I have been playing around with skinned hinges for about 2 years. Mike Del Ponte was one of the first (that I read) that put a pretty detailed description of his method out on the web. His post inspired me to give it a try. My first couple attempts were crude at best. Most often they were quite stiff, and I always worried about them failing, or having a servo fail trying to move them. Although they were awfully stiff, they still seemed to work quite well. Ever since those first few attempts, I've tried to improve the method with every new racer.

My latest breakthrough came to me from another local racer who started using Fiberglass sheet as his hinge material. Fiberglass sheet is available from aerospace composites.

http://www.acp-composites.com/acp-fs.htm

For aileron hinges I'm using .010 thickness which seems to work very well. My next installment to this thread will detail skinned hinges to the V-tail elevators where I will use .005 thickness.

The first step I take is to mark out my ailerons (top and bottom) on the wing. I use 11" length ailerons (personal preference), starting 5" from the centerline of the wing. I mark a line 1 1/4" from the trailing edge of the wing, and another at 1 5/8" the entire length of the aileron. These two lines mark the area that you will cut out. I like to make my cuts from the top of the wing, no matter how straight you hold the xacto, its never quite as straight on the other side. I guess I would rather have is perfect on top.

Here is a picture to try and show how I make the cut.