Tail surfaces.

Just finished the final work on the tail surfaces. The control arms are added and all is hidden nicely from the outside.

Also, took the time to paint the trailing surfaces of the vertical fin and stab (where the hinges go) to match the green zinc chromate of the full scale.

Priming complete

The wings and stab are just as smooth as smooth can be.


Glad that’s over. I’ll let them sit for a few days to make sure the primer is fully cured. Lots of wet-sanding and it could use a good airing-out.

Figured it out.

Well, while the epoxy was drying, I decided on a plan. Since I have a hole in the vertical balsa that braces the back of the vertical fin, I enlarged it significantly so I could get some tools in, and the epoxy.

I’ll patch the hole up after everything is cured.

Time to attach the stab.

With the elevators hinged and the center control arm fitted…

it’s time to fit in the stab. There’s a bit of balsa that has to be removed and a bit of trimming the fiberglass here and there. After all that, it fit pretty good.

One neat thing is that I can get to the underside of the stab from inside the fuse – through the tail-gear retract compartment.

Not sure how I’m going to get to the top of the stab, but I’ve got a bit of time to figure this out as the 30 minute epoxy/micro-balloons mixture has a while before it cures on this side. Then I have to prop it up to do the other side.

Stab and elevator halves hinged.

And to round out today’s work, the elevator and stab halves are hinged.

I will have to trim a little bit of the stab’s trailing edge “cover” to allow a bit more stab throw, but that’s a relatively easy thing.