I've never had any luck putting iron on covering over cloth hinges. For starters, it's difficult to cut the the covering around the hinges that have already been installed. Also the covering doesn't want to stick to the cloth very well. It's sooooo much easier to cover the stab and elevators seperately then hinge them together with a pinned hinge.

Monokote hinges. I'm using them on the flaps on my Pathfinder twin.

Mark's partly right on his description, but here's a neater way of doing the job.

You prepare the strips exactly as Mark described, but before you cover the wing, or stab surfaces, install the hinges in the following manner.

First cover the trailing edge,of the static surface, and the leading edge of the movable surface, with a strip of Monokote, or other plastic covering, that extends about 1/8" onto the top and bottom surfaces.

Now, install the prepared hinge strips, in the familiar over under manner we use for cloth hinges. I fit them tight, next to each other, so when I'm finished, I have a sealed hingeline. Use an iron and make the hinges tight. The hinges will extend onto the balsa surfaces, and the area between inter weaves will now be covered and protected from fuel and oil.

Now, install your covering onto the rest of the surfaces, ending at the straight line at the hinge line, in the case of the static surface, or the joining of the 45 degree line on the movable surface.

Most of you will likely not use this method for fear of failure of the plastic hinges.

I've never had a problem though. 

Jim, especially if you fly like some of us!
John, thats a "why didnt I think of that" if ever there was one,, sheesh, perfect

From what I recall, I used the thickness of the surface being hinged as a guide for the overlap. IOW if the elevator is 3/8 you can overlap 3/8. this allows the adhesive, (heat activated of course) to bond to the surface of the elevator, flap wing whatever without bonding into the hinge area. Also allows the maximum bonded surface per hinge "leaf" as for how far onto the surface, do what feels good, I think I used to go about an inch onto the surface, I didnt do it like John though, I put hinges on after surfaces were covered, I like his way better, even more secure than mine

John,, your turn,,,,,

Dennis, Mark, Roger, et al,

I like Marks method of figuring overlap at the transition point. it makes sense and may provide a stronger bond at the hinge point. Having said that, I normally use a 1/8" overlap, and no problems. I will try Marks idea on the next one.

As far as how long the tab should be, I'll admit to being lazy and not testing this out to find the minimum double safe legnth to use. I normally use about an inch of tab. The overcovering of "Kote" softens the tab outlines similar to what a good dope finish does, and looks right to these eyes for a classic ship. I would suspect that one could get by with as little as 1/4" tabs up on the flat surfaces. Small pieces set between the tabs, and then overcovering would look sweet. I'll have to give that idea a try.

Roger, we had a great modeling "Bull session" at the diner. I'll treasure the memory of it. Brought back a lot of memorys of past sessions from the golden era. Hope to do it again, and often in the future.

Dennis, you are so right about using the continuous method to create a hinge. It is extremely difficult to do well. Most that I've seen done that way leave a little to be desired, though it seems durable enough. I believe the continuous method is a bit stiffer than I like.  Over-under hinging seems very smooth and has the low resistence to movment that I like. Remember the Old Days, when the weight of the surfaces, deployed the controls at rest? I like that kind of low resistance.