Luckily we had both the old Royal and new Maurataka plans and instructions. What one didn't explain, the other did. We made many modifications in the process. No we did not use retracts because we couldn't find any that would fit within the wings. The wing fillets are made by carving and sanding alot. This is also true of the tail area. Wings are attached with a typical dowel and nylon screw method. Angle brackets hold the interplane struts. The installation of the tail wheel is very tricky. We ended up making the rear cone removeable. It is powered with a RCV 90 which fits totally in the cowl. It does a good job of pulling it around here at 6,000'. Don't really remember the weight. It's covered with fabric and painted with Nelson's paint. It's in the color scheme of a Staggerwing that my buddy owned in the 50's. It flys fine. Pretty fast at full throttle and fast on landing even with the flaps down.

Hope this helps.