After pulling my air riveter to bits and removing the 6 jammed rivet pins stuck in it, I riveted most of the skeleton together.  Didn't rivet the hinge pins, thought it might be easier to remove them to drill the holes for the split pins...

On to the rear skins next - can't wait.

A good evening in the shed tonight!

I'd been having difficulty sourcing a suitable piano hinge for the trim tab.  While the Zenith one is entirely reasonable at about $21, it would have cost $108 for postage to Australia.

Finally tracked one down locally today - it's stainless steel instead of aluminium, but because of the thickness (about 0.025") it's light enough for the purpose.  I intend to well and truly coat it with an anti-corrosive paint to avoid any corrosion…

Finally got a chance to see my local sheet metal bloke, so got him to bend some pieces - the elevator spar, trim tab spar, and the trim tab itself.  He did a superb job on the trim tab - bent it up from one piece of 0.016" with 3 bends.  Note that the trim tab assembly on this 701 is based on the 750 style - full port elevator span, inset into the trailing edge.  (I believe the 701 tab is a flat plate hinged to the existing soft-riveted TE - correct me if I'm wrong!)  Anyway, as I've said on…