Growing feathers

Just like a model, before painting I wanted to test fit as much as I could to find any problems. And because I couldn't wait to see her coming together.

The top hole in the stab mounting plate was misdrilled a little bit too far into the front of the fin leading edge for my taste,

Since I had some scrap 6061T I decided to cut some new pieces. In my original kit the top hole was an AN3 bolt, in the "steampunk update" I was told to drill it out to an AN4. However, the latest assembly manual tells you to ignore the supplied AN4 hole and drill the plate for an AN3. After thinking about it, I decided to stick with an AN3 bolt in my new pieces. I didn't want to weaken the fin leading edge, and figured the combination of other mounting points plus flying/ground wires would brace the surfaces enough.

 

Then there was the debate about where to put the hole. In the original spot, centered, or aft, like in the revision? I probably overthought this, but ended up putting the hole in the location recommended in the new manual, slightly aft in the plate. I won't trim the excess until I fit the fiberglass fin fairing. 

It was time to give her some air. 

She's come a long way....

Proper Prior Preperation Prevents Piss Poor Painting

Everything is covered, so it's time to start looking for problems.They say you should run your hand over the completed surface and if you can feel a flaw, you'll see it when it's painted, so it's a good excuse to kick off the shoes, turn on some music, and be patient with an iron and some reducer. 

In a few cases, I looked back at prior work and went "Ugh..." Here, some bubbles in the pinking tape on the flaps are about to get heated and shrunk down.

But I couldn't resist the time honored model airplane practice of taking a small control surface out and spinning around with it, feeling it lift in my hands. Her first taste of flight.

 

Even after I went over things once, I'd still go back over them again, finding small things I wanted to fix. Gotta be careful though, there's a point where you just gotta say "Enough".

Goops or bubbles under the fabric melt with a carefully placed, well heated iron, as do wrinkles.