Hi FOURSTROKE! The correct ways to fix the problem are usually the most difficult. Putting your plane on a diet will work wonders if you are willing to put in the time. Going with pull/pull controls and junking the steel rods is a good move. It's hard to find things in the wing to eliminate unless you are willing to strip the covering, and unless you are capable of making judicious decisions on what wood to either thin down or remove. For hands on advice, a modeler who has experience with lightly built planes in this size range will most likely be a guy who flies pattern, if you have someone like this around, ask for his help. Saving weight is about taking a little here, a little there. The use of lead anywhere should only be for the sake of finding where your for and aft CG works best, but once you find that out, then it's up to you to move gear around , even if it has to be the engine. If you are totally in love with the idea of a .60, at least use a prop with as much diameter as the engine will tolerate. A 13-4 would be good for starters, and will let your engine idle a bit lower, [as someone else mentioned]. Put your hobby skills to work and move the firewall back. 1/8" ply with tri stock corner braces, and a little glass cloth has worked with 60 size pattern planes for years. If you have an engine mount system that is strong enough to break an engine lug before part of the airframe, you are flying a BRICK my friend.I'll bet that you could get 1/2 pound of dead weight out of a typical kit plane in this size category, which is a significant amount. I have had great results with a .60 size P51[ that just had ailerons] going with flaperons that were coupled out of phase with the elevator. Try a 10% mix of flap to elevator, if your CG is right, you will be amazed at how well you can flare the plane to dump speed right before touch down. I got to where I favor short and steep approaches with the nose up. If you can detect any wing rocking, that is your indicator that you aren't getting enough air past your ailerons, and it's time to lower the nose and be ready to pour on the coal. Our club field only has 240' of runway, with houses 500' off each end, so the most successful warbird kit builders around here leave alot of the wood in the box, and or substitute with lighter wood and better building methods.