Finally, got the first part of the rudder (preparing the skins) done today. This was also the first time I got to try back-riveting. Up to this point, I have squeezed and bucked rivets. Back-riveting is the easiest. Now that I said that, I will say I screwed up but, it was not anything major. I got all my rivets taped in (for back riveting, you tape the rivets in the holes and then turn the piece over and use a special back riveting set in your rivet gun to strike the shop head of the rivet). Once my rivets were taped in, I got so excited to finally start riveting that I forgot to put the stiffener on. I got through 4 rivets before noticing this…derp. I drilled them out perfectly and put the stiffener on and carried on riveting. You can tape every rivet in and then just turn the piece over and rivet every stiffener on. Goes pretty fast.

Next up is the rudder skeleton.