Building a wood fired bread and pizza oven - finishing the brickwork

Now most of the brickwork is finished for the wood fired bread oven.  The main dome has been closed off by completing the end wall and the reducer arch has been finished and the large gaps between bricks backfilled.  The form-work has yet to come off the reducer arch, the oven will be covered in insulation for a couple of days with an electric heater inside to dry out the mortar first.  I have not had time to take as many pictures as I would have liked of the process I followed, but here are a couple of the end results.

reducer arch still supported

The back edge of the reducer arch has been shaped to allow better flow of exhaust gasses leaving the oven.  I will get a picture of this once the supports have come out.  The electric heater can be seen inside the oven.  It is around -6° C but with the oven well covered with extruded polystyrene sheets and the heater on, the internal temperature of the oven is about 35°C and the outside of the brickwork is feels warm when touched.

Rear wall of oven completed

After a couple of days of heating I expect the mortar to be fully dried out and then the temperature of the oven can be increased by lighting very small fires inside.  Before that can be done a small amount of cast refractory needs to be laid over the reducer arch to increase the thickness of the oven wall at the junction of the main arch and reducer arch.