Every gram saved in construction gives me another gram to play with in details. It is a skill acquired over building many many models.
Wrapping up the retracts a bit, I referred to the retract section on page 39 of the instructions. I found this builder's note:
"Robart Robostruts were used on the prototypes. These add to the appearance of the Corsair and smooth out good to moderate landings. They cannot, however, absorb the huge amount of energy that wire struts can. For example, a fast or
high sink rate landing on rough grass will put a huge backwards bending force on the gear. Wire struts will handle this well; Robostruts are not designed to cope with this situation. The prototype Corsairs were flown off of pavement and grass through good to moderate landings while equipped with Robostruts
with no failures."
This is sound advice and I went digging through a reference build over at RC Scale Builder. I found that I had been thinking the same thing. Why not have the best of both worlds? Rather than use a robostrut (oleo) alone, use a sprung wire as well. I used the wire supplied in the kit and used my dremel to cut the hardened steel. Grinding the flat spots took quite a while to get right as they are not true to the front/back or sides. The rotating gear's grub screw is offset so it took a lot of trial and error of fitting. This was compounded further by the loop in the wire not fitting between the case of the retract so it had to be rotated just right for a perfect fit.
At this stage I am more or less on page 15 of the instructions. I need to install my servo mounts still as well as the hinge blocks on the TE of the wing for the flaps and ailerons. I will also need to run my tubing for the pneumatics. I am making the call to follow the instructions closely and will not be doing fully-hidden linkages. While it is a nice commodity, it takes a lot of time and effort and usually introduces slop that I am not willing to accept.