Now that I have a few comments back, here was what I was thinking...
1) I will have to offer both foam & built up wings. That definitely enlarges the target market, as having both on the SPA planes does. There are as many people won't build with foam wings, as there are people who won't buold built up wings. Was just interested in comments. I will not modify the wing planforms or airfoils from the originals, as I mentioned earlier. The planforms and airfoils affect flying greatly, or they would be the same on all planes. I really want to maintain the original's integrity on these as much as possible.
2) Stabs... The big question
Being a guy who really likes foam, and has been building with nothing else for 20 years (when possible) , the foam stabs are my choice, with built up versions to match the built up wings. There is very little weight difference between the two when done right. If there is, you are using too much adhesive, or too heavy sheeting. I also tend to believe that the airfoil stabs DO affect performance, or we wouldn't have them on the big brothers... My problem with the flat stabs has always been rigidity. If you try to save weight on the stabs, they will not maintain shape during flight, and these will be baby pattern planes. I'm not trying to make generic park fliers... To maintain rigidity, they have to be stiffer, hence more weight, in line with airfoil foam or built up weight, with 1/32" sheeting, and the slab version will still not be even close to as strong and true. I will probably use the original design, what ever it may be. We'll see. I don't want to make multiple versions of each, to accomodate flat and airfoil stabs.
3) It isn't as simple as 'just scale it' to make more sizes. Simply scaling doesn't take into account the wood thickness, which affects how a lot of pieces fit together, so there will be one size of each plane. I will make thes with tabs & slots for the formers, so that also leads to one size. The more I think about it, from my end, staying with as close to 40" span as possible make my life much easier, for a variety of kitting reasons, packaging being one of them, unfortuately. I did some quick experiments, and once scaled down, there really isn't much difference between the different planes anyway. so weight should be fairly consistent, if WS is same. They don't need to be exactly the same , any more than the originals were.. I will be simplifying construction greatly, they will all be built pretty much the same. i.e: firewall, former in front of wing and former behind wing. no other formers. Fin resting on stab between fuse sides, sides shaped as needed to maintain accurate shape. Tri stock top and bottom as needed for accurate fuse rounding. Hatches to suite will be the responsibilty of the builder. If canopies are available, or can be made, great.
That said, not considerig kitting reasons, I would prefer to pick a scale % and use it. That way they are more 'consistent in their differences', just like their bigger siblings. A few test builds will let me know. After all, a Curare isn't the same size as a Compensator, or a Banshee, etc.
All in all, I can't wait to build a few and test them out. that will answer a lot of questions. The electric part is what needs testing, since I know they will kick as* on the .10's (or .15's for crazy people). I would tend to think there are far more .10/.15's than the smaller ones from all the clubs I've been in, I've seen very few of the cox/norvel, etc in my 25 years of flying, unless you hang around with the 1/2A crowd. I will be designing for the .10 and electric equivilant of .10's+ ....
Don