Dave,

nice troublemaker! Sad to hear about it being decommissioned from it's ballistic state. Why not keep it as is, replacing the motor if needed for one with a muffler.

On the other hand, congratulations on a fine debate between a Deception and a Tiporare - two of my all time favorite classics. As a prelude to building the 60 size versions, I scratch built one each of them with a 40" span. The Deception (which unfortunately remains unfinished) will be powered with a ST 23 and has trike mechanicals on two servos (7 servos in all). The Tipo (or rather, Pico, given its size) on the other hand I built as an electric (~300W) as a first electric foray into the classics. This one was meant to be landed on grass and has no landing gear. It has 4 x 9g servos in it.

I am presently (very slowly) building 60 size Tipos from GP kits and hope to reach the primer stage on #1 soon. I also recently acquired (with much luck) a Bridi Deception kit and while it is complete, I'd say that one could do much better in terms of wood and core quality by scratch building today than one does with the original kits. The same is true of the original GP Tipo kits by the way which, in my opinion, are of questionable quality - particularly in regards to the core quality. In any event, I'd say that the Tipo is a harder fuselage to scratch than the Deception given it's more complex nose, canopy and fin. The Deception is fairly easy fuse to put together but a little care is required in the bellypan and wing fairing area to produce a relatively light model. If you are going to paint the fuse, then I'd use the lightest wood possible and even consider replacing some parts called for with lighter material (formers, firewall, tri-stock, etc.). If you are going to cover, then you can produce a lighter model via lightening holes in the fuse sides, top and to some extent bottom.

Also, while I know it is not conventional, I might even consider using 1/32" core sheeting reinforced with core spars or better yet with CF. I built the Deception wing with 1/16" sheeting and CF spars (it does have retracts in it), while I used nothing but 1/32" sheeting on the Tipo wing. The weight difference was substantial. In any event, I think contest balsa is crucial when it comes to core sheeting.

If you are interested in the details of the little builds here are a couple of threads:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8196707/tm.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8858351/tm.htm

Enjoy!

David.

P.S. I hope you got my email with the info on the Tipo cores that you requested. Scott of RCfoamy, has cores for the Deception.