And finally...

I seriously considered wetting down a 1/8" sheet with windex rather than strip covering, but there's a place just before the rudder where the angles seemed too compound to work right. As I did the planing this proved true. In the end, Dave's guidance is spot on (as usual).

I used titebond instead of zap. It took longer, and I kept running out of pins and clamps, but the result seems really strong and feels "traditionally" good in a self-satisfying way.