Thanks for all the good suggestions. I have decided to stick with the rubber bands - easier on the fuse in case of a harder than expected landing. I moved the elevator servo next to the throttle servo (since I'm only using single 4-40 pushrod), kept the rudder servo in it's original location, cut off the rear of the servo tray, put the battery at the rear of the wing saddle, and slipped the RX in the little area behind the wing saddle. I only needed a small amount of weight in the tail to balance and therefore replaced the skid with a steerable tailwheel. That took care of the balance issue. It's ready for the maiden! Can you hand-launch this thing (OS-46FX with 12x4 APC)? Sure feels light enough.