Hi there, is it Ian? (just guessing)

1) I mentioned a few posts back that the wood cutting and sizing was not great. The fuse sides lay down the planform (an overall side or top view) of the model so if those are properly sized and, most of all, equal then the fuse build usually proceeds more smoothly. Because my fuse sides left much to be desired, I went ahead and used the long one as a rough master. I wanted a symmetric fuse with full length sides and also was going electric so I cut back from 1/8" wood stock to 3/32" which is a more common fuse side stock for 25 size models. In cutting the sides, I checked the formers first to see if they were cut properly and found them to be acceptable. I do recall having to sand them both a bit so they would fit snug within the triangle stock provided (or I might have used my own). Go ahead and sand the bottom (or the top, whichever seems to make most sense based on the fit) down to height and adjust the angle cuts for the tristock accordingly. The cuts are at 45 degrees.

As far as the leading edge dowel goes, a single 3/16" dowel struck me as an accident waiting to happen. Whenever possible, I rather go with two dowels or a rather beefy center section keel that extends from the wing center and is captured by an equivalent opening in the wing LE former. In my case, I was installing retracts which meant that a retract servo (they are mechanical retracts) would go in the front LE section of the wing. This precluded the use of a single dowel as well and I installed two 3/16" on either side of the retract servo. The installation of the servo and dowels as well as the supporting wood in that area was a little tricky since the servo is large and barely fits chordwise in the wings LE. But this probably won't apply to your build other than a recommendation to go with two dowels (especially if they are 3/16" and you are using glow power). It helps to get the dowels lined up, installed and backed up with a piece of 1/16" ply bonded to the front of the spars before sheeting the bottom of the wing. The ply on the spars makes for a stronger wing support. I had to resort to other methods because I have retract pushrods where the dowels would normally be passing through.

2) The radio and pushrod installation in a model like this is very conventional. There is a wide open bay above the wing for this. Typically, one positions and installs all the power train gear first (engine, muffler, prop, spinner, tank, etc.) and then, with the model fully assembled (omit the lower fuse sheeting for the moment), you position your battery and servos so that the model balances where required. You can put the battery and servos on top of the fuse, balance the model and shift the gear on top of the fuse until the model balances. Typically, you'll end up with the battery in the front part of the radio bay, the receiver after that and the servos toward the back near the wing TE former. This is a convenient arrangement. In some cases though, you need to locate the battery in the fuel tank area so that the model balances. On the SP this is not desirable as the fuel tank area will be occupied by en large by the tank. Having to put the battery there will limit your fuel tank size and type. It is preferable to lighten your tail feathers where possible and keep the battery behind the former in the radio bay as described. This also protects it from any eventual fuel spills in the tank area (which should be fuel proofed - thinned epoxy works well for this).

I've attached a shot of where my servos are placed for balance but my model is different from yours in that I built it "off-stock" with light tail feathers and different weight of wood for the sides, top and bottom. I am also using electric power and because of this, my model only has a 3s or 4s Li-Po battery pack, no fuel tank and no throttle servo. For your model, I good arrangement for the fuse servos would be to install the elevator and rudder servos side by each (much like I did) and the throttle servo just in front of those mounted sideways with the output arm on the correct side for routing a flexible pushrod to the throttle barrel on the carburetor. A 1/16" ply servo tray might help to get the servos installed as needed and you might as well provide some space for the receiver to be mounted. The battery can be wrapped in foam and placed ahead of the tray. I attached a photo of another model with this type of radio install.

For pushrods, I used very conventional "nyrod" type plastic pushrods in plastic sleeves with threaded piano wire ends to attach to the servos. I braced the pushrods along the length of the rear of the fuse with small rectangular pieces of 3/16" balsa but you can use whatever you have provided it is sturdy enough (you can use 1/16" ply as well or even 1/8" hard balsa). It is important to not let the pushrods flex as otherwise the servo movement doesn't transfer to the control properly - you probably are familiar with this. Likewise with the throttle flexible pushrod (Great planes or Du-Bro) - brace it in 2 or 3 places on its way to the throttle arm. I believe the kit includes some pushrods which are full length piano wire. Again, since I was going for a light electric model, I replaced these with nylon versions.

The linkages do indeed exit each fuse side to control the elevator and rudder. The elevators are joined per plans so you only need a single control horn on each control surface. I routed my elevator linkage out the left side of the model and the rudder on the right but it doesn't really matter. It is an issue of cosmetics. Often we attempt to leave on side of the model "clean" and on classics this is usually the left side of the model since the right side has the engine and muffler (or only muffler in upright installations) exiting the side. Linkage routing has some bearing on this.

For the ailerons you can either use torque rods (provided I think) or use two servos as I did - one for each aileron (I am not a fan of torque rods). I don't believe there were any other instructions but to be honest, I might have missed them since the build is fairly conventional. By the way, I also used two nylon wing retaining bolts in the rear into a 1/4" ply plate. The four retention points gives some peace of mind when doing high G maneuvers (loops, snaps, etc.)

My firewall didn't fit at all but again I needed a much lighter one for electric power so I cut another that did fit. Most of my kit was left in the box except for the canopy, the two lite-ply formers and the wing ribs. I also left the spars in the kit as I believe they were quite warped and I think also spruce (I used balsa). One thing that you might want to do is to "bind" the ribs and spars together with what are called shear webs. There are a few ways of doing this despite what the engineering above might think. However, the easiest way to do this might be to cut rectangular pieces of 1/16" balsa that are applied grain vertical to the back of the spars in between the ribs. It is important that the webs are snug and fully bonded to the ribs and spars. Because the wing has a constant chord and thickness, these shear webs are all identical. You can cut them a tad proud of the spars and then sand them down flush with the spars prior to sheeting the LE and center section. The last thing you might want to "build" on the model is the application of the cross grain fuse rear bottom. Finish the entire airframe, install all the gear and then, when you are sure that everything fits and is working, you can take the 1/8" sheet and apply it in sections from front to back cross grain across the fuse bottom.

Oh, the strakes are the sections of stab that extent forward and join the stab with the fuse top. it is easier to install these after the stab has been aligned and mounted permanently. Do this with the fuse inverted on a flat table top with the wing aligned and permanently mounted first.

I hope this rather lengthy breakdown helps.

David.