Dragging up an old thread as i decided to keep hold of the model, and as in life circumstances changed again allowing me to carry on with the build.
Work on this model is still slow going, not because it is challenging, but with 2 kids under the age of 3 and my own business, time is tight at the moment!

So where are we now?!

I decided that the servo in the rudder just wasn't going to be up to the job, so out that came, to be replaced with a thin wing servo which fits perfectly. The rudder hinges are now all glued and the control horn also fitted. A ball linked control arm to be fitted and that's all done now.

After much playing around with the model same on stacks of dvd boxes, I managed to work out (well hopefully- haven't fitted the nose leg yet!) the distances to keep the model high enough from the ground, whilst being able to retract the wheels fully into the fuselage in order to be able to use the gear doors, but also keeping the nose up to get the stance right.
Jim's orignal prototype didn't use the gear doors on his as at the time there were no retract/leg combos available that allowed this.

With much moving, shifting, then moving and measuring, I managed to get a set of the RA250 retract units and some custom made oleos from Sandor @ digitech made up (never realised that this was even available - can highly recommend as they are spot on sized.

You can see from the pics, that the ply has been cut to allow the retracts to sit in, then an extra piece either side to lift it up a bit, and the whole lot disappears under the doors when retracted. Just need to find a way to link the outer doors to the struts so they get pulled shut when the legs retract.

Also fitted rams to the inner gear doors.