The big thread that exists on this bird has a lot of info, and there is a lot of really good stuff in Ken Isaac's excellent review, so I'm going to only put up the stuff that I personally notice, and the things that I'll do that might be different.

First of all, the covering on this bird is about as good as it gets in the ARF world. Some wrinkles and bubbles in the corners, and a lot of shrinkage needed on the elevators, and that was about it. I ran the iron over every inch so as to tease up any loose spots, and there weren't very many.

Here's the equipment I'll be using, along with the reasoning on some of it:

Engines: OS 55 AX. Inexpensive, reliable, powerful, and fuel efficient. Probably end up using 12x6 or 12x7 APC props, depending on what the tach says. 13x6 if possible, but not likely. I'm running both engines on my Lanier Mariner 40 as kind of a flying break in stand. I intend to get both of them set perfectly (in flight) before they go on the Mitchell.

Fuel tanks: 10oz Great Planes. The 14oz tanks supplied with this airplane are too big for any of the recommended engines. I see this a lot on ARFs. No clue as to why, but a tank that is too big reduces the available exhaust pressure so much that fuel delivery suffers, particularly as the tank empties, and the engine can become erratic at lower rpms. Examples: the OS recommended tank for the 55AX is 12oz; 46AX 10oz; the 70FS 10oz; and so on. I've run both of my 55s on 10 oz tanks, and never came close to using all the fuel during a flight.

The recommended Robart retracts, along with the Robart tuff tread 4" 10 spoke wheels with brakes. A lot of airshows and flyins take place on paved runways. A 20 pound twin without brakes, in my estimation, is an accident looking for a place to happen on a paved runway.

Futaba 6EX 2.4 system with a Smart Fly Power Expander. With 13 servos on board, I'm concerned that there will be a time when too much current will go through that itty bitty receiver. The expander supplies an individual connection for each servo, and the power to the servos does not go through the Rx, it comes directly from the packs. The unit impedance matches the servo wiring, so that ringing circuits don't occur. (Current ringing is why old style ignition points needed condensers, or capacitors.) There's some other nice features, too: the expander accepts two batteries, isolates them from each other and keeps them at the same voltage as they discharge. If one shorts or dies, it is taken off line by the expander. The Rx is supplied with a regulated, filtered 5V. There are two charge connections on the expander circuit board, and a switch connection. Purchasing smart fly's fail safe switch gets you two external charge jacks that connect to the expander, and a switch that uses a pin with a "remove before flight" flag to turn it OFF, so it's impossible to turn it off accidentally. The batteries will be a pair of Hydrimax 2000 NiMh.

I'm going to mechanically synch the engines. Not as elegant as having two channels, but about $600 cheaper. I always use a lot of expo on the rudder (75%), so nose steering sensitivity should not be a problem. For brake activation, I'll have a micro servo on the elevator channel that will push on a Robart gear door valve under full down. I've used this before, and it works well.

I'll be using four Futaba S-3001s for the flaps; and Hi Tec HS325s for the throttles, ailerons, retract valve, and nose steering. I'm going with the recommended Futaba S9001 for the elevator, but not with the recommended plastic gear micro servos for the rudder. Futaba says they are "Ideal for electric planes and small electric helis. Nylon gears." That speaks volumes. I learned my lesson about plastic gear micros on glow powered airplanes. NoNoNoNoNo.....unless one likes expensive holes in the ground. I'll be using a pair of Hitec HS-125 ball bearing metal gear thin wing servos. They operate the ailerons on my Mustang, and are superb, if a bit pricey.

Using all the recommended servo extensions and Y cords can cost a lot, especially if one gets the HD ones with the heavier 20g wire.
I noted Ken's difficulty with getting the various leads with their connectors through the wire tube in the fuse, so I'm going to do something I've not attempted before: I'm getting 13 of the 6" heavy duty extensions and 50 feet of the heavy duty servo wire and a bunch of the 1/32 shrink tubing. I'm going to run the wires through the fuse tube, and then cut the extensions in half and solder them to the ends, using heat shrink on the individual solder joints. Not as elegant as soldering on pins and loading them into the connectors, but my old fingers aren't very good at that kind of fine work. (Deans connectors are about as elegant as I get, and those, I think, are a real pain in the ****, but they work well.)

Oh, yeah. The large air tank. Absolutely. Top Flite claims two complete cycles of the landing gear are possible at 120 psi with the small tank. Huh? What were they thinking?

More later.