wascamp, I probably was one of the first to get the kit. Being in Canada myself of course, I don't have the lag of going through customs and whatnot. Our mail system doesn't need to worry about some kind of terrorist threat hidden in a package within the country.

Too bad your ribs haven't arrived. Being small, maybe they'll make it through the border quickly. Here's hoping at any rate. You are going to love building the wing. Such a great and accurate wing.

I'm covering mine in Ultracote. I covered the T-Rex in Ultracote and got good results, so going for it again.

I was tempted to sand, fill, sand, paint myself, and may yet do that for the nose and air/oil scoop. Haven't quite decided yet. I'm covering it with a pearl white, then designing a graphic for the topside using pearl charcoal and metallic burgundy. My design will be far from traditional, but will hopefully still look OK. I'm not trying to make it look like a scale plane. Instead I'll just make it look splashy. Maybe someday down the road if I feel extra rich I'll build this one again and make it a tail dragger, then make it a whole lot more scale looking with a new graphic that looks like it could have been authentic... Maybe...

I haven't tried dacron yet. Been meaning to, but just haven't done it yet. I know what you mean about the authentic look of it though. It'll look great I'm sure.

On the issue of 22 ga wire... My father who is a model builder of some 30 odd years, likes to use lamp-cord to wind around and solder. He says he finds it much easier to work with. Just strip a 1 foot length of it or so and take the twist out of it and wrap around the undercarriage wires. I think I'll try that myself next time. I looked at a couple of his examples and they did come out much neater than mine.

I'm planning on using an MDS .58 two stroke for powering this. The only problem I have so far is locating a Pitts muffler to route the exhaust nicely. The only real hitch I can foresee is the carb. It sits quite close to the thrust washer so I'll have to carve out a little more nose cone then I'd prefer for the needle valve assembly. I'm kind of hoping that I could somehow order from them, or someone, a remote needle valve. I know that their .68 and up have remote needle valves, but I don't know if that'd work on the .58... Anyone else have any ideas on that issue?