Tim, the fillets look fantastic! I'm sure they're a lot stronger than balsa, too. I have to be careful handling the SK so I don't chip them.

It's not too late to side mount the engine. Remember, there's no need for any kind of structural strength forward of the firewall; cowls are just for streamlining. It would take you about an hour to change and you'll be glad you did for the life of the plane.

David

Handy fillet hint:

When making them from Epoxy or epoxy/glass beads, I would keep a small cup of laquer thinner handy. Keep your finger moist w/ the thinner, and smooth the fillets. Almost no sanding is required.

Dave, I was happy with the fairings untill I realized I would have to paint them and didn't have any orange paint to match the Ultracote I'm using. I ended up finding some acrylic that matched pretty close and put polyurethane over that to fuel proof. Got the sides of the fuse covered as well as the turtle deck (what a pain to cover without getting wrinkles) and will try to get it all finished up by this evening. Looks like I missed my deadline of completion to bring it to the SPA meet, but I did get set back a week of build time unexpectedly. BTW, the Asheville SPA meet was a great time with lots of great guys as well as planes. Ed Hartley gave a great demo flight for the crowd beforehand with his Curare! Must have been about 20 guys competing and a nice spectator turnout too. I'm guessing Duane will post a full report on it soon.

I've got the control surfaces covered and hinged (not pinned yet) and the nosegear and throttle linkages hooked up. I'm having trouble getting the rudder and elevator pushrods installed as the 1/4" wood dowel and 2-56 rods I've made are binding up somewhere in the slots cut in the styrofoam fuselage core. I've all but given up on using them and will probably have to go with just plain 4-40 wire. Too bad I don't have any laying around.[] I also coated the engine bay with epoxy and installed the .61. Man what a tight fit, kinda like stuffing a 427 in a Vega ( I know a guy who did )! Still trying to visualize what to do for trim on it but at least I know I'm going with white.