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Finally managed to fit the mechanics into the fuselage on what I had hoped would be the last occasion, but it seems that the damned Align Retracts have other ideas, and the port wheel is no longer holding on it's little carbon rod - Grrrrrrr

However, here are some pictures of it all "dressed up". The owner has asked me to add red lines to the tail rotor blades - Done.

The first two pictures show it BEFORE I had fitted the weapons on the wing stubs, the second two pictures show the weapons mounted as well, in silver as requested by the owner.

It is now on the bench letting the glue cure that holds the horizontal tail surfaces, got them really nice and horizontal too.
                 

   
So next is to remove it all from the fuselage - again - and try to sort out the Align retracts.  Whoever designed them to use tiny grub screws into soft plastic control arms to clam legs to a 2mm rod should get another job IMHO.  It is such a shame as the retract servo is working great, even at a pretty realistic speed. 

My next concern is test flying it, as the ground clearance is very tight with the cannons and the Alien Command sensor underneath.

In running up on the turntable, I found that due to the tightness of the front canopy over the electronics, it has been necessary to add a locating pin at the very front to ensure it does not try to vibrate forward off the normal locating pins.

My solution to the test flying it is to use some great little small bungees I found to strap it to a largish plastic tray.  This will mean that the wheels will not touch the ground during testing, and hopefully, neither will the wire support on the vertical tail fin, as this also seems to me to be rather too flimsy for the job it is there for, which is to stop the tail blades hitting the ground.  The clearance there is also very small, so flying this off grass will probably be a no no.

	The picture above of the tail rotor blade also shows a 10p piece, to show just how little clearance there is between the blades and the ground.
Sadly, the weather today has really not been helicopter friendly, with strong and gusty winds despite the quite warm sunshine.  The new owner is coming to collect her tomorrow - Easter Monday, so this one is clearly going all the way to the wire, with maybe the maiden flight in front of it's new owner - assuming the weather permits us to do so even then.

Hmmmmmm, Monday morning, and it is pouring down, plus a stiff breeze, so no flying today I fear. But then it is Easter Monday Bank Holiday, so the weather comes as no real surprise to us Brits ?

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