Moparbob, reading through the replies that folks have been giving you, I have to agree with those who urge caution. A lot of us have destroyed our first scale model. Mine was a TopFlight Bearcat. I hadn't even particularly scaled it out, it was just more airplane than I was ready for at the time. It sounds like you are enjoying your build and building scale airplanes can certainly be a learning experience. If you are like a lot of us you are probably going to keep on building rather than put it on the back burner and restarting with a less ambitious project.Assuming that I will offer some bits of advice. I miss some of the old magazines, especially those that focused on scale building. Every article mentioned managing weight at some point. Even a bare bones scale model tends to have a relatively high wing loading. Primer and rivets and paint and guns add up add up to pile weight on a plane that is already inherently heavy. The more mechanical complexity that you add to an airplane the more points of potential failure that you have. If you follow the results of the high end scale contest it isn't unusual to see that someone has cratered a multi-thousand dollar model. Even those guys (experts) struggle with flying characteristics and mechanical failures. Those bits of building advice that I offered earlier were given with the intention of simplifying construction and improving reliability. It may sound like we are trying to discourage you but we aren't. We don't want you to be the guy who throws a ton of effort into his first or second build only to lose it and get discouraged with the hobby. The person that mentioned the Eagle 63 was right on target. The Eagle II, as I think it was more recently known, is a flexible platform. I soloed on one but by the time I was done with it the wings were clipped and it was a tail dragger. Just learning to manage a taildragger is a challenge for a lot of folks. Using a low investment plane to at least match the wing and power loading of your Spitfire will at least give you an idea of what you are getting into. A load of ballast in a trainer will at least give you an idea of what you are getting into. A lot of people rely on a more experience pilot for the maiden flight of a challenging airplane. You seem to have faith in your guy that you spoke of but this is a specific are of experience. I have been flying for thirty years but I am not the best guy to ask about precision aerobatics. It's just not my strength. We all like to offer advice but have you seen your guy fly a heavily loaded warbird.