Design maybe.

I have the plane assembled and waiting for a paint scheme to appear. At this stage it weighs 27 ounces. When completed and with the battery installed I figure the weight will be high 40's low 50's range. I can't say using molded turtle deck pieces instead of carving them out of blocks is any lighter or not. They should be but I don't see any big weight savings. What is saved is a lot of carving. The results are the same though. I have one that I scratch built about 10 years ago so I can compare weights. In my experiance electric power is heavier than and engine with fuel. So if the new one is lighter than the old one it's a win.

Color scheme woes.

I finally got the bellcrank to flap pushrod adjusted to where it should be. That completed a step and allowed me to instll the molded turtle deck pieces. There was a few gaps in the finished parts so I mixed some carpenbters glue with balsa dust from the band saw and filled the gaps with it. Carpenters glue generally is easy to sand when cured but the saw dust turned it into some very hard stuff. I had to be very careful as I sanded it down. I think it will be smooth when I cover the deck with paper. After that it's install the fin/rudder and fillets all around while I try to come up with a paint scheme.

Legacy 40 Lite.

The plane is coming along very well. I've molded the top decks rather than carve them from blocks as the blocks are always heavier. This being electric powered it doesn't need the bulk to absorb vibration. The bottom covering was 3/16 I used 1/16 instead. The elevators are lighter the fin/rudder are thinner, the electric mount and battery box are lighter than the engine stuff. Brodak used thinner balsa for the fuselage sides. If it comes out under 50 ounces I will consider it a seccess.

One more time.

I bought a Legacy 40 kit and I'm in the process of building it. I plan to power it with an electric motor and instead of carving the blocks for the fuselage top I'm molding them out of 1/16 balsa. I used 1/8 balsa for the fin/rudder instead of the 3/16 balsa that comes with the kit. I lightened the elevators and the cowl. I plan to run the elevator pushrod out of the fuselage under the stabilizor so it will be easy to adjust.I'm not sure about lightening the flaps as they are pretty hard balsa. After adjusting the controls properly in all the other planes they are flying very well.