Minus Thermic

A jig would help to line up the fuselage sides...making sure the wing joiner ends up perpendicular to the fuselage. TBH, just using the wing joiner as a guide while the glue sets would have helped a lot

Chris001 wrote: Is there any other way?

Yes there is. The Chris Hughes method Just glue it and see if it resembles the picture on the box :lol:

Nothing wrong with that!!!!!!!!!

Will be interesting to see if the jig built one with a tolerance of 0.0000001 will fly any different to my "looks about right one"

My guess is, there will be no difference

MikeSeale wrote: Not quite ready for hinge photos...I wish I'd covered the ailerons and elevators first, because I've lost the will to live covering these tiny parts. I think I've ironed my fingers more than the v-tail...ouch.

Looking good Mike, I will not be using clear covering (I need the covering to cover up the mess underneath :lol: )

Have you found a suitable battery to fit in the tiny space??

Sellotape doesn't photograph well, so here's a dummy run using masking tape.

Image 1: slight problem is that the control surface does not lie flat on the elevator due to the small triangular ply reinforcement. This means you cannot run tape all the way to the control horn. Squeeze the surfaces together to see how close you can get tape to go.
Image 2: stick the tape to the bottom of the control surface - elevator in this picture
Image 3: wrap the tape around the leading edges of elevator and tailplane, making sure it is squeezed tightly together
Image 4: flatten tape onto the bottom of the tailplane

Image 1: Unfold the control surface so it lies flat
Image 2: add the top tape...you can go as close to the tip as you like, this is just a quick attempt for the camera
Image 3: Here it is done with sellotape. There will be a small gap of about 0.5mm and the bottom tape will ideally touch and stick to the top tape in the gap
Image 4: If you get too small a gap, you will not have enough movement. One of my ailerons was too tight...the solution is to hold the control surface at the extreme of movement while you add the top tape.

BTW, this is all done with sellotape crystal clear tape, or whatever they have re-branded it as now! This tape is UV stable unlike the regular sellotape that uses boiled donkeys for the glue.

Thanks Mike, makes sense now

Continued from above...don't assume it will work perfectly every time. I'm on my 4th attempt at doing one of the ailerons and I'm still not happy. Most of the problem is caused by the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the aileron having a slight bow in them. I'm not sure if this is just from the covering shrinking too much or whether I built/sanded it this way.

Chris asked about the battery...I've got several to choose from my indoor models. When I've got the servos in I'll see which one makes it balance the best. I'll be using a small 1.5A regulator because my servos cannot take the voltage of a 2S lipo.

The ruddervators are a very tight fit at the back end. Playing it safe, I've removed a triangle of fuselage to make sure they go up and down without rubbing.