Outboard panel has a couple of thin coats of Butyrate on it so far after nitrate prep, inboard is raw waiting to dry out completely from the wet covering. It'll get a few thin coats of nitrate, then I'll start on the butyrate.

I would add that SIG's recommendation to not use Nitrate for initial coats over silk is a crock. Two thin coats of nitrate to seal the weave a bit work just fine. A subsequent thinned butyrate coat will soften up the underlying nitrate and shrink it up "drum tight".

Looks sweet, keep posting pictures of your progress.

I just weighed it now that its got a few coats of Butyrate on all the panels -- 11.5oz. Not too outlandish I guess, but a bit on the plump side.

When I was building the I-beam I didn't have any 1/16 ply on hand and used 1/8 instead. That cost some and I widened up the center ribs to get more gluing area which cost some too.

With some of the fuselage completed. Being a bit scared of it going tail heavy on me, I've substituted a stringer fabed top rather than the big balsa block the plans showed. I think the stringer deck will look cooler when its covered in silk too;->

Looks like a great job you are doing. I have a Spitfire, Mackey plans and it flies great. If you do a search for Spitfire Stunter there are several postings with pictures. Vauxhall has a nice one also. Great airplane. It shoud be a fine flyer.
Dasflugmodele

The Sheeks Spitfire is a 1967/68 vintage design. It was originally featured in Flying Models. I wish I had the mag with the construction article. The plans were lacking in some areas and I had to kinda freehand a few aspects of it.