Hey All, the elder 40 is coming together great. Havin a blast building it. my question is, when i sheeted the bottom of the fuse, there was about a quarter inch gap in front of the front landing gear support and the firewall. I cut a piece of sheeting to put here and it looks fine. The problem is that the instructions show a detaled picture of this space NOT being there.. I have built according to the pans and the fuse has come out arrow straight.. also the instructions dont show near the right and down thrust that I have came out with by following the plans. I am confident that I have built correctly, but just wanted some feedback if the instructions are made quickly and the photos are not dead accurate. also If anyone has built this plane, I am talking about the pic on Pg. 18 above step 23.. Thanks for your help

Mine came out the same way and everything is fine. As far as the thrust is concerned the kit does build with quite a bit of down & right thrust but I never had a problem with the way it flys.

I had the same gap,, it's just an omission (one of many).

A couple of things I did that might interest you

1. When forming the cowl I used two layers of thin balsa instead of the 1/8" they supplied. It takes a while but is far easier to do. Also, I think that the sheeting is probably stronger because the outer skin is glued to the first layer, kind of like plywood.

2. When mounting the engine, leave enough prop room so you can put a thick layer of balsa on the end of the cowling. This allows you to round the area instead of that sharp edge. This step was done by someone else in another thread,,, was that you?

wasnt me but its a good idea.. may have to do that myself... Being my first kit, I just wanted to make sure it was on teh right track.. I have also heard to not install the gussets on the area where the horizontal stab sits, as it will not lay correctly... Is this true?

I didn't add the top gussets at the very end. I decided to add bracing on the underside of the framework in that area. I did install all other gussets as per plan though. On the two that interfered I just removed a small amount of balsa from the stab so it would fit firmly against the fuselage framework. Don't remove any more than necessary though.

I just finished adding the red, white and blue trim to my scalloped rudder this afternoon. Now that's a task that I don't wish to repeat anytime soon (:-). Looks good though.

My next "dreaded" covering task is the wing tip but once that's done it's all down hill. The rest of the wing and body will go fairly quickly.

Of course, now that I'm thinking about it,,, painting the pilot and machine gun isn't real high on my list either.


Regards