As far as a weight reduction program, I just finished my waco and it wieghed in at 11 lbs with battery, receiver, servos and everything (minus my 4lb quadra). My point is that I built this kit without a care in the world. Lots of mods, extra metal parts. tons of epoxy and bondo, and it still only came out to a 11 lb finished weight (minus engine). I have built a couple of scale models using weight reduction techniques and I was awarded with a model that took twice as long to build and was very easy to damage. I think this model built as is is pretty light. I am only sharing this to save you the trouble. Electric models of this size do not need to be built light anymore. If you took 2lbs off this model you would still pretty much need the same size motor and batteries and stickbuilder was telling me that if anything this model may even fly better if it is a little heavy.
There is a reward in bulding light of course just in being able to say you did it. I wont deny that.