Back in ''72, my brother-in-law Carl bought an S-1 Ringmaster kit at a garage sale. Some parts were missing, but as we were building and crashing at an alarming rate (!) my flying buds and I had parts, tools, and equipment.
The ol' S-1 was a popular number then, we had 4 or 5 in various stages of 'salvage' and repair!
Carl came over, and prepared the fuselage, (he's a superb builder) but wanted to 'improve' and 'modernize' the S-1...
He epoxied a 1/4" thick ply block, 1" X 1.5" to the bottom of the fuse, right at the wing leading edge. (this block was used as a 'platform' for a Dural gear, which screwed into the block)
He also used a plastic R/C clunk tank, and the new Goldberg slide-in hinges. They even came with a 'tool set', a 'gouger' and a 'hook'.
Carl covered the S-1 with Monocote, fairly new then. He even used a muffler on the Enya .35, also 'new' at that time...(to us, anyway)
I liked the plane, BUT. It seemed like he had desecrated something somehow 'holy', a sacrilege.
Sure looked funny sitting with our paper & dope jobs...Flew O.K., just...'modern'...