Minor update. The scratched styrene tailplanes were getting battered a bit from handling (it's hard to be really delicate with the tail when you're busily sanding four feet away...), so I decided to re-do them in brass.
Re-printed the tailplane skeleton templates, bent and trimmed some brass square rod to shape, then soldered all the bits together:
I'd post in-progress photos, but there's not really all that much to show. Tons of tedious measuring, cutting and filing, but nothing terribly interesting. Just imagine the before photos being of a straight rod, and the after photos showing slightly bent rods lined up with the templates, plus a whole bunch of short rods.
/> The various bits and pieces were taped down to the templates to set the alignment, then a drop of flux and a couple of seconds under the soldering iron to secure everything.
Next step will be to (re?) skin these in styrene sheet, cut the plastic tails off the Zepp and attach the brass replacements. Note the extended lengths of rod towards the bottom/rear corner of the fins - these will get anchored into the spine, which should add a nice bit of rigidity to the whole assembly. Assuming I can drill the locating holes correctly... sort of feels like I'll be doing keyhole surgery!
Interesting statistic, though: the four tailplane skeletons took just under eight feet of 1/16" brass square rod.
