So a bit of an anecdote today.
I have been looking for a laser shop to get my ribs cut - it's the hardest thing to cut by hand. The closest ones have been 8 hours and 3 hours drive away and I've had to have friends get my cut pieces and post them to me. Shipping more than the cutting.
And after some Googling and calling I found out that I have a shop in my town.
Less than two blocks from my house.
How crazy is that? I don't believe it myself.
Cutting up to 16x20 inches with simple pieces would be under $5.
What kind of CAD program do you use for the design work? Years ago I had a free program that allowed me to do some basic layout designs for some truck fabrication I was doing, and it might work OK for some airplane designs I've been thinking about.
As mentioned above, a bootleg version of AutoCAD 2015. Full of features, but hard to master (compared to SketchUp). Sketchup seems to be popular for the RC community, but I grew up with CAD so I like the precision of it.
Lattice - never heard the term, but I did see the picture before. Sorry, this wing will be ribbed - especially since I found a place to laser cut those intricate ribs
Wow, with a nice transparent film that would be a show-stopper!
Now there is an idea I've had for a while. If I go with the covering method you guys are familiar with (not something I can easily get my hands on) then I'll try to get transparent film. I LOVE the looks of the Sig Seniorita with it's transparent red film, showing the intricacy and work put into the model: