Thinking about fanning mechanisms

For a long time I couldn't figure out the right way to go about the fanning mechanism, so I decided to study my new 'manual of Ornithology' a bit more to find out how it works in the real world...

In real bird anatomy, birds have individual muscles to each individual flight feather, which are pretty intricate and precise and lay on top of each other slightly. The feathers are attached to the 'postpotagium', which is a tough band of 'tendinous tissue' from the elbow to the wing tip. This postpotagium forms the leading edge of the wing and with its elastic strength 'keeps the flight feathers properly aligned and firmly attached to the wing skeleton.' (Proctor & Lynch, 1993).

I got a bit confused actually if the feathers are actually directly attached to the bones or if they are only held by this muscle structure. If I'm right they're still attached to the bones, but mostly held in place by the tendinous elastic structure. This is quite interesting, as so far I have been mainly considering moving mechanisms within the 'rigid' armature parts I have been making, while I had already been given the advice earlier to also consider the properties of soft materials having a role in the moving and functioning of the armature. I was considering to link up the feathers with metal rods, as I thought it would provide both a pull effect when opening the feathers, and push effect when closing the feathers. But, being rigid material it would have caused problems where the wing should fold, and also make the movement of the wing be quite limiting.
I did a test using stretchy fabric, quite crude for now, but the principle seems to work. I sewed it just around the feather rods, but when I get some holes in them I could fix it more to one place. I think I should try it with bandage instead of the legging stuff I used. Ideally something that is strong and a bit stiff, but still flexible enough... If I can find the right material I think it would work quite nicely... I will have to work out the right spacing between the feathers (which will be easier to judge when I've put the final extended feathers on) and then make sure the fabric can stretch the right amount so the feathers can open and close as far as they should and not further.

Fabric test for fan mechanism