Empennage (tail parts)

I began this project with the tail section, or empennage (French for "tail section".) Van's Aircraft sells the airplane kit in sections, which you must buy in order, starting with the tail, then the wings, fuselage, and lastly the finishing kit. It's ingenious marketing really, you can get started building for only $1500 (tail kit) plus $1-2k for tools. The tail kit consists of the horizontal stabilizer, the vertical stabilizer, the rudder, and the elevators.
Here is the horizontal stabilizer fastened together using clecos ( a "cleco" is a spring-loaded temporary sheet metal fastener.) All the parts in this picture are pre-formed and the holes are pre-punched. The parts can be clecoed together as you see here right out of the box! Looks easy, doesn't it?

A few other steps are needed- all edges deburred, all holes matched drilled with the correct size drill, the parts disassembled, the holes deburred and dimpled if needed, the parts cleaned and primed, then finally, the parts can be riveted together.
Here I am with rivet gun in the right hand and bucking bar in the left, riveting the horizontal stabilizer.

Completed Empennage Parts

Completed horizontal stabilizer hanging from the wall of the garage.
Vertical stabilizer on another wall.
Elevators and rudder taking up space in the house.