Cool! Nice subject. I built the little .40 sized back in 1986. Being 16 yo at the time, I found that kit to be a challenge. It did fly very good though, once I got it done.

I understand your concern with the pins and glass, but what I found was taping the spars down worked great. You can still pin wood to wood. Say rib to spar etc. But the glass has proven to have so many benefits. If you get glue anywhere on your work surface, you just scrape it away. Then when it is time to cover, you have a perfect clean area for this process.