete build of good looking aircraft models..that doesn't count the remaining chassis, tail, canopy, landing gear and electronics yet. Upon completion the total worth of 3d meshes are; Vertices: 6114 and Faces: 6715 which all already include with collision (col_*) meshes, i consider still a good number of polygons for GPU friendly rendering inside the simulator.
Texturing and UV mapping also get triple complicated than what i have worked on in the past; lots of tiny parts mean lots of UV mapping and also artificial 'texture baking' to get the realistic rendering in 
simulator more accurate....luckily i have blessing on Photopaint skills but still tons of work. The most challenging part was to 're-texture' was the front canopy shell because the surface was completely wrecked during photo capture, it was an old T-REX 100s model that i have went through lots of bashes and crashes ended up with lots of dings, paint chipping and cracks. The canopy shell digital texture restoration took me about 2 hours through Photopaint to get matching colors, re-do some lines, rebuild the top logos and patch up chipped surfaces by hand (mouse clicks). All i can say UV mapping on all those tiny parts was extremely exhausting!!.....it keep me ponder a while that i should never try UV map a helicopter parts again, i'll stick to planes next project. Total of hours spend on this phase took me around 6 hours and 8GB of memory swap....sometimes i have to hard restart my gaming spec notebook since some texture work causes program to lag and stall the system. Ironically at the end of the day i've spend some cash to upgrade my weak ass notebook to 20GB of physical 3200 performance RAM memory module and fixed it forever! Yay!
Next phase was to compile the whole model inside PHOENIX BUILDER tool where i have to assign proper function and flight control to make the helicopter worked in simulator. Lots of confusion when
assigning proper parameters on the main and tail rotor but another 5 cups of hot coffees and next day breakfast i've finally got it done through trials and error. Collision box on the fixed landing gear is another hours of pain in the ass too...ahhh!! what sight a relief after everything is over!!
Overall build..i hate to say it but i hope that this will be the first and also the last helicopter model built for this sim since it has more way complicate details parts to build especially around the rotor unit, servo push horns, open style chassis and the tail rotor. It took me almost whole day to complete the 3d model and also quite overwhelm to get the flight tune right too. Building planes are straight away simple. If i do have to build another helicopter i would find something with simple mechanical outlook like flybarless rotors and full scale body with no exposed skeletal chassis to keep the build clean and low poly. Well anyways i've completed the ALIGN T-REX 100s micro helicopter..now lets get this tiny little bastard fly! lol!
Real world 'ALIGN T-REX 100s' fixed pitch micro helicopter:
3D construction:
Texturing works and decaling:
Applying control surface and parameters:
Final production in R/C Phoenix:
Below are the virtual stock attributes value on ALIGN T-REX 100s fixed pitch helicopter in the simulator. The setup is actually the very similar as in real world as how i setup my real model from brushless motor setup, blade rotor, weight, aerodynamic, model inertia, tail gyro rate and every attributes to make sure it flies exactly how i would feel when i flew it both indoor and outdoor. I can say the flight characteristic accuracy between the actual model and virtual ones are about 93% accuracy especially when flying from windless indoor to calm windy day setup in Phoenix R/C simulator. The model is published as 'Helicopter' type in simulator selection menu:
- Model length: 209mm
- Flying weight in simulator: 36g (0.36kg)
- Real world flying weight: 33g
- Electric coreless brushed (main rotor): 27000kv max
- Electric coreless brushed (tail rotor): 12000kv max
- Main Blade rotor diameter: 192mm
- Main blade count: 2x
- Tail rotor diameter: 36mm
- Tail rotor blade count: 2x
- Blade pitch control: fixed (non-movable/non-rotate)
- Elevator control: Yes
- Aileron control: Yes
- Yaw/Rudder control: Yes
- Tail gyro: Rate mode
- Launched method: Ground
- Breakable parts: Canopy, main blade, tail blade, fixed landing gear
Flight characteristic
Like in real world this micro helicopter fly a bit squirrely since it flew on mechanical flybar to keep the flight stable and upright. This fixed pitch helicopter made around 2011 wasn't as high tech as today micro helicopter so there no advance artificial stabilization like 3G to keep things easy even for intermediate level pilot. Its take massive amount of effort for beginner and intermediate to move about on all direction, to fly this you'll need to man up your flying skills 
unlike 'collective pitch' helicopter on solid flybarless performance. The tail rotor works well to lock on into its heading but in real world it would take a bit drift in yaw axis with mild wind outdoor. Outdoor flying can be a bit challenging in calm wind due to its size and weight but that holds true in real life flight, i would recommend to stick to indoor flights if your in your beginners skills. Its flying characteristic almost the same as E-FLITE BLADE MSR since they share almost the same specification especially since both on almost identical main blade setup, flybar configuration, tail gyro rate, stock coreless brush motor rpm rotation and overall almost the same size and mass. The only differences in simulator is that on the 'Cons' side the T-REX 100s doesn't like to get a bad hit and even challenging to land properly. Yes like the real thing it does break upon collision with parts like canopy, main blade, tail blade and fixed landing gear detached from the frame... don't worry you won't drain your wallet for spare parts when crashing virtual world and unlike how it happen in my 'real world', lol!. In short this micro helicopter is a 'hard ball' for newbies and intermediate pilot alike but on the flip side its good model train all you butter fingers R/C pilot like how i did went through all of these nifty characteristic of T-REX 100s.
Summary
The ALIGN T-REX 100s is one the the model that reminds me of bad buying decision when it comes to micro flying in the early 2011, it was the only R/C product that i 'over bought' among all my R/C 
collection due to constant malfunction and being fragile at the same time. Since there not much enjoyable micro flying models i can choose in the market the T-REX 100s is my only choice i have to settle in, plus palm size flying R/C models for indoor flight at affordable price wasn't there yet and micro multirotor wasn't a thing at that time. Despite all those sour moment on my credit cards, multiple purchases, crashes and repairs however this micro helicopter was the biggest source of fun flying both indoor and outdoor. It was the only thing that makes me extremely happy and inspired to fly more. Plus i had great moment flying with my friends too whom was with his mini WALKERA's and co-axial E-SKY models, thus i can say it was an epic fun year to fly before the market saturated with variety of stationary multirotored flight. Of course mistakes in choices happens in my hobby but at the end day even to this moment at the time of writing this article i felt i never regret enjoying the ALIGN T-REX 100s because i had fun and great social memories flying it in the field ...... it was that micro helicopter that binds me with other R/C friends. So that's why it build this model for PHOENIX R/C SIMULATOR to commemorate those great days that brings me close together in my local R/C communities. Its crappy but it was indeed fun!
Video
Tools used to create these custom model:
- 3D Modeler program: 3D Zmodeler v1.07 and v2.0 (*.OBJ support)
- Compiler tools: Phoenix Builder v1.0.p
- Texture editing program: Corel Photopaint
Related article & community
Here are list of article and links related to the above model.
- RCgroups discussion group - Align T-rex 100s/100x General Upgrades and Mods Topic
- Helifreak discussion group - T-Rex 100 Review, Info, Tips
- Product info: ALIGN T-REX 100 fixed pitch heli (updated version)
General info | model: T-REX 100s | platform: PC | simulator version: Phoenix R/C v5.5 | type: Aircraft | class: Helicopters | style: Trainer | level: Beginner | power: Electric | Manufacturer: ALIGN | avg ZIP file size: 10.9MB | date released: 8-Aug-2021 | Revision: v1.0
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*Installation instruction: How to install custom models in Phoenix R/C
*Note: This models are available for free distribution and for non-commercial purposes.
*'ALIGN' and 'T-REX' R/C helicopter products is trademarks and copyright of the following company © http://www.align.com.tw . All Rights Reserved.
