Time for a build update. The Nieuport elves were busy this weekend. Joe at Proctor responded quickly to my email about my wing stiffness using the cable instead of aluminum rod in the kit. He told me the cable should be fine and that the structure will stiffen up much more when covered and bolted together with the cabanes and external rigging. So I feel much better now.

The ailerons were framed up without much incident. I did reinforce the outer laminations with some additional 1/64 ply strips just because they felt a bit vulnerable hanging out in the breeze like they do. The ailerons slid into their sockets in the wings and work great.

Since its the beginning of the week it's time to start on the fuselage. I found out where all the parts go: the fuse! All the shaped pieces and even the pre-bent longerons fit EXACTLY to the plans. It builds up in the conventional sense in that you build each side, then glue horizontal members between the two sides. But there's one little twist, so to speak. The sides are slanted at an angle giving the pilot more elbow room at the top and narrowing toward the bottom where his feet don't need as much. Looking at the fuselage from the front, the fuse would look like a trapezoid in cross-section. Being faithful to this shape, the kit method has you build the sides with the top longeron hiked up in mid-air! This is really strange to me but the kit has gone together smashingly so far so I'm doing it! Stay tuned!