I built this with my pal Paul this summer, thought you guys may enjoy seeing it.
It is strictly a lookie-loo, it weighs a ton. The tissue looked great, but I tried to seal it
with WBP, which is NOT a good idea. It wrinkled up and never re-tightened.
I told Paul we could build a "looker", or a "flyer", but only with lots of practice
can you build a "looker-flyer"! Ended up with a model that was neither!
Dave

You CAN build a flyer that's also a looker. I've seen it done on many occasions. And you could even do it using MOST of the plans from a Guillows kit.

Use the fuselage plans as they are but use light contest stock for the formers. Firm 6 lb wood for the keels and medium hard for the stringers. Forget the plastic cowl and make up a couple or three new formers from that match the cowl shape and keel and stringer those as well. This can be joined to an extended fuselage plan (my choice) or glued on after.

The wing should be done using an all new method that uses less wood and uses the wood in a more structurally sound manner. The Dave Livesey (Livesley?) cracked rib method works nice or use ribs with proper spars and a couple of turbulator spars with ribs of 1/32 and an upright leading edge.

Tail section can be done as per plan using light wood or a laminated outline of 1/64 basswood made up. 3 layers is all you need and it's light and strong.

Tissue and dope with a couple of well thinned coats of nitrate dope, Add any trim letters in tissue using thinner to "glue" them to the underlying dope. Then seal over all with one VERY thin coat of balsarite to stabilize the tissue and limit shrinkage warps.

If you or your buddy gets enthused about this I can also describe how to do the star and bars in tissue so that the dark blue of the top covering doesn't show through the white. It's FAR nicer than decals.

Gun ports and pitot tubes and the like can be done using small aluminium tubing or even rolled tissue paper tubes for untimate lightness. The pitot tube would be much too fragile but if it's made from some heat straightened heavy monofilament fish line it'll sit still but can bend and bounce back.

For a flyer/looker you don't want landing gear for flying. The gear and the required mount add too much weight. But a lightweight mount and plug in gear for display is perfectly doable without any flying penalties.

So are you and your buddy up for the challenge? If not for rubber power then blown up about 15 to 20% for small electric RC would be sweet.

Yeah, I have an Avenger (#509) I am going to do.
I was planning on 1/20 sheet tail, cracked rib wings and
a seriously lightened fuselage. With a real prop & some SIG rubber and it should go!
My inclination was to build a good looking flyer from the Hellcat kit,
but Paul is not a real experienced builder so I tried to keep it simple.
I did make the Hellcat gear "plug in" though, just so it could be displayed
hanging or parked.
Dave

How light do one of these 27" span have to be, to be considered good flyers for .061 power? I think the cut-off point is at a pound, tops. At 14 ozs, they are pretty care free little flyers....but I wouldn't explore their low speed habits too much. I'll bet it wouldn't take too much effort to put this plane on a diet, it might be fun to do a before and after thread?

I built a reasonably good flyer out of an 18 oz Dare models Oriol FF kit. Powered it with an AP .061 Wasp. Search You Tube for "Oriol Racer" for a video of it flying. The wing area is a mere 140 squares so wing loading was around 19 oz per sq/ft it had no problems or bad habits.