Steve, Thanks for the compliment. When I see what happened to your plane, I feel sick Sure hope you have better luck with your next bird.
The plans for my plane are my own. I built a Top Flite kit designed by Mike Platt and used his plans as a starting point. Most of the changes I've made are for the details I want to do.
The radiator is made with two plywood boxes (one for each side) mounted on a lite ply back plate. The top is carved balsa. The fronts are a brass mesh I found at Michael's craft store, inset into the ply boxes. The center and top cover are aluminum. Side brackets are 1/64 ply. Rivets are small pins. The shutters are aluminum with a small slot cut into each end with a jig on my bandsaw. The brass bushings (also cut and slotted on the bandsaw)are placed over the slots on the shutters, forming a small cavity.Thick CA is injected into the cavity with an insulin syringe. Brass pins (cut down) pass through the sides of the frame into the cavity.