iforbes,

If I may take license since I built one too a year ago...

The FW on the SP is pretty much filled up by the motor mount as one can see in one of the pictures of Doug's build. This leaves little room to route the lines out around the mount without weakening the tristock holding things together up front. Since the original SP had a side mounted engine as Doug did (but the box photo shows an upright install I believe), then, passing the fuel lines out the side might have just made a lot of sense to keep them short and direct to the carb and muffler.

Your post inspired me to dig up some pictures of the yet to be covered SP but here are some ideas on what I did with mine. I ended up substituting practically all the wood in the kit and also used thinner stock in a few places since I was going electric. I ended up with a 48" span (stretched the wing) SP with an AUW of 40 oz; battery, retracts and 5 servos included.

You might want to examine the wood in your kit especially the fuse sides - mine were rather unequal and the horizontal fuse top line was all over the place. This model is actually so nice and simple, it deserves a good modern short kit which actually someone here has done but unfortunately he has been rather busy with other things. In any case, the kit probably deserves some slightly fresher and lighter wood stock. Ace kits weren't exactly an ace in terms of wood quality as far as I can tell.

All that aside,... build on!

David.

P.S. My apologies for the horrible "green screen" background in the photos. Every time I see it I cringe. I'll hopefully take some nicer ones soon.