I decided it was time to focus on the empennage kit so that I could keep the progress happening since I want to move the wings before doing anything else with them. The first new section was to work on the vertical stabilizer, and the first step was to identify all of the pieces, remove the blue vinyl plastic, and label the parts with a marker.
I had to cleco a doubler onto the front spar, then match-drill the remaining holes, and then trim off the bottom couple inches from this front spar. Then the temporary locating-portion of the doubler could also be cut off and discarded.
The next few power-coated pieces needed to be final-drilled and match-drilled while being clecoed against another fork-shaped doubler and another piece of the rear spar. I also retrieved the vertical stab skin out of the garage and stripped its protective vinyl coating.
What's next? Dimpling and maybe priming these parts before starting to rivet them together.