K'nex Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane

This is a much larger version of my previous skycrane. This beast is just over a foot tall and over 30 inches long. It's got a good amount of detail in some spots, including a rear window, two engines, a shaft connecting the tail rotor and motor, and my personal favorite: 6 blades on the prop.

This definitely is one of my biggest models. And it took over four hours to post the instructions. I hope you like it.

Being the giant it is, you will need a lot of pieces. That includes a lot of gears and clips.

Rods:

• Green: 287
• White: 174
• Blue: 14
• Yellow: 31
• Red: 8
• Gray: 6
• Black (gray-length): 2
• Tan (red-length): 1

Connectors:

• Purple: 7
• Gray: 4
• Orange: 27
• Red: 47
• Green: 23
• Yellow: 48
• White: 45
• Blue Slider: 67
• Gray Slider: 109

Misc.

• Green Motor: 2
• Medium Wheels: 5
• Medium Tires: 4
• Blue Spacer: 21
• Silver Spacer: 25
• Y-Clip: 18
• Tan Clip: 12
• Silver Clip: 58
• Orange Clip (not needed): 4
• Black Rod Cap: 4

Gears:

• Small Blue: 5
• Gray (Blue Size): 1
• Red: 4 (or 5)
• Yellow: 3 (or 2)

Make sure that your motors spin right and are strong enough for the load. And make sure your red gears don't grip the rod too hard. The engine is set up so one of the gears needs to spin at a different speed than the rod on which it sits. You will need at least 2 yellow medium gears, I just used three because I wanted other colors on the top.

You don't need the orange clips. If you don't use them, you can also take 4 greed rods off of the piece count.

I do recommend using silver clips on the rods. They are adjustable and hold it in the exact place better.

If you do not have or wish not to use the gray gear, you can use a blue one instead, as long as you add another tan clip to the count.

There are many changes you can make to this helicopter. Go ahead and play around, see what you like the best.

This isn't the hard part. Follow along closely and make sure the pieces are aligned as they are in the photos.

The top is open right now, but we will fill that in when we add the engine.

Big step here. But still not the hardest part. Start with the back panel. Then build and add the front wheel. Then the nose, roof, windshield, and side panels. Before you add it to the body, add the three yellow rods on the back of the panel to make the rear window. This is where the third person of the three-man crew would sit to spot the crane.

These wheels are big, and so is this step. Don't be fooled by the small axle, these things are stronger than they look.

follow the notes in the photos. There are a few key details.

I apologize for the lighting in a few of these photos.

Here's where it starts to get tricky. the frame isn't too hard, but make sure you follow the sequences on the rods closely. There is only so much that can be changed that will let it still work.

Both your engines need batteries and to be strong for this to work.

Once the motor is fully attached, test the engines. the switches can both either go up or down, so long as they are both switched in the same direction (both up or both down).

Attach the rear-most yellow rod first. The other rods should fall into place for you to attach them.

This is the 6-bladed propeller. I completely blanked on taking pictures of the instructions, so I used the ones from the small skycrane. They're almost exactly the same, but I used yellow connectors on this one for the heck of it. They aren't in the piece count, though. Just follow along as though the rod in the pictures is the black one. I hope this wasn't too inconvenient.

Almost done. All that's left is the tail, the shaft, and the blades. Follow this step along and you should have few problems. Just pay close attention to the layout and how the pieces are placed with one another.

I used silver clips here to hold everything in place and make it easier to adjust. You can add spacers if you want, but they might not fit quite right.

After you add the shaft, make sure the gears line up and everything spins. If not, you may have to tighten the clips on the rods that hold the shaft to the tail (that's why I left the bottom of the tail open). Otherwise, you can adjust everything on your own so that it lines up.

Turn on both motors, and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Build and add the blades to the tail rotor and main rotor.

Congratulations. You have finished building one of the world's most productive industrial helicopters.

Here's a picture of my cat, who needed so badly to get in the way of half the photos I took. To no surprise, once I took one of him, he was satisfied and finally let me be.