I um’d and ar’d over how to hinge the flaperons and eventually decide not to – to just let the film be the hinge. Multi-tasking was never my strong point so rather than try and wing-cover and hinge all in one go I decided to top-hinge the flaperons with a narrow strip of film first, I also covered the fuselage fairings before the whole wing:
Covering went well. The wing and tail undersides are dark blue. I was surprised to find that the cheap white Hobbyking went on better than the expensive dark blue Oracover. The winglets had 2 coats of sanding sealer, 2 of white enamel, and 2 of red:
The radio installation had been planned for from the outset so seeing it all fit – and the servo slide working – was all very satisfying. Working out all the angles to achieve ‘more up than down’ was fun too:
The flaperon horns needed to sweep forward:
…and the elevator horn had to sweep backwards to be 90 degrees to the control cable:
I was pretty pleased with my first attempt at signwriting with Oracover after asking for advice on the Model Flying Forum.
Close-up of my first attempt at function mixing with a sliding servo:
The wing-mounted fuselage fairings hold the wing halves together:
Nose view:
Tail view:
And the finished model – the DR 420 – ready for her first test flight. She balanced at 1/3 of her root chord without any ballast needed – pure luck!