QUOTE:
<well i enjoy building and building a fiberglass kit is the "easy way out" >
No, just a different way of building!
I built a Ziroli Panther off plans... took a couple of trees worth of wood and a month of Sunday's to get the curves "just right". In the long run I should've bought a glass fuse as I think the weight would've been close and the time would've been MUCH less!
The curves on a 16 are going to be tough, but do-able!
Josh will most likely be able to sell you a full size set of plans for a fair price. I bought a set of his HUGE A-10 plans a while back and have his address around here somewhere. I'll look for it and send it to you, or Dean(A10Flyr) might be able to help quicker... that's who I got it from!
Not sure about the main gear retracts, but if you're not concerned about "real scale" why do they need to rotate? Do the mains like the Byron, mounted so they retract forward with a bent gear. The wheels may protrude slightly from the fuse, but you could probably move the main gear up a bit higher to solve this. Nose gear is a different beast, but depending on what you're doing for a fan you could just retract the gear straight back and make allowances in your inlet duct for the wheel. This being said, I haven't seen the plans for it so I may be all wet here.
Good luck!
Bob