Thanks a lot, wildlifeguy, that color scheme looks really cool too. I'm surprised you had an easy time balancing, I guess I don't have much to worry about. Just the landing gear dilemma... I have holes marked in case I need to move my mains forward, looks like I can safely move it an inch forward in case it is still a see-saw on the main gear with the weight on the plane.
Also, I may or may not use nylon bolts, I beefed up the fuselage where the gear is though. Just dumped some epoxy on the seams between the mounting block and the fuselage sides/former and put scrap square dowels in there. I also may add some diagonals.
And about the pushrods, I totally agree with you about the alignment and the use of metal pushrods. There was a lot of friction for the nylon rods inside the housings and I realized I won't be able to securely bend them to reach the clevises.

Hopefully I can get covering soon, haven't heard from my friend so I may have to do it myself
Mike<br type="_moz" />