It's a rather convoluted tale but here's the (semi-)short version: a couple of years ago I wasn't doing any building because I figured it would just be too hard here in Japan. But then my balsa addiction got the better of me and I said to myself "well, maybe just something fun and easy" and the Nieuport 11 structure looked simple. I had a set of the Joseph Nieto drawings so I enlarged those on the office copier to the size of a pot I was going to use for a cowl. I think it's roughly 1/6 scale but might be a tad bigger. And so I started building right on the drawings -- just to see what would happen. I got quite a ways into that build when I figured I really needed a practice plane (sound familiar?) and bought a Flair Legionaire and the build sort of morphed into the Legionaire. I was coming to the end of that when Chris offered me the Snipe and so both Nieuport projects have been sidelined for over a year. Now with a couple of other projects on the horizon with Chris, I'm not sure when I'll get back to the Nieuports.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_29...tm.htm#2904955

But then I could probably have the Legionaire ready in bare-flying state in a couple of weeks.

This is a fair concern. I was just having a devil of a time doing the laminations and wasn't at all happy with the result I was getting. The Snipe uses the lamination method on the stock rudder and elevator (with the laminated curves glued on either side of a thin balsa core). But I ended up making my own early-production rudder out of bamboo.

Yep. They were after all called "strap hinges"! I'm still testing these but it looks hopeful. Note that it's necessary to add a spot of epoxy at the point of final attachment to secure the strap to the aluminum ring.