Mike
It does work, if you buy a good machine and don't get hit by any unexpected maintenance issues.
I was lucky with mine and had it looked after by good engineers, it was in good nick when I bought it, and had no Major hiccups.
It only takes a dent in a main rotor blade or a clutch actuator to fail and you can easily end up with bills in the 000s that you weren't expecting.
The upside is that if you keep control of the machine for the major part of your hours build you can progress very quickly. I did about 250 hours in 3 or 4 months about 5 years ago.
Make sure you trust the people who will look after it, and the people you are going to lease it too. Don't give ANYONE extended credit terms. Its your machine, they pay on time, or you take it away. Its too easy to get your fingers burnt with companies in trouble and you financing them indirectly.
V.