Abu. Lookin good.

You might want to check your incidences again. I have the Nieto drawings in MAN scale aircraft drawings, and on the face of MY page 2, above a bare fuselage it says that "incidence of the tail plane, 5 deg positive.

If you haven't been there yet you should peruse this build. Lots of good stuff. Particularly the cowl mounting.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_43...tm.htm#4399390


The DR-1, DVII, and DVIII all have essentially the same tail plane incidence, and it is my theory that at "battle" speeds, that would lift the tail such that the pilot would have a better view over the front of the aircraft. I cannot imagine any other reason for it.

I would do any thing I could to keep from mounting the engine inverted. I have done that in the past, and it has usually turned out to be more trouble with starting and running than it was worth. (yes in my past life, I was an IC person). Also you would destroy the looks of the dummy engine. With the engine upright or even at 90 deg to vertical, you could have all of your dummy that shows uncluttered, and you could remove the cowl to access the glow plug. 90 degrees was always a favorite of mine because it simplified taking the exhaust out of cowlings.

Landing gear. If you make them functional, you do not need any where near the beef of unsprung gear. This is the same thing I did with my 1/6th Pietenpol. Spruce cross braces, then bolt into those.

Les