This morning I finished cementing the belly fabric in place. I shrank the fabric to 225 degrees and it looks much better.
Shrunk Belly Fabric
With the distractions of the rest of the fuselage hidden by the fabric, I see that the stringers aren’t quite straight. I probably managed to bend the standoffs a little while handling the fuselage. At this stage it was easy to fix- I just reached in from the sides of the fuselage and gave the stand-offs a little tap with a hammer. That made the stringers look much better too. Next I added the rib stitching to the cabin roof:
Reinforcing tape in place, stitch holes punched
Stitching in place
Here’s another shot from the nose to show the progress.
I left the area behind the tailwire attachment point open to allow for airflow in the fuselage. To help deter mice and the animals that eat mice from getting in through that opening, I added a swatch of window screen.
Tail vent hole
Looking up at the inverted fuselage
I used a little dab of fabric cement to hold the screen in place.