Nope, no covering going on yet. There were a bunch of little fuselage details that had to be completed first.
Magnets are embedded to hold on the removable section of the fuselage. The magnets inside brushless motors are very strong. I'm sure you have some dead motors laying around. These magnets were too big so I chopped a couple of them in half with a Dremel cutting wheel.
The bulkhead in front of the cockpit looked thin and vulnerable after cutting the stringers for the removable top. A doubler was glued to the bulkhead and sanded to shape.
The die-cut attachment fillers for the cabane struts fit too loosely so I made new ones from scrap balsa. I remember the landing gear was weak on the SE5a I built many years ago. The front attachment points for the landing gear looked weak so gussets were added in that spot. Anything I can think of to beef up that assembly will be used. These tiny details are circled.
I don't like to glue parts on top of covering film. I remove film so there is wood to wood joints. The top keel where the vertical stabilizer will attach is 1/16" thick. The vertical stab is made of 3/32" stock. There wasn't much wood to glue the stab to and nowhere for the covering film to stick. Some stringer stock was added to each side of the keel to make it 3/16" thick.
I noticed a similar problem under the slot for the horizontal stabilizer. Nowhere for the covering film to attach after the slot was cut open. Some more stringers were added under the slot so the film has a surface to stick to.
I'd like to get some covering film done but I really should get to work on the landing gear and wing struts. That way if there are any modifications to be made I won't be peeling off the new covering film to get to the balsa.
Jon