The assembly of the elevator went pretty good.  Same standard procedure as for all of the other assemblies... Debur, assemble, drill, disassemble.... spend an eternity deburring and dimpling before priming and start re-assembling.  I am currently in the incredibly long, unexciting portion where both sides of every hole needs to get the burr knocked off, and all the parts prepped the way you want them to live in your airplane.  For me, that means making sure that there are no obvious burrs on the edges, or any of the holes.  I take this time as an opportunity to make sure any corners are properly radiused, and edges are smoothed.

I have grown to like the spray can duplicolor brand self etching primer.  It covers really well, stays on pretty good, and isn't near as much a pain as the 2 part Sherwin-Williams wash primer.

My dad came over a week ago last Friday to help with the parts prep.  We spent several hours deburring and dimpling.  One of the elevator ribs got an extra dimple, and will be replaced.  While I was busier talking than paying attention, I countersunk one of the front spars.  The spar is .032" thick, and is the very minimum for countersinking.  First, this spar was not supposed to be countersunk, second I overdid it.  New spar on order.

That screwup was a little demoralizing, especially with the monotony of deburring the skins.  I have taken small chunks of time to work on the rest of the deburring while I wait on my replacement parts.

Repeating an earlier screw up, I got an extra hole in one of the skins with the pneumatic squeezer.  Continuing my streak of good luck, there is enough edge distance that I do not need to replace the skin. 

Not too much to take pictures of, so next post will have more visual appeal.

As a side note, I have been doing a lot of thought on the next kit order.  I can order the wing, or fuselage kit.  If I order the fuselage kit, I will have to add a wing spar center section in addition, then delete it from the wing kit when I order it.  This has a lot of appeal to get going on the fuselage as a next step.  This would leave the option of quick build wings later, avoiding tank construction.

Another consideration on the budgeting is my desire to have something to fly this spring.  I may elect to slow the build rate a little in order to get in the air.  As the new year rolls around, I will start to get clarity on how I want to approach the next phase of the build, and when I will need to have the next kit here.