The tank bay was sheeted with cross-grain 3/32" balsa and the landing gear legs clamped in a bench-vise to adjust for a lower front end stance.

Pencil lines laid out on fuselage using a straight-edge and circle template gives boundaries to follow when removing wood in an effort to lighten things.

A Dremel with carbide burr was used to make the initial cutouts followed with a drum-sander and Permagrit tools to sneak up to the lines -

Tank bay sheeted over after moving gear mounting plate to new location -

Stock landing gear stance -

Bending gear widen and lower L/G stance -

Modified gear stance -

Boundary lines laid out ahead of cutouts to remove material weight -

Fuselage belly laid out ready to make cuts -

Belly cutouts -

Carbide burr cuts to stay inside lines -



Over-wing hatch cutouts with carbide burr -

Followed with drum-sander -