I'm building the miniplane now. I got it from Towers. I followed the directions in 'Bipes' and the cabanes came out fine. The book has other helpful hints for the miniplane in there too. I don't see that the balsa gives any more strength to them. I have seen full scale with different landing gear also. I haven't started covering mine yet. A friend had one years ago and he flew the wings off it! Good luck.