This is truly a David to a WNW Goliath! Miraculous work!
That's a nice way of putting it. It really does feel like that sometimes!
I hadn't tackled the padding around the cockpits yet, so I tried something a little different and built the coaming up gradually by painting it freehand with layers of Mr Surfacer and a fine brush. This worked out surprisingly well, as the cockpit edge helps guide the brush and you get a nice even line.
The other detail was the lower rudder and vertical stabiliser. The first version that I made was just styrene and sprue, and I was worried it might be too flimsy. I made a new-improved version and soldered it together with the kingpost and locating pins from .2mm nickel silver. Just for fun, the rudder and stabiliser are made from 18ct yellow gold.
I also started thinking about the rigging too. One clear photograph of the Jeannin Taubes shows the elevator and aileron lines anchored to little curved mounting horns. I drilled a 0.1mm hole at each rigging point and wrapped some wire around a .7mm drill bit to make some C-shaped horns. It should be posible to thread these through the control surfaces and attach the rigging to them when the time comes. The test looks quite promising, although the radius of the circle seems a bit small.
