Mitch,

if you can bring her in at 80 oz AUW (5 lbs), that would give you a nice 22.5 oz/sq ft loading - nice for a 40 size pattern model. I have the feeling that you can bring that airframe in at 40-45 oz - especially if you are going to be covering with MK. What servos do you have in mind? You could go with mini's on the ailerons and throttle, then two standard on elevator and rudder.

For reference, my MK covered Tsunami 40 (with a 58" span) with a ST S40 and a tuned pipe and 5 standard servos came in at 5 lbs dry on the nose. That leaves you with 8 oz of "room" for fuel. It is also conventional gear but is a light airframe in design. For the D40 you could use 1/8" fuse sides and bottom and 5/16" fuse top. If you want to keep it light, use only a frame of 1/8" for the inner fuse top under an outer 3/16" fuse top. After all, you don't really need all that thickness on top other than on the sides to shape the fuse. You could definitely shave some ounces there.

Greg, how much did your painted Tsunami weigh with the muffled 55 AX?

David.