I agree that the strongback as well as the garage both look extremely clean.

I'm doing my first build, also a guillemot. Right now I'm finishing up the external stems and hope to be glassing the hull within a week or so.

I second the advice about forms 15, 16, and 16.5. I heeded the warnings from others' build diaries and took the time to make sure I had the strips bent so they fit well. I found using a heat gun didn't let me get the amount of twist I needed to get a good fit. So I went looking for plan B.

What I finally settled on was a steam cleaner - a machine that looks like a little vacuum cleaner, but produces steam for cleaning bathrooms, etc. It will produce a constant, somewhat high-pressure stream of steam. The steps I used are:

- Drill a hole in the middle of a length of PVC pipe
- Clamp strip to flat surface at the beginning point of twist
- Place PVC pipe over strip
- Clamp free end of strip at the end point of the twist
- Shoot stream through hole in PVC pipe while applying twist using the clamp on the free end of the strip
- After about a minute, stop steaming and hold strip in place for another minute
- Allow the strip to dry sufficiently before gluing in place

CAUTION: Don't get your hand in front of the steam!

I had to hold the twist about 5 or 10 degrees further than I wanted the strip to twist. On a few strips I had to repeat the procedure because I had the strip twisted too far. On some of the trickier spots around the above mentioned forms, I had to twist a strip one way in one place, and then twist it back a little in another.

The attached photo shows the process in action (the foil is to protect my work table from steam). More photos are available at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20153569@N00/sets/72157624819978021/with/4985619082/

Good luck with the build!

-T-