Fuselage now shaping up..

This weekend I managed to find a few spare hours to assembly about 80% of the Sapphire's fuselage.  I wasn't too difficult to build.  The kit required splicing two pieces of 2.5mm square strip balsa to make each of the bottom fuselage longerons - instead I hand cut full length ones from some 2.5mm thick sheet balsa which I hope will be slightly stronger.

The fuselage formers F2 and F3 that give the initial rigidity to the body were a little too flimsy for my liking.  The 1.5 mm thick front former split on the grain, so in retrospect I think I should have cut my own formers from 2.5mm balsa for added strength.  As it was, I added some balsa strip along the top and bottom of the formers to add some extra strength.

I just now need to finish adding the width-wise balsa strip to complete the main body and then I need to knuckle down to shaping he nose block.