I made the fittings from brass tube,cut it to length and blackin-it and then slid the pieces of tubing over the tail booms.Everything has been temporarily nailed it place and not glued.The horizontal black rod is where the elevator will be attached to the stabilizer(yet to be built).
When everything is squared away, I will take it apart and finish the fittings as required to accept the internal bracing wires.
I haven't quite decided whether or not to finish the tail,stab,elevators,rudder etc..I would like to build them but would our owner have really left them on his flier while he was off to war?On the other hand I guess they could have been covered with tarps etc...Because I plan to put a "welcome home "sign somewhere in the diorama it is possible that someone could have removed them prior to his arrival as a homecoming gesture.I could show the tarps lying somewhere off to the side I guess.

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The black fittings you see here are made from brass and then blackened.A better choice would have been aluminum painted black, as it is a whole lot easier to work with when designing the fittings ,especially when shaping and drilling when they are already attached to the tail booms.
Here I am checking that the vertical struts will be at right angles when level.

I replaced all the brass fittings with aluminum which is much easier to work with.The vertical struts themselves I left brass.The black nails join the strut tubing and fitting together and the small copper photo etch parts are leftovers from another build. (the turnbuckles will be attached later).The nail heads can later be cut flush and a drop of superthin superglue applied and the whole thing sanded smooth and painted.

Neat way on pinning the tail boom struts John , will have to try this on 48 scale kit and Rodens DH -2 . Been following your thread on the Drome on alum/tubing and this sounds like a great way of enhancing the kit's with add strength .

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Hi terri! I plan to do some experimentation with alum tubing,rod etc... Maybe an old Fokker fuselage to add to the Albatros junkyard.Cheers! John.

That is a miniature clothes peg.
This is the basic elevator assembly.The leading edge was grooved to accept the tube at the trailing edge of the horiz stab.The peg will be replaced with hinges and ribs made like what is on the stabilizer.
I have added cross members to the wings using the lightening holes that are already there.Curtiss used small blocks at all 90 deg intersections but his wing ribs were solid.I think that this is a better solution for my backyard flier and gives the wing a much stronger look.Little blocks would never be seen anyway at scale distance.

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I wasn't sure about adding this tube to the tail assembly.The drawing seems to show it but most pictures I have seen do not.
This is a judgment call and seeing that this is my version of a backyard flyer I added it.It will greatly add to the stability of the whole tail assembly which now will be removable by loosening just four pins.
Now it is on to the rudder assembly.

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I heard from the CAM yesterday and their renovations are to be finished in about a year from now. I probably have another year or so just to finish the Backyard Flyer so I will drop it for now and complete the Albatros,Neiuport and Jenny dioramas first.
The Neiuport is about 99% finished ,the Jenny about 90% and Albatros about the same except I have recently (today) added more to it.
A modeling bud of mine kindly gave me another Albatros that he was working on himself but has too many things on the go right now.I got it as a surprise Chistmas present and as you will see I am putting it to good use.

Now this should be lots of fun! I always wanted to do a junkyard.The question is though ,because it is a military airfield ,I don't think that junk would be allowed to lay around too long and that limits the amount of weathering I can do.Worn but not too rusty.No evidence of fire this time but an accident case just like the other.
This is a German aircrew training field and accidents were all too common in those days.I am dedicating this diorama to all the pilots and their instructors who never even made it to the front lines ,both German and Allied.