Thanks for commenting, Chad. Understand other priorities. My Byron was a beautiful flyer. Others that flew it said that it was the nicest handling fighter that they had ever flown - which aligns well with statements from full-scale Hellcat pilots.
One warning - get it too slow and a turn using ailerons can induce adverse yaw - this is what took out my Byron. Its also the reason for my desire to use offset aileron hinges as a counter measure.
I did pick up a canopy and cowling from PCK - the canopy is appears to be from the same molds as Byron - I have the sliding bit left from my Byron (not much survived) and its an exact match to that from PCK. It looks like I'll be able to make it fit the reduced Ziroli with little or no modification. The cowling is a different story - it's a bit squarish on both the front and back ends, which is incorrect. The Hellcat had a squarish cowling at the front, but then tapered to a tear drop shape at the firewall. The Ziroli has this cross-section correct - the Don Smith design does not (at least not the cowling I received). Without bashing it, it doesn't come close to mating up with the firewall.
Made more progress on elevators, and learned a lesson - don't assume the plans for the left and right elevators are exact mirror images of each other! They should be, but they were not - length slightly different, rib positions slighting different. Stacking the elevators showed the errors. If starting over, I would build both elevator haves off the same side (pick one, build one elevator right side up, the other, up side down). Thankfully, most of the ribs weren't that far off, so I had little rebuilding work to do, and the rest I handled by stacking the elevators and sanding their perimeters together - so same length, width, shape. I'll be building the ailerons and flaps off one plan.
- Elevators stacked
- Sanding a flat surface - I used my sanding bar held in place with my magnetic fixtures as a guide, to ensure that my sanding block moved only in a straightline
- Elevators stacked for sanding curved sections - all nice now - same length, width, shape
- Ready for mounting to stab