When it comes to scratch building, there are certain benefits you have that kit builders' don't. First of all, you aren't locked in to following some pre punched design feature that makes the allignment of the finished product hyper critical, because as a scratch builder, you have the ultimate control in how the final product joins together and lines up. Take for example the wing hold down dowel, if there is any misallignment in the prepunched parts, the end result will be a loose and off kilter job. As a scratch builder, you have the freedom to line the adjoining parts up as squarely as you know how, and run a drill bit through the whole works, the end result will be perfection, which is good enough for most of us
. Only GOD will know that your wing, by design was 35 47/64" and that you took the liberty to move the tip ribs out to make it come out at 36" even. The critical allignments and measurements should NOT be taken as gospel from any plan, just a guideline. You are still the one who should first make sense of what the designer is trying to accomplish, then layout your own cut lines, and formulate your own build sequence. The plans' main value is that the designer has a layout that will balance out with the indicated gear, the indicated gear will fit, the RTF weight will be what the builder desires and the final flight characteristics will be something akin to what the builder is seeking.
Now for the torque rod area, the only "beef "you need is the exact thickness of the torque rod itself. Use light weight glass cloth and medium CA to bridge the gap that is created when you knife into the wing to set your torque rods in place. You should glass this area top and bottom anyway, to provide some strength and spread the load for the wing hold down screws. The latest method to support the rods where you grease the rods and imbed them in puddles of glue sounds like a winner. I don't think 1/2A torque rods should be any lighter than 2-56. The longer you make them, the whippier [and whimpier] they get. Most scratch builders have so many pet ways to mount servos and other details, like hatch building, etc., that it is an exercise in futility for the designer to draw this stuff in. It kills me how many times I've indicated on a plan where the cg should go, only to have inquiries come in from time to time about where the CG should go
. Indicating on a plan where the servos should go, should be enough info, there are so many different brands and sizes of servos that the final mounting details should be left up to the builder anyway.
To wrap up my thoughts about this, none of these designs were written by the hand of GOD, so there is lots of room for improvisation and personal judgement. By giving yourself a slightly longer leash for decision making and giving yourself some credit for being able to think through the steps that it takes to make a box, a wing, and fit them together, you'll enjoy the build process more because you won't be too concerned about figuring out the details that were in PATRICKs' head, you can just take the basic dimensions and layout provided and run with it. An industrial design teacher used to say to me when I got hung up on some minutia, "CHUCK, you're looking at the pebbles and not the beach"