David - my apologies for the extremely delayed response!

My wings were closed up and a few weeks later, the wing tanks were announced. I very much want wing tanks (I even have a couple tanks I had made - workmanship is good, but they are unvented and have no screw-attach point for a drain valve for checking.) but I'll have to open up my wings if I ever want to add tanks.

I'm doing a tri-gear, and sticking with the tried-and-true bungee landing gear. About the only mods that are important to me are the front-opening hatch and the dual sticks. Other than that, I'm planning to build simple, straightforward and not much complicated - may go with a six-pack of steam gauges in the panel, but we'll see: if fancy digital panels are cheaper, I'll go with that instead. Would like to do a BRS chute, but the how of that, I'm still thinking about. Seems to me that putting one in place of the fuselage fuel tank would make sense, as long as the fuel lines were simple, located away from the rocket and shielded.

Hi David! Also doing a 601 myself, an HDS. I did wings from a subkit, but fuselage is all scratch. Wow, did it slow me down. :-(  I thought I would be the "last 601 ever finished" but it's great to see I have some company.

You are doing great work, very inspiring - keep it up! Good job on the solid riveted main spar! Great job on the home-made MDF sheetmetal bending brake!

Thanks David, I have been watching your progress also. I build all the aluminum parts first and then I build the assemblies. The tanks are next so I can finish the wings.

 I have been working very little on the past couple of weeks, and yes it is very hot in the garage. I have a window unit that does not do much, but a fan blowing directly on me as work helps. I have been considering adding a duct from the main ac unit and insulating the garage door ( I need to do that anyways, because it face the sun afternoon.

I think you are doing a great job, but I can not believe you are hand riveting everything. You are going to have some big forearms. LOL