Some amongst you may be wondering why I started building the tailboom first, main reason was that I wasnt that confident of managing to get 1/32 balsa round the thin end of the boom,which is 18mm diameter, without the balsa splitting. The rest of the helicopter body is even more challenging, with compound curves everywhere. So I picked the eaaier option. It also spurs me on to do the rest of the working out on how I am going to build the fuselage. I have got decent drawings this time and a reasonable bodyshell to copy from a cheap co ax heli, it ate one of its motors after about 10mins of first flying it, after buying 2 more sets of motors, I found out that 10mins is actually the longest I got from a motor! Ah well the bodyshell is good, my balsa one is going to be 3 times the size at 3 feet, so scaling up is easy. Building as light as I can, I hope to have the weight of the bare bodyshell with no motors, receiver or battery around the 200g mark. A bit of a challenge but I have managed to build the tailboom, horizontal stabilisers and fin at 20g. I have still to refine the sanding, which will take a small amount off this, then painting will put more on. Its promising. Undercarriage and glazing will add a fair bit, more paint. I need to keep it really light from the start as there are so many bits I cant lose weight on, I already made my first mistake with the tailboom, its formers are 2 layers of 1/32 glued together with grain running 90 degrees to each other forming superlight ply that you can cut into without it flaking off. There are seven formers, I was going to cut lightening holes in the inside 5, leaving end ones solid for gluing........I forgot, it was only after I had cut all my slots and glued the stringers in, ready for sheeting, but much too late for holes. Ah well. I am trying to design my fuselage as light as possible to compensate a bit for my error, I hope to use 1/32 balsa for as much of the structure as I possibly can, while being strong enough for a heavy landing.